Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates in Maine -- fantastic school, and test optional.

zero name recognition thus zero cachet. give it a pass, op.

Don't listen to this comment OP. Anyone who knows anything about colleges knows that Bates is a fine school and highly selective. There seems to be a bias against liberal arts colleges on DCUM and in D.C. area in general. Not everyone wants to go to a school that spends all their resources on athletics and not everyone wants to go to a school with hundreds of students in each class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That is all relative. 600 is low if you are looking at selective colleges. My DC scored in the low 600s and the counselor recommended against sending scores to the score optional schools to which DC applied. Luckily the ACTs went better.

The scores are not relative at all. Some scores are above average and others are below average. See what the College Board says the numbers mean:

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percentile_Ranks_2011.pdf

What colleges a student decides to apply to after getting the scores is a completely different question.

It all depends on what group you're comparing to. The scores would be low compared to students who are typically accepted to these colleges; it's hard to argue with that statement.