Take Sats again or no?

CX3
Tue, 22 May 2007 21:07:04 +0000

To answer your earlier question, the commonly held claim is that colleges don’t really like to see you take the test more than 3 times. But, whenever you hear that it refers to high school SAT takers. I think that if you were to take it one or maybe two more times it would not be all that detrimental. I wouldn’t go 3 times more. Remember that a number of colleges will take your highest score from a section in any sitting. So you might be able to take a good score on a section of your first sitting and combine it with better scores in the second. Posting your stats and ECs won’t really be necessary. That’s because even if they are good, your SAT scores aren’t in the range of what the colleges you’ve named are looking for. You really want to make an effort to be within their score range because it’s a plus for your application.

To fight_on1: I would call the colleges to see what their view is on the SAT II. I tend to think that SAT IIs are really the least of your worries on an application. They’re more specific tests to judge how well you’ll do in college. You’ve been in college and have grades for that, so it becomes less relevant (much more so than SAT Is). Still, call the colleges and see what their opinions are on it.

To lilkrnq again: If you take the ACTs most colleges will look at them in the place of an SAT, and if you send them in time for admissions committee review it should be fine. I think they’re more concerned with whether you’ve made an effort to improve, rather than the fact that you’re taking the test as a college student.