Will I get accepted with my tough classes and awards for research?

SDonCC
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:02:49 +0000

There is such a huge disconnect between your test scores and your achievements. Something has to be going on. Did you hit the bubbles wrong?? Do you always score so low on standardized tests??

If you can’t raise your scores, then you really should look at test-optional schools. You could still apply to a few schools which require tests, but look first at the common data sets to assess your odds based on how many they accept with your scores (the CDS shows the SATs based on enrollment, but it will give you a picture of how you fit in).

The question is whether you’ll even make it through the “gate” with those test scores to even have admissions committees look at you holistically. I’d guess that a small school like Grinnell takes a read through the whole file, so you’d have a chance, but perhaps at large universities, you wouldn’t even get looked at (IDK, I’m just conjecturing here).

I do think that with this big a gap between your achievement and your scores, they’d really have to dig into your application and read your recommendations really carefully to see what’s going on. This just raises a huge question mark about you.