My high stat kid’s experience with admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually find it hard to believe that the people making the admissions decisions do not differentiate between single sitting, when it was taken, etc., when making admissions decisions UNLESS, the SAT/ACT is not a big differentiator at all but merely a threshold to get beyond to compare the rest of the application. It is, in fact, more impressive to get a high score with one sitting.

If that is true, however, it is not that surprising that students with great but not amazing scores get in over kids with near perfect scores that don't have a unique voice in their essays and recommendations. If it took some 4 tries and superscoring to get a 1560, why is that more impressive than a single sitting 1490?

With superscores allowed, it really doesn't matter. One sitting or not.

But what does that mean, "doesn't matter"? These decisions are being made by humans, who have data in front of them. Is it that the only thing being reviewed is the superstore and the reviewers are not told it is a superscore or how many tests it took to get that score? Do they keep the decision makers in the dark so they are unaware that superscoring exists? My question is, how can they "unknow" this information and not account for it when making decisions about kids that are hard to distinguish between. PSAT scores are all one sitting, so I would think NMSF and possibly commended students would get a bit of an edge but I know some with those distinctions that are rejected so I realize it is not necessary decisional either.

Each school decides what fields are displayed in the electronic admissions file for review. My understanding, not confirmed, is that most will have the highest section scores displayed, i.e., superscoring.

Also keep in mind that many, perhaps even most, colleges now accept scores self-reported in the Common App. The app does not ask for, or even have space to include, the lower section scores. The lower section scores will not be seen by admissions. The app does ask for the date of each section score, so for the SAT, at most two different test dates would be included.

Almost all colleges do not care about single sitting SAT. ACT is a little different, as historically it involves speed and endurance, though now many/most colleges also superscore ACT.

Only schools that require all scores are likely to care about lower section scores, e.g. Georgetown. There are only a few.

[Anonymous]

Here’s our list:

UVA, W&M, U Southern Cal = Accepted
UNC, G’Town = waitlisted
Duke, Vandy, UCLA, Cornell = rejected

Caucasian female. 34 ACT. Rigorous IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s our list:

UVA, W&M, U Southern Cal = Accepted
UNC, G’Town = waitlisted
Duke, Vandy, UCLA, Cornell = rejected

Caucasian female. 34 ACT. Rigorous IB

Nice! Which school did your DC choose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s our list:

UVA, W&M, U Southern Cal = Accepted
UNC, G’Town = waitlisted
Duke, Vandy, UCLA, Cornell = rejected

Caucasian female. 34 ACT. Rigorous IB

Congratulations! Despite the tough cycle, I've seen quite a few USC acceptances from DMV. Any $?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DC was accepted to both UVA and VA Tech EA (4.6w FCPS, 1580 single sitting, 12 AP exams all 5s, NMF). Declined both acceptances this week, so hopefully someone from the waitlist can get in.

Why do you keep posting that his SAT was “single sitting?” It seriously does not matter. Schools don’t care.

It’s all a way to say my kid is better than yours. Single sitting, no prep, took it sophomore year, took it blindfolded. All a sad attempt to make their kid’s score mean more.

My kid checked off bubbles randomly - 1600, single sitting.