Taking SAT 2nd time to get better scores to get into ivy school,
Does ivy school sees thing differently in comparison to student get first time better scores?
Assuming they have same kind of rigorous class load and extracurricular activities
Most schools look at a superscore - so they’ll see that score.
This means they’ll use the highest score in each section (at least for those who superscore).
So you might have sections from two tests used.
If you go from 1400 to 1500, will they say - he went up 100 points, that’s good?
I doubt it.
But it doesn’t matter and you can’t worry about Ivy.
Put yourself in the best position you can for any college - and you’ll see what happens.
There was a student posting earlier who got into Harvard but wait listed at Brandeis.
So you can’t even assume Ivy is hardest to get into.
Worry about you and not about 8 colleges that make up an athletic league (which is what Ivy is).
No. For example, if you were to score a 1400 the first time and a 1500 the second time, this would be the same as scoring a 1500 the first time and a 1400 the second time. Every Ivy League school would accept the 1500 as your official best composite score.
If the Ivy League school accepts SAT superscores (Harvard is the only one that does not for the SAT), then they’ll take the highest reading/writing & math scores earned across multiple test dates to calculate the superscore.
You may take the SAT multiple times though it’s typically not recommended that you take the test more than 2 or 3 times.
With the exception of Princeton, SAT scores aren’t one of the admissions criteria that get you into an Ivy League school.
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Princeton is test optional for now but test required starting the 2027-2028 admissions cycle. Most of the other Ivies are now test required
Yes, required but not typically listed as one of their most important criteria. A low test score cam keep you out, but a high test score by itself is not likely to get you in.
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Since you have expressed an interest in only eight colleges, your question is relatively easy to research. I believe six Ivies superscore the SAT, so the timing of your results will not matter for this group. While Harvard, for its part, allows you to submit the test-dates of your choosing. Nonetheless, your current score may offer you some indication of which colleges may be suitable for you.
That is true of any individual factor in a holistic admissions process, no?
A perfect GPA, an outstanding essay, a great recommendation by itself is unlikely to get someone into Princeton either.
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@Sejal_Shah if this is your real name, I would urge you to change it ASAP. Here is how:
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You can retake the SAT, if you want to….but without knowing your current score(s) it is hard to guess whether this is something you should do…or not.
- Please do a chance me/match me thread and answer all of the questions on the template.
- Are you an international student or a U.S citizen or permanent resident.
- Why the Ivies?
Even with a perfect SAT score of 1600, you will not be guaranteed admission to the Ivy League schools which are highly selective in terms of admissions. If you do, or don’t get accepted at these schools, you will never know why. But it’s not likely that your SAT score alone will be the reason.
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My two cents is for the most selective holistic review colleges, they usually start by looking at your transcript for sufficient evidence that you are academically well-prepared. However, for various reasons they might not be entirely convinced by a transcript.
Like in some cases, even a seemingly perfect transcript might not be fully convincing, because they don’t fully trust the rigor or grading norms at that secondary school.
In other cases, they may have other reasons to want to admit someone (recruited athlete, economic diversity, special arts talent, or so on), and are willing to consider a more imperfect transcript, but don’t want to rely on that alone.
In cases like these, a high standardized test score can become helpful because it provides independent, and in fact standardized, information about basic preparation in reading English and core-sequence Math.
So I agree a high test score alone is unlikely to do much for the most selective US colleges, indeed they routinely reject lots of people with very high test scores.
However, if you are applying to such a college and you don’t have the sort of transcript from the sort of secondary school that they trust to be sufficient evidence of academic competitiveness, then a high test score could become pretty important.
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Remember, arguably the 2 best universities in not just the US but the world (MIT and Stanford) are not in the Ivy League. There are multiple highly selective universities that don’t play their sports in the Ivy League.
Does it matter if your SAT goes from a 1520 to a 1540? Probably not.
Does it matter if your SAT goes from a 1430 to a 1550? It just might.
There are so many incredible applicants to these highly selective institutions that in some cases, it has to matter.
To think that ivies don’t care about SAT scores is willfully blind.
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To think they care overmuch is as well. We know a kid who was a double legacy honor student at a prestigious school and tri-captain that got rejected with a 1540.
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