I got a 1500 on my SAT the first time. I’ve gotten a 1530 on a practice test but I haven’t studied in a while. Is it worth taking the December 5th SAT? If I do poorly would it hurt my chances?
I’m applying regular to Davidson, Harvard, Northwestern, Duke, and Brown (I applied to my matches and safeties early). Am I at a point where I won’t get into any of those unless I take it again and get that higher score?
If you think you can improve your score, then it may make sense to take it again.
1500 is +/- 15 of the mid-point of the 25-75th percentile at all of those schools except Davidson, where it’s well above. So it’s certainly not a disqualifying score for any of them (but a vast majority at that score point, and higher ones, aren’t admitted).
A lower score isn’t going to hurt your chances - all of the schools listed (and most in the country) will superscore or take your best individual sitting score, AFAIK.
1530 would put you closer to the 75th percentile. While it’s not a big difference, every advantage can help at these very selective schools.