SAT Scores and LORsAnswered
Hey folks!
Greetings from India!
So, I decided on applying to colleges quite late I must say!
It was only in 12th summer that I decide to do so. (I still engaged myself in loads of ECs throughout 9th, 10th and 11th unknowingly, so thats not really a worry)
So, as you might know the SATs in the beginning of this year were cancelled. So, the only SAT i gave was this October's SAT. People have been telling me that for an international student, you MUST have a SAT score of over 1530, otherwise your chances are quite low. I am expecting a 1480, so should I go test-optional or submit my scores? Another thing of concern is the AP classes. My school doesn't offer any AP classes (though I plan to write about 7-8 APs in May next year) and when i enter 0 AP classes, the success percentage in the 'Chancing Simulator' drops significantly. Do you think that taking no AP class even if my school doesn't offer any would harm my application?
Another question I had was on LORs. As we know, Covid has been around for almost 2 years now, my entire Grade 11th and Grade 12th was spent in online classes. So I feel that the teachers who are teaching me now in 12th and those who taught me in 11th don't really know me that well personally, whereas those in 10th really know me quite well. So is it ok if i take 1-2 LORs from a grade 10th teacher? Will colleges oppose that in some way?
THANKS A LOT!
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1 answer
There's never really any sort of score you "must" have for an acceptance at a college! Your chances depend on too many things to simplify them to such a degree. That said, a 1480 lies just slightly above the 25th percentile of accepted SAT scores at Harvard. While this is on the lower end and means you won't be extremely competitive in this regard, I would still absolutely recommend submitting this score. Not submitting a score would look far worse than submitting a decent one!
Don't worry that your school doesn't offer AP courses! So long as you are taking the most difficult courses your school offers (and so long as you communicate on your applications that you have done so), you will be fine. If you want a better estimate in our chancing engine, just estimate the number of classes you've taken that are challenging and/or the highest level course in a given subject available at your school, and put this down as your number of AP courses.
In general, I'd recommend sticking mostly with 11th grade teachers. You'll need to check your applications to see if this is required or not. If the schools to which you are applying will accept LORs from 10th grade teachers, and you do feel that these teachers know your far better, you can definitely go this route, though.
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Wow this was really helpful!!! Thanks for such a detailed answer 😊. As you said, I could communicate with the colleges I wanna apply to saying how my school doesn't offer any AP classes. Is there any particular way to do this, for example, additional information??