Yes thank you for your advice! I’ll share all this with my daughter tonight and hopefully she can make up her mind and feel good about her decision either way. Thank you!
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She sounds great! That sort of independent-minded, self-motivated kid is going to grab the attention of some readers.
Thank you! Fingers crossed!
SLACs with an SAT 25th %ile north of 1470 aren’t just looking at numbers and then deciding on a thumbs up or thumbs down for admission - as you know. They are trying to put together a freshman class that meets a variety of criteria with students who complement each other in terms of background, talents, and abilities. One of those criteria is geographic diversity. Coming from Texas is a plus because most SLACs of this tyoe don’t draw heavily from Texas unless it is in Texas or a nearby state, You can check on the common data set of the school you’re considering to see if this is true in this particular case.
As you’ve already seen, most test optional SLACs that I’ve looked at show that the majority of applicants don’t submit standardized test scores at all, so it’s hard to see how not submitting could hurt her. Being ranked #3 in a class of 575 is pretty impressive anywhere. The other side of this argument is that SLACs often know the schools that their applicants come from and the rigor of their curriculum. This is particularly true of East Coast SLACs which are inundated with applications from private prep schools and high achieving, wealthy suburban high schools. They don’t need SATs to validate these students achievements in the classroom.things may be different for SLACs in the South Central region of the country, for example. So, in the cases where your high school is not well known to the SLAC or where there are a limited number of high achievers, 1400, which is equivalent to the 94th percentile, may well be helpful in validating her #3 class rank. Typically each college has a specific Admissions Officer who is responsible for each region of the country. As others have suggested, I think you can call the college and ask about their assessment of your high school, BUT don’t just speak to anyone. Ask specifically for the AO who is responsible for your region and knows your high school.
The bottom line is that what will get her in is not her SAT score but a rich picture of who she is as a person and what she will contribute to the college. In this context, quirky is good. Authenticity in her essay(s) and any other supplementary material you submit is good. It’s all about how she might fit into the mosaic they’re trying to create, and that changes with each new group of applicants every year. So, the better she can describe herself and her talents, abilities, and interests, the better her chances will become.
To answer your question directly, I’m guessing that it would be to her advantage to submit her SAT scores because there will probably be questions about her high school. Submitting her scores, which are very strong but not a slam dunk will help to remove some of those questions. Not submitting her scores will leave questions remaining and the assumption will probably be that her scores are even lower than they are because otherwise she would have submitted them.
One other point about interpreting test score data for any particular college. As has already been noted, the critical number is NOT the SAT mid range but the percentage of students who submitted test scores. The reported score are the mid range ONLY of the one-third of the freshman class who actually submitted SAT scores. The school knows absolutely nothing about more than half of the class who enrolled this year. If we assume that all of those students had test scores below the 25th %ile (1470), which is probably the case for the vast majority of them, then that 25th percentile becomes more like the 75th %ile for all students and 1400 becomes more like the 50th percentile of ALL students - including those who did not submit. Keep in mind that 1400 is a very strong score.
In summary, the SAT score will not get her in. Her essays, letters of reference, and extracurriculars will get her in - or not. The SAT will only be a piece which will help to validate her academic achievements.
My final thought is that while each SLAC has its own personality, they tend to be more alike than they are different, so no need to focus on just one. The son of a friend - a very strong student like your daughter - applied to a bunch of SLACs. He was rejected at Williams, Amherst, and Pomona, but he was accepted at Middlebury, Colby, Wesleyan, and Occidental. So, in the end he had great choices at schools who decided that his personality and talents were a good fit for what they needed that year. Just my 2 cents. Best of luck.
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Such great info and advice! Thank you so much, Bill Marsh. I’ll share with my daughter. So much to think about. Thank you!
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Would not submit. Can’t help but certainly could hurt. Way below medians.
Update and questions: my daughter was deferred. She did end up submitting her SAT score to Bowdoin early decision at the urging of her college counselor (kinda last minute). The counselor’s reasoning was that my daughter’s score was one of the highest in her high school class. But is that something the college would see?
Also, any advice about if/how my daughter should reach out to Bowdoin? Her counselor is out indefinitely, taking care of a sick family member, so my daughter is kinda on her own now.
Thank you for all your thoughtful advice in response to the original question. And thank you in advance for any thoughts you may have now about the deferral.
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Yes, your daughter should contact Bowdoin by writing a letter of continuing interest.
I can’t speak for Bowdoin or your daughter’s high school, but it is common for colleges to have information like the range of test scores at a particular high school. It would be reasonable for you to contact the guidance department at her high school and ask them to send that information to Bowdoin on her behalf. Even though her counselor is on leave, there would normally be someone else in the department who can accomplish that task. It would be equally reasonable for you to call the Bowdoin Admissions Office and ask to speak with the Admissions Officer who handles applications for he high school. (Normally each Admissions Officer at a school like Bowdoin will have a territory and will handle all of the high schools in that territory.) Once you are able to speak with that Admissions Officer, you can ask if s/he has that standardized test information on your daughter’s high school. In the course of that conversation, you can also ask if there is anything else she can do to enhance her application, reiterating her strong interest in attending Bowdoin.
The majority of applicant’s did not submit any standardized teat scores to Bowdoin last year and Bowdoin directly tells us that standardized test scores are not an important consideration in the admissions process. It is unlikely that her scores were the reason why she was deferred.
You might ask if they accept an LOCI. Many schools defer lots of kids - almost to the point making ED unfair.
I don’t know if they will take an LOCI as you weren’t rejected or wait listed. You are simply now an RD candidate so there’s no need for an LOCI.
I’m sure the letter gave you instructions but on their website they say - “Deferred applicants may not submit a second application for consideration in RD. However, feel free to submit an update about any new activities or other relevant material you feel might be helpful. Updates may be uploaded in your Application Portal.”
To me, the bigger question now is do you want to ED at #2 if they offer ED2, or widen your list and go along for the ride IN RD. Also, do they reject in ED or defer all? That might give you more future sense.
I agree the SAT likely isn’t why you were deferred but 70 points under the 25th percentile is a lot to risk. You might ask if there’s an option to remove it and go TO. I would anyway. There’s certainly no upside to a 1400 at Bowdoin.
We had our daughters do the calling in cases like this, after first reminding them to remain calm and polite at all times, and be aware that whomever answers the phone is relatively likely to not be able to answer but might just take the information and have someone get back to them. Our feeling was that for anything related to financial aid and the cost of attendance the parents were likely to take the lead (since we were presumably going to be paying), but for anything else the student should take the lead.
Similarly we did not have either daughter waitlisted for undergraduate programs, but both were waitlisted for a graduate program. They did everything in terms of dealing with the schools.
Thank you for your advice! We don’t assume to know anything about why she was deferred—not accepted but also not rejected. We don’t know what a deferral really means? But I wanted to limit the scope of my questions to the original post I made about her test score. But if you have any insights at all into deferrals in general, we would love to know! I’ll pass on your advice to my daughter. Thank you!
Thank you for that info. I’ve actually been out of state since mid November and very preoccupied because of a family emergency so my daughter has been processing all this pretty much on her own. So if calls should be made, she’ll have to make them herself (her guidance counselor and I are both unavailable at the moment). We didn’t know that was an acceptable thing to do or if she should stick to emails? Thank you!
I believe Bowdoin accepts a letter of continued interest. If Bowdoin is still her top choice, make sure she clearly communicates that. If she has won any significant awards that aren’t on her application, she can add that too. She should also have her school send in mid term grades when they are available.
Your daughter’s HS’s school report should have gone with her grades and tests scores so the ad coms should have the context for her scores.
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Okay thank you! So she can email the admissions representative for her geographical area or the central admissions office? I don’t think she’ll have any significant awards in the next month or so before the regular decision round? But she has started sort of a small project, building on stuff she has been doing, but I don’t know if that is significant enough to report? Thank you for your advice!
Also, it’s unclear what is in the guidance counselor’s school report. The guidance office didn’t even know to send the most recent report card as Bowdoin requires— the counselor kept insisting only first semester grades were required once the semester was done. My daughter had to take a screenshot of Bowdoin’s requirements to show her and convince her to send the report card! So our high school’s guidance office is very unfamiliar with Bowdoin (and SLAC in general), so my daughter may need to explicitly ask them to do certain things, like make a phone call or send an email. Thank you for reassuring me that the school report does provide context.
Yes thank you I was wondering if there was a way to remove that score???
My daughter says she probably won’t ED2 elsewhere if there is any chance of getting in to Bowdoin. She also told me from what she has seen, they defer about 10% of ED applicants? Accept about 12–13% (in the past, don’t know about this year) and the rest are rejections. But she can’t find how many deferred kids eventually get accepted.
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Your daughter should be able to submit a LOCI through the Bowdoin portal.
The HS should be able to provide you a copy of the school report that they send out. You may be even able to find it on line by searching for the name of the school + school report. I know our state education department has all the school reports on their website.
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Great idea thank you! I’ll let my daughter know to try to find that school report!
It’s often called the school profile, which might be more familiar to your guidance counselor. Good luck!
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Thank you!!!
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