Test strategy for trending GPA and tier 2 STEM school (e.g. RPI)

Applying to College
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I have a question which is both complicated (i.e. lots of details) and stupid (in that no one can possibly know the answer :slight_smile: ), so apologies in advance.

DD wants to major in CS. She has a trending GPA. Her junior year grades is probably fine for a school like RPI (all A’s except for a B in APUSH, including AP CS and honors math & physics), whereas freshman year she got almost straight B’s. The reason for her trend was her learning how to deal with her ADD, which she’ll talk about in her essays. She has no hooks (other than being female), and no significant ECs.

I feel like for her, test scores are more significant than they would be for students with a more consistent GPA, in that hopefully it will convince schools that she’s more the junior-year student than the freshman-year student. And I’m a little bit concerned that schools will put less credence in the new SAT than the ACT or the old SAT, just because there’s uncertainty around it.

She’s taken the new SAT twice. In March, she got 760M/710V. In June, she got 680M (!) / 740V. So a superscored 1500, though with an anomaly in math this past time. She also took Math II subject test and scored a 740. Obviously 1500 is great (concords to 740M / ~710V) - though RPI would probably prefer higher math scores, even if it was at the expense of verbal.

She doesn’t mind / enjoys taking standardized tests - but she hates spending a lot of time preparing.

So finally :-), here’s my question. Should she:
(A) Take the SAT a 3rd time, mainly trying to raise her math score - which I think is definitely possible.
(B) Take subject tests (Math II again + Physics).
© Take the ACT

Or none of the above. Or multiple.

I think she’s leaning towards at least (B), because she still wants to apply to some (out-of-)reach schools that want her to take Physics. (A) can possibly marginally improve math, but it’s not clear a 780 vs a 760 matters. And the only reason I list © is because of concern that colleges will distrust the new SAT… Unfortunately © will likely require non-trivial preparation, because she gets time and a half, and my understanding is that she’s free to use her time any way she likes across the entire ACT. Which seems like it requires some planning…

So - if anyone has any opinions, I’m all ears…

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How much prep did she do to get the SAT scores she has? I think her SAT I scores are fine for RPI and similar. My daughters didn’t apply anywhere that required SAT II and did not take them, so I can’t help there. I can say it didn’t hurt their admission or merit scholarship results to ignore the SAT II’s. If it were my kid, I’d take a shot at the ACT, if the prep time is manageable, and have her concentrate on first semester senior year grades.

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She studied a “medium” amount. It’s very hard for her to study much on her own for something that she’s already relatively good at (and is so boring). She probably did about 10-14 hours of prep with a tutor (but almost nothing else by herself).

For someone who is prepared for the (new) SAT - how different is the ACT?

The most I could expect would be a practice ACT, and then - maybe - a few sessions with the tutor. Though my wife will probably push back regardless. She doesn’t know why I had her take the SAT even a 2nd time…

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The ACT (at least for me) was much easier. I prepared (the same amount as your daughter) for the new SAT and got a 1470. No prep work for the ACT at all (I knew somewhat how it went, took in 7th grade) and got a 34. It’s much more straightforward and simple.

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I feel like I’m always the contrary one, bit I would question whether you even need to worry about freshman year grades, especially with such a good recovery by Junior year (and with rigor). And then, by extension, whether a huge investment is necessary to overcome them. For many kids, this is simply a sign that they are maturing (regardless of what they are overcoming.) I can’t imagine that another 10 or 20 points will make such a difference.

What were her AP scores?

I’d focus more on getting good recs and writing great essays.

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(Superscored) 1500 concords to 2170. Concordance of 760M new is 740 old. 710 V concords to like a 670, while 740V concords to a 710. (And the superscored concorded 740M + 2 * 710V = 2160, which is just about 2170.)

All of the schools she’s considering are score choice schools. They pretty much all say “we encourage you to send us all of your SAT results, and we’ll update your app with the high scores”. I guess an interesting question is - will the 680 hurt her at all? They obviously claim they only look at the highest scores, but who knows. But that’s why I think the math II is somewhat relevant - it’s at least another data point to show that she’s a mid-700’s math student.

Yes, I’ve heard time and a half on the ACT is great - certainly for kids that don’t need it… :slight_smile: But that brings me back to the Math II. I think she said she left out the last 5 (?) questions because she ran out of time. Even though she had time and a half. Even though none of those math questions should be hard for her. But unfortunately her brain essentially shuts off for brief periods (randomly). So potentially there’s a lot of room for improvement.

For whether or not to disclose ADD - that should probably be in a thread by itself… :slight_smile:

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For the ACT - she’d never get a 36, but I could imagine that a 34 is possible. Which according to CB concords to 1520 - 1560 on the new SAT (though ACT disagrees). Even a 33 on the ACT might be more convincing to colleges than her superscored “new” 1500.