<p>I attend a pretty middle of the road school in a smaller town in Colorado. We’re not some rediculous prep-school, but we’re not awful either.</p>
<p>I am Valedictorian of my graduating class.</p>
<p>I scored an 1860 on my SAT.</p>
<p>To me it feels like on CC people get crazy over this kind of stuff. Like just because they go to some private school, they think that they’re better than everyone… I’m not denying they are probably getting a better education, but I worked just as hard. It’s not my fault I go to school here. What do you think. Are adcoms going to flag this, or are they going to say “he’s a hardworker.”</p>
<p>How large is your school? If you’re at the top of your class, I’m sure you can get better than an 1860.</p>
<p>At my public HS (about 400 kids in my graduating class) I know of 2 kids w/ 2400 and at least several more with 2350+. I got 2300 and I know a bunch of kids with higher scores.</p>
<p>sure there are, i’m not the smartest kids by measurement of a test at our school. the 30s on the ACT kids are unmotivated as hell though- they do nothing outside of band practice lol.</p>
<p>Obviously; you have just answered your own question in post one.
By no means should you worry. It is still impressive to be the valedictorian of a medium sized school. Being flagged as a hard worker is not necessarily a bad thing.
But to be serious; you should retake if possible.</p>
<p>I am. I seriously doubt that those going to private high schools are getting a better education than public schools. Perhaps it’s just me, but my experience is that my education was excellent at a public school, where where you can choose to challenge yourself. That’s probably why I was never phased by the whole “top privates are better than top publics because they offer a better education and experience” crap.</p>
<p>What was your GPA or class load? The only way anyone would question you for being Valedictorian and having a 1860 SAT is if your GPA is 3.5 or if you were taking extremely easy classes. If you have a 3.5 and you are the Valedictorian, then it shows that your SAT’s are in line and you just had little competition at your school. If you have a 4.0 with Intro to Photography, pottery, and poetry as senior classes then it also would show that your SAT’s are in line and the GPA is inflated by easy classes. </p>
<p>I’d retake the SAT’s or ACT’s. I got a 1940 on the SAT’s, but a 30 on the ACT. The 30 obviously looks better. One of my friends had a similar improvement. Even with an 1860 you can get into plenty of good schools. I mean, if you are shooting for MIT, Harvard, or some program that slingshots you into Med-School, then obviously you would need to retake the tests, but most people don’t need to go to MIT, Harvard, and aren’t considering becoming a doctor.</p>
<p>They determine school rigor based on the secondary school report. They acknowledge that SAT scores are neither definitive nor necessarily indicative of much of anything.</p>
<p>^ Are you kidding me? SATs mean nothing? Thats why the great majority of colleges base their decisions soley on these SAT scores, and why the collegeboard, which includes every single college in the united states, consistently says these SAT’s a great measure of potential college success.</p>
<p>SATs mean A LOT, and will always mean a lot.</p>
<p>my gpa is a 4.43 and i have taken the most challenging course load avaliable. our school does not offer AP or IB they do College Courses. So I have taken 11, and will graduate with like 32 college credits. I took the SAT four times, and an 1860 is the highest I am going to get. It is just frustrating because it feels like your accomplishments are devalued when some kid from a small private school looks at your stats is like your school was easy, your sat and gpa are out of line, ect, ect. I wish I could have done better but I just don’t think it’s going to happen.</p>
<p>Bret,
I have said this before, you need to check about those courses. UMD, UM, UND, NYU, and most comoetitive colleges will not accept them. My s had AP’s and CC’s —APs accepted, CC not. In the end they will look at both SAT and transcripts.
You keep saying small private school, but not why you go there. Even the smallest, rural public school gives AP and IB.</p>
<p>I know most schools do not accept the credit. Our school does not offer AP or IB classes. Just college classes, so thats why I have no APs and IBs.</p>
<ul>
<li>our classes are not from community colleges they are from University of Colorado and Colorado State University</li>
</ul>
<p>just apply, no one on here can tell you anything for sure. if you application is strong otherwise, the adcoms might overlook your score. again, nothing is certain, if you can’t change your score, you can’t change your score.</p>
<p>This is what you should do to get you into alot of great colleges:
Bring this experience to a School Board Meeting. Alert them of the low- standard
curriculum of your school. Organize a committee to re-evaluate the whole thing.
Then write an essay abour your ordeal . Good luck.</p>
<p>All community colleges curriculums in the US are from their state schools. They do that so if you transfer to a state the credits are accepted.
IMO those courses will hurt your transcript. They will not be listed as AP/IB or honors and I would think your transcript will show them as “jump start”. Admissions may also be confused not knowing that the school doesn’t offer any AP they may view you as a student who elected not to take AP’s…would explain high GPA and low SAT. would also explain the small diff between w and uw</p>