<p>@ marite, ellemenope: I’m only retaking Math IIC because it seems stupid to waste a Saturday morning on one subject test. It’s also only about $10 more to add another test, and I have a little bit of a testing “weakness” in math - it’s always been my lowest score (but one of my strong subjects in school). An 800 on Math IIC might balance that trend out more than a 750 would.</p>
<p>lol @ OperaDad. </p>
<p>Thank you all for the feedback :)</p>
<p>Since you will be taking another SATII, you might as well retake the Math, but really, it won’t make much of a difference. Just so that you can put your scores in perspective, adcoms proceed by tranches of 50, unless one is straddling (eg. 710 sounds better than 690, but 730 does not sound much better than 710). </p>
<p>Right now, I’d suggest you think of ECs you can perform and highlight in your application. You don’t have to have traveled the world, written a novel, made a huge scientific discovery, or won an Olympiad, Whether it’s helping out at the local hospital, working at your local McDonald, even minding your younger siblings, all these are worthwhile ECs and you can write about any of them in such a way that they captivate readers.
The daughter of a CC poster, Curmudgeon, grew up on a farm and, I believe, wrote about goats (I’ll bet many admission officers in places like Harvard or Yale have not seen a live goat outside of a petting zoo!). Take what you think is the downside of growing up in a small Midwestern town and turn it into your strength. You’d be surprised at how little knowledge of rural life students at top private universities can exhibit.</p>