Will a 1330 SAT score decrease my college admission chances?

Answered

Here is my advice with some background and context. If you reply, please inform me what grade you are in. I'm assuming you are in 11th grade and will apply next year.

A 1330 for the 1st try is a good score so I wouldn't give up. Since all colleges accept a super-score for the SAT, unless you are certifiable genius test taker, 99% of SAT takers, take it more than once, sometimes 3 or 4 times because they are trying to maximize their super-score. I don't want to make any assumptions here so look at your score and see which 1/2 you need more work on. Usually most SAT takers get a slightly higher math score vs. EBRW score. In my case my math was always 50pts higher. Since your 1330 represents a 90th percentile score, you are 90% there already, you just have to focus hard on the last 8-9 percentage points. If you want a 1500 you just have to want it bad enough to work hard for a few months and take a lot of practice tests.

Some study tips-

-CollegePanda series for Math, Reading, Writing

-Erica Meltzer series for Reading

-Dr.Chung's Math for SAT workbook

-SuperTutorTv's best SAT online course (about $250)

-Open a free Kahn Academy account and use it as much as possible

-Buy the big Red Official SAT guide w/practice tests for this year, last year and the year before and take all the practice test.

-If you run out of practice tests, you can go online an download some from links on reddit or college confidential etc.

If you do not want to grind for 3-4 months, then you always have the option NOT to submit a test score. This is perfectly fine if you are applying to TEST BLIND colleges like Caltech, UC schools and CalState Schools. But your application will definitely look less competitive without a high test score because despite 90% of college being test optional, admissions offices definitely accept more students that have submitted high test scores vs not submitting them. So it's up to you. Being an Asian America puts you in a disadvantaged category because Asian Americans almost always have the highest test scores in all 50 States. Your competition are your Asian American brothers and sisters.

Lastly I wouldn't lump CWU and BU together because BU has much higher stats. BU's average SAT score is closer to 1500 while CWU is like 1415. Also CWU admit rate is 25% (9500/38000) and BU's decision is coming out tonight and I'm guessing its going to be like 12.3% (9931/80747) because they over admitted last 2 years and had an unexpected higher yield rate.

There is no 1 thing that can replace your lack of test scores if you decide not to submit. Academics are usually evaluated in terms of UWGPA, WGPA, course rigor (how many APs, IBs you challenged yourself with), DE/Online College courses and results, Intellectual Vitality/Curiosity (evidenced by supervised research, publications, internships, self-learning) and standardized Test Scores and AP or IB scores.

There is a plethora of YouTube videos about Asian kids who improve their SAT scores by 200 points so I would watch those for inspiration.

Good luck.