<p>I have researched many colleges over the summer, and I am REALLY interested in the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for my reach colleges. I know that my extracurriculars, GPA (3.87 UW), and essays will be good because I am sort of a anal about those things. Although I try to make everything as good as I can, my SAT score was only a 1720! Sorry, I know that is low for the people on this site! How can I increase my score. I really want to increase my score by about 350 to have a good chance. Are my reach colleges unreachable? If so, please give me a few ideas that could possibly be reachable.<br>
SAT:
Math-650
Critical Reading-520
Writing-550</p>
<p>The best way to raise your score is to cram like crazy. Take at least 8 practice tests from books such as CollegeBoard and Princeton Review. If you want to you can also take SAT I courses which will help you to understand the nuances of the SAT questions (although i found the classes to be a waste of time except for the writing multiple choice). </p>
<p>For Math and Writing you just simply have to do lots and lots and lots of practice problems and when you miss something, make sure to go back and see why you missed it (careless mistake? forgot a concept? trick question?)</p>
<p>For the Crit Reading, you have to be proficient at dissecting the passages and most importantly STAY AWAKE (do like 3 sections in a row for practice and try not to space out) throughout the section. One problem i had was that the passages were so boring that i began to space out :\ . </p>
<p>Good luck. Increasing your score to 2000+ is definitly attainable if you are willing to work hard and put in the time.</p>
<p>take the ACT. most students who do “badly” on the SAT do better on the ACT. and every college views the ACT the same way as they do the SAT (even the ivies)</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips about testing…but if I were to apply with the scores I have already, would my colleges be TOO unreachable if everything else I have is good? Also, does anyone know if I have a better chance to get accepted into Rose Hulman because I’m instate? I’ve looked on the site, but I haven’t really found anything instate vs. out of state oriented.</p>
<p>No, makes no difference in-state vs. out-of-state at Rose.</p>
<p>Try the ACT, do what the others have said.</p>
<p>Besides, you meet the minimums for Rose (550 M/500 CR, they don’t even care about writing) The admissions people here really don’t put a whole lot of emphasis on test scores. Good or bad test scores are not going to overshadow your performance in your classes. They’re an indicator of how much you know, but your performance throughout high school is a much better indicator because it tells how hard you’re willing to work. If you’re not willing to work hard engineering/math/science (and hence Rose-Hulman) is not for you.</p>
<p>What do you read for fun? It looks like you especially need to boost your reading and writing scores, and reading on your own helps with both of those.</p>
<p>You should definitely take the ACT if you can do better on it… but I’d say retake the SAT as well.
Even if you get a 30+ on the ACT, you will be competing against people with similar ACT scores and HIGHER SAT scores…
If you can get your SAT up to a 1300… I’d say you are definitely in Chapel Hill (if you are in-state of course…).
Good luck!</p>