<p>Right now (junior) I have pretty good grades/ schedule rigor, decent ECs, and good CS with the main Northwestern crowd.
Now to actually get in, can a 2300 be a really deciding factor?
The score would require effort, and I would have to spend less time w/ EC. </p>
<p>My problem: I have been in academic decathlon for 3 years and I have won 1 or 2 awards, BUT I was placed in a lower category (due to space on team - they dont count), the next competition (and the last one I can go to this year) is in Jan, but that is when I have the SAT!
Should I work on getting a good score on my SAT or get an award in acdec (for the my app)? This might be the last time I can get anything for the club (very competitive in school and state is #2 in nation). How much will it hurt to not have anything there; I have won a lot of awards in a different club tho + president in it. (probably my main club… otherwise no other leadership in clubs >.<)</p>
<p>I don’t know if they will do it the same next year, but they only use Critical reading and math currently. A 1500+ looks great as it is above their 75%.</p>
<p>Try to get awards, but don’t make it your main focus. Do well on both, SAT and extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Don’t let go of your ECs but getting that particular award may not be the most crucial thing. As you said, you have a lot of awards already and leadership in a different club. Just focus on presenting what you have in an interesting light, and then plan on scoring the best you can on the SAT. IMO, Academic Decathlon is not very useful in college anyway since it’s basically just a lot of random trivia stuff (it’s not like debate or model UN that can actually be relevant to your studies). You would be more appealing if you discovered your passion in gardening or something, you know what I mean? If you apply ED, your relative lack of top-level ECs probably won’t matter as much.</p>
<p>similar dilemma! i am also apart of the acadec team (im a senior though) as well as doing IB, so my whole day is academic rigor… but in any event, i realized that when i was putting so much emphasis on Decathlon that my ACTs in December were lower than my ACTs in April when Acadec was over (e.g. 26 in E became 31 in E; and so on and so forth). One of the biggest criticisms of academic decathlon is that it is SO exceptionally rigorous that it takes up so much time from what is really important.</p>
<p>I would focus on your EC’s. If you think you could feasibly get a 2300, your scores must already be sky-high. Test scores are important, but individual awards and interests are a big part of what make you stand out. If you must practice something, practice writing, particularly if you’re more of a math whiz. It’s amazing how many math/science-oriented people are completely lost when it comes to writing a decent essay.</p>