SAT scores Dilemma

Applying to College
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I hail from India, and my foundation’s (Collegeboard Weirdly registered me under this foundation name to get fee waiver) average SAT is about 1185.

I got a 1470 SAT superscore (760 Math, 710 English). Is it a good idea to submit this score to places where I might even be below the 25 percentile?

My highschool GPA is 3.9.

I heard on the internet that when you don’t submit your SAT scores, your going to be thought of having a very low score.

Should I just submit my 1470 anyhow? I have ED 2 to Colby and I have been given the option to revoke my SAT score on the profile.

Thank you.

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No dilemma

Leave it. Two reasons:

  1. It’s above the 25th percentile - which was 1450 last year

  2. Colby doesn’t have a common data set. But like schools such as Bates (18% submitted) have very low test submission rates. Even if Colby were 40% and doubting it is, a 1470 is a lot better than you think.

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1470 is a great score. I would keep it as part of your Colby application.

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Submit. Colby will likely have an understanding of the context of your score.

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That is great.

Should I keep it as a rule of thumb to submit my SAT scores if its above 25 percentile?

I have seen reddit posts where internationals (especially competitive ones like China and India) are expected high standardised scores. I am afraid I might be jeopardised.

My 11th grade marks are almost max scores (except languages).

I got like 94.6% in my Track 1 maths and 96% in my Track 2 maths. (Basically different calculus classes).

Meanwhile I also saw a kid get into Cornell with 1370 SAT in India.

I have a lot of applications, basically every university that meets need I have put my application in.

Should I update my pages with the SAT scores?

Also I won an award here called SAT top performer - India (low income students who get 1300+) and I put that in my honors section and it went to every college even the one that I did not send SAT scores.

So if I am applying something like Duke or Washington in st Louis or Williams.

Should my SAT score be in?

Thank you.

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I would submit in your case because I think you will be jeopardized without it. The odds are not in your favor to start with. If you submit no score, in your particular instance, they might assume it was much lower, which won’t help you. I think these colleges will probably understand the context in which you received that score so I think it can’t hurt. Please understand though that all of these colleges are very, very high reach schools. You have no idea why a single student with a 1370 was accepted, but rest assured, it wasn’t because of that test score. Have other college options lined up.

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Your realistic choices are going to be ‘only, Texas A&M Intl, Ole Miss, Southern Miss.

Your point about not submitting may make them think you didn’t do well seems very fair to me.

Many of the meets need schools have low SAT submission rates. You can see each in the Common Data Set section C9.

This is W&L - who is need blind and meets need. Not only is your score solid but less than 50% submit (44%). So at least in my mind, it’s a no brainer. Your 1470 is likely better than most of the 56% not submitting.

What your downfall is - section C1. Of 3524 international applicants, only 67 were accepted.

This is why I want to ensure you did all the safeties recommended to you. You’ve never confirmed you’ve done Minot, Texas A&M International, Southern Miss etc. They are far more important than Colby.

You have no SAT dilemma. Your dilemma is overall international acceptance and then the schools that meet need providing enough aid. That’s your dilemma. Hence the concern about the Minots of the world.

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The evidence I have seen supports this logic:

Maybe not “very” low, but you are likely giving them good news when you submit a score at their 25th percentile, in that they would typically assume you did not have a score that good if you did not submit.

I actually personally think even a score a bit under the 25th, at least at a college with a lot of test optional applicants, is still much more likely to be helpful or neutral than harmful. Neutral of course is likely a big category at the margins, but that’s fine. The real question is how often is it likely to be helpful, and how often harmful. And from what I have seen AOs say, and a bit of data, I am thinking helpful outnumbers harmful into a range below the 25th, at least at most TO colleges.

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It feels weird to have like a 96% English Score and like 710 SAT score though.

I kindly ask you to look from a perspective such a country as India. A really large population that’s going abroad.

I think I’ll just submit my scores to all my colleges and hope the best. As you said I think it would be a boundary score and they’ll take a look.

Thank you.

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I would submit!

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Do you mean it feels strange SAT scores work like that? Because 710 EBRW is around 94th percentile, and 1470 Composite is around 96th.

Of course I understand US admissions from India can be extremely competitive, depending where you apply. But I suspect if you end up not quite what some such US college is looking for, it won’t be because of your SAT score. And if you are otherwise what they are looking for, likely your SAT score will be good enough not to hold you back, and again might actually be helpful.

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It’s a decent score, and my understanding is that it helps international students if they can provide data points which providesome context in terms of U.S applicants.

If you don’t get in, your score is highly unlikely to be the reason.

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Should I submit it to like John Hopkins? its 25 percentile SAT is 1530. :upside_down_face:

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Should I just go forward and submit my scores to all colleges now?

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Didn’t you self report your test scores on your common app where you chose to apply with test scores? Don’t pay to send scores that you don’t need to, if that’s what you are asking.

If you didn’t initially apply with a test score and self report, check in your portal if you can even change that decision. Generally posters have told you to submit your score to all your schools. The final choice is yours, but at some schools, you might be unable to change your initial decision when you submitted the app.

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JHU says you need to report all scores and you self report. Only if they admit you will you need to send them in.

We review self-reported and official SAT or ACT scores. You can self-report test scores through the Common Application and Coalition on Scoir. You should report all available scores, and we’ll consider your most competitive testing profile when reviewing your application. For students who self-report scores on the application, if you are admitted and choose to enroll, you will be required to send official score reports. The test scores must be sent directly from the testing agency or submitted on your behalf by a school official.

As an aside, they admitted 236 of 10726 International applicants. 68% submitted. I would go TO but you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t because so many submit. You don’t have the profile that will work there - plus they are need aware for international. So choose what you want (if you can even change it) but it’s unlikely to matter.

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Yes, personally I would just submit it wherever I could.

If you are interested, this is representative of the sort of information I have seen:

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This is coming from the Dartmouth white paper explaining why they were going back to test required:

You can pick out where 1470 would put you on those charts, and it seems pretty clear that at Dartmouth, during their brief test optional years, it was a good idea to submit a 1470.

In fact, I think you can interpret the more-advantaged/not-first-gen charts as representative of applicants where Dartmouth usually felt like it got a reliable academic assessment from other sources like familiar transcripts and reliable recommendations. In those cases, submitting or not didn’t tend to matter much. But still, in your range, submitting helped move the admissions frequency a bit higher.

Then the less-advantaged/first-gen charts could be seen as more representative of applicants where Dartmouth is more often less confident about what the rest of their academic credentials imply, and for them submitting in your range clearly made a significant positive difference.

This was a large part of Dartmouth’s argument for going back to test required–they thought too many applicants with scores that would actually help them were not submitting. Other universities then followed often making similar arguments.

So I think that is really quite solid logic. If your scores were below 1400, then it would start being a little more risky to submit to a college like Dartmouth. But in the high 1400s, it seems like a pretty solid conclusion that if it makes any difference–and to be fair, this data suggests in most cases it wouldn’t make any difference, but sometimes–it is much more likely to help than hurt.

Of course that is just Dartmouth, but I suspect the same logic applies to most, if not all, of the similarly highly-selective US colleges.

So yes, I would submit your 1470 everywhere I could.

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Thank you so much for such a detailed response, I’ll do that immediately.

I am a First-Gen student too!

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Wait, but this scores would be inclusive of all Nationals & Internationals. I believe that nationals will be more favoured with first-gen and low SAT.

Internationals are like cherry-picked, so does it imply here?

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Don’t submit - formally. Self report. They specifically say you don’t need to submit (i.e pay for).

But, if you submit and they have a place for you to submit every test you took (maybe in their portal), you will need to do so - not just the highest - per the instruction two posts ago.

Most schools don’t make you send in until you you commit after getting accepted. They take you at your word - so you can save money.