Okay, guys, Wesleyan is not being nefarious and more information is better. I agree. And I actually like Wesleyan, so I don’t want to malign them.
Let’s get back to the poster, who has a kid with 1470 on his SAT and is worried that it’s too low to send, which is ridiculous. 1470 is a great score and will enhance his application.
Wesleyan admitted 42% of their applicants last year without any standardized test score. That’s how important they think the SAT is. Here’s the problem. If your kid went to Milford Academy, or Choate, or The Dalton School, or Regis, or Hotchkiss, or Greenwich High School, or Scarsdale High School, Wesleyan doesn’t need your SAT. They know what the rigor of the curriculum is at those schools and who the other students in those schools are. But if your kid went to XYZ Public High School, they just might want something else to validate your valedictorian status to assure them that you can match up with the other students in a Wesleyan class room. That’s where the SAT comes in. It gives them that independent verification of your achievement.
So, who is a better group for Wes to compare your SAT to when they want that reassurance? The 65% of applicants who better dealed Wes for a HYPSM or other Ivy, or Public Ivy, or for Williams, Amherst, or one of the Claremonts? Or the 35% of applicants who actually came to Wesleyan and are in their classrooms doing the work?
Wesleyan tells us that rigor is what’s most important to them and that they’ll look at gpa to see how you handled that rigor - if you have it. After that, the SAT is supplementary information, backup in case they have any lingering questions.
If anyone views Wesleyan’s application process as a horse race to see who can submit the highest stats, then go for the 1500, or even better the 1550. But that’s not what they care most about.
Wesleyan want to know who the applicant is and that’s not a test number. They want o know if you can handle the rigor in their classrooms. And a parent who worries about submitting a 1470 because it’s less than a 1480 doesn’t understand that statistically, the two are indistinguishable. The 1470 is just as good at reassuring them that your 4.0 gpa is legit and that you can do the work.
Wesleyan does a holistic review. What they care about beyond rigor + gpa & class rank is essays, recommendations, and anything else which will reveal an applicant’s character & personal qualities, his talents & abilities, and his interests + whatever else makes him tick. That’s where an applicant’s energy should go in deciding what to submit to this kind of school. Interestingly, they also want to know if you’re first generation college, which I suspect tells us that in general they want to know what kinds of obstacles students had to overcome to get there. Overall they want to know what an applicant can bring to their community and what he will contribute. They’re not interested in splitting hairs over test scores which are a few points apart.