1530 SAT at McLean High not enough for UVA now?

[Anonymous]

My child goes to McLean High. He got a 1530 SAT as a junior and came home saying it is not good enough because most kids are getting higher scores, so he wants to retake it a third time. Is this really where we are now, that you need a perfect SAT score?

He is already in all DE and AP classes and he is in Calc 2 as a junior. Now he is saying he needs to take summer classes at NOVA so he can take Calc 3 and then differential equations senior year. It feels insane, although he has already taken about five NOVA dual enrollment classes, so I guess we are saving some money.

I graduated in the 90s, got a 1350, felt great about it, did not take calculus until college, and I turned out fine. Is the bar just totally different now?

For those familiar with UVA admissions, is a 1530 SAT at McLean High with a 4.2 weighted GPA and all AP and DE since sophomore year actually not enough, or is this just the pressure cooker effect?

[Anonymous]

the 4.2 will be a problem. if all 5.0 courses did he have a lot of b's? They want rigor and As. My 4.2 was rejected ed/test optional. She took too many ap and didn't get a's. She should have taken less and gotten more a's

[Anonymous]

They waitlisted my kid from another FCPS HS in 2023. 3.98/4.5, 1560. However he elected not to take AP lang or Lit. Just honors.

I don't think the problem is SAT, But perhaps the grades. UW must be a 3.7? 3.8?

[Anonymous]

Don't shoot the messenger but the 4.2 will be too low. It's rough out there.

[Anonymous]

Your son is being ridiculous. No, he doesn’t need to retake the SAT. It’s an excellent score for UVA and for pretty much any other school (except maybe MIT?) He needs to stay focused on pulling out the highest GPA he can while managing any stress in a healthy way.

[Anonymous]

Your child knows enough about the process to load up on APs, take DE courses, but doesn’t know how to ask his counselor or the college counselor or view the data of the admitted students from McLean regarding their GPAs and SATs?

Just doesn’t seem like something you two wouldn’t know to do bSed on how you describe the kid.

[Anonymous]

Time to look into William and Mary and VT.

[Anonymous]

The SAT and the rigor is just fine, its the gpa.

[Anonymous]

It's your zip code.

[Anonymous]

Conventional wisdom during the test-optional era was that anything over 1500–1520 would meet just about any school's "bar", and that investing the time to increase it beyond that would have diminishing returns. As schools return to leaning on tests more, I expect a 1530 will only look better and better, compared to most. It's a great score.

As others have noted, the two things he should focus on are 1) looking at his school's Naviance (or whatever tool his school uses) data to see where he lands, and 2) working on his GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SAT and the rigor is just fine, its the gpa.

+1 UVA consistently says that sustained performance in the classroom is the most important factor. And that no one strong factor can make up for another relatively weak one. So a kid with a 4.7 and no test scores likely has a better shot than a kid with a 4.2 and a great SAT.

[Anonymous]

I say this as kindly as possible - how is this news to you? Have you not been paying attention? Did you think other parents were exaggerating when they talked about the brutal admissions environment?

[Anonymous]

OP, what's his unweighted GPA? If he really has two full years of only AP and DE courses, how is it that he only has a 4.2 weighted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's your zip code.

This. There are tons of high stat kids and they only take so many so many per school.

[Anonymous]

Pick out of state flagships to apply to. UVA and VT are crap shoots. UGA seems popular right now.