Should I take the SAT one last time??

Test Preparation
1

I’m a rising senior and have pretty much decided which colleges I want to apply to. It’s a long list which is why I’ve already started working on writing my college essays. As of now my schools are in no particular order:

Harvard
Stanford
Yale
Princeton
Brown
UPenn
Cal Berkeley
Georgia Tech
Duke
MIT
Columbia
UGA
Auburn
Johns Hopkins

Northwestern
University of Southern California

On my most recent SAT in March, I scored a 2230
(740 CR 780 M 710 W)
I hesitate to take the SAT again because I already took it once in 7th grade as part of the Duke TIP and I have taken the PSAT 4 times: once in 8th grade as the magnet school entrance exam (to which I was accepted and decided to turn down) with no score given and once in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade (10th it was required, 9th and 11th I was asked by my school and the registration fee was waived) my scores were 199, 211, and 223 respectively. I’m afraid that too many attempts at the same test type will make my scores less impressive.

Additionally, because I’m applying to so many schools and I plan to be super involved my senior year (starting a club and an officer in two others plus year round varsity sports on top of the other clubs I’m in) I really just want to be able to focus on what I think matters the most: the essay.

So in short, is it worth it to give it one last shot in October? I’m a first generation American from Nigeria so the American system is incredibly foreign to my parents and I’ve had to learn it all on my own so any advice or opinions are really appreciated. Thanks.

2

Your 7th grade SAT and your four PSAT’s do not count. Colleges will see that you have take the SAT only once so far. Although you have a great score already, I definitely recommend taking it a second time if you think you can improve without taking too much time away from your other activities. Good luck!

3

Thank you!

4

Make sure you have safeties; that list is extremely reach-heavy.

5

I really want to go out of state and I’ve heard that a lot of out of state public universities can be super expensive. Are there any you recommend I look into?

6

You could check out Alabama? They have several big scholarships that apply to OOS students.

7

check out University of Texas; it can be hard to get in out of state, but is a great school, especially for science and math fields

8

@Naijaboy you don’t need to retake.

9

I’ve heard that once you get above around 2150, the extra points don’t really matter but I just feel that I’d be more competitive with a score of 2300+

10

The advice you got from @jackrabbit14 is excellent