realistically, does a high SAT matter for ivy (or ivy adjacent) schools? Answered
I really want to go to UPenn or Yale or Duke for economics/math/international relations, but frankly, my sat (2nd try) is only a 1390. I make so many stupid mistakes on the exam, especially because they always fall on when I have my period and due to past medical reasons, I get horrible abdominal pains. I'm hoping to try again in the fall one last time, but to be entirely honest, I don't think my SAT score is going to increase much.
My gpa on the other hand (with primarily AP or dual enrollment classes) is a 3.98 uw or a 4.7 w, and decent scores on AP exams so far (5s). And I know that if my SAT testing date wasn't always when I had my period, I would be able to concentrate more and score higher, but life isn't always fair, so I'm curious if I still have a chance even without the sat.
thanks guys
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2 answers
@lostinlosing Of course you have a chance to get into these schools w/o a test score.
I highly recommend that you complete as best as possible your College Vine Profile with all your stats, demographics and ECs and see what the CV chancing engine says is your % percentage chance of getting into these schools. Pay attention to your areas of strength and weaknesses and if CV says your ECs are light or you need more course rigor, try to work on those areas with the time saving you will gain from not continuing with the SAT.
1390 is really a very good score so be proud that you got to a 95th percentile score. However as you know the avg SAT at these schools not falls in to the 1500-1560 range for all 3 of them, so you'd really have to grind this summer to make up a 120-150 points. August 28, October 2 and November 6 are the next 3 SAT dates. I'm assuming you are not signed up for the June 5th one. If you want to try again I would forecast your periods and see where they fall. The August one is 13 weeks from 6/5, the Oct one is 5 weeks from the August one and the Nov one is 5 weeks from the Oct one. Hopefully 1 or more of these will not interfere with your normal cycle. So if you are on a 3, 4 or 5 week cycle, just map it out and see if it's worth signing up for again.
Good luck.
You definitely can get accepted to top schools without submitting a test score. Due to the pandemic as well as a change in admissions philosophies, schools no longer assume that your scores are low if you do not submit them. With that said, I would only recommend submitting a score if it is in the top 75% of scores of accepted students - for the schools you are interested in, you would want at least a 1510 on the SAT. This CollegeVine blog post has some more advice. Hope this helps!
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