a "good" SAT score
 

my son just received his SAT results from a test he took about 3 months ago, 1530 out of 1600 possible.
He's already taken the test again and is confident that he scored allot better on the second try. Maybe 1560-ish he says.

Taking the SATs like a game for the advanced kids at his school. They sign up to take it as often as possible (at $60 a pop).
That's a lot different from when I was in high school, but if it gets him a scholarship I say what the heck.

Good for him.

Clearly didn't get his brains from you.

Make sure he doesn't study to much. Don't want him to get "runned" down.

Many years ago my sister-in-law kept taking it until she got a perfect 1,600 score. It took her 3 times.

When I took it...never mind....

Congrats!

Sammy, same boat. My son just got his ACT back today 35/36. Hope that gets it done

My son is a good, hard working senior, football player who loves leaving school to go to Millstream career center, and work on cars, and shop projects. He has earned most of his ASE certifications, and has no real interest in going to a 4 year college, but would like to get into diesel tech....which I have no problem with. One of his senior classes in regular high school, was a SAT prep class, that was at the same time of the day as his time at the career center. He/we elected not to take the class, or the SAT test.

It's runned over, not runned down.

kanucks :rolleyes: :D

Did things change from 20 years ago?

I thought if you took the ACT/SAT twice, they took the higher of the two scores. If you took it more than that, they took the avergae score...

35 will get it done at any college in the country.

That's ok for most college applications, but some colleges require that all scores be reported (for example, all the UC schools). And they frown on test whores who take it 5+ times, esp. when the earlier scores are already very good.

Different schools handle it differently.

At a minimum, they take your single highest score.

But most schools "Superscore," which means they take your highest sections from ANY test date, add those together to get a score. So if you got a 600/700 on one test, then on another day got a 700/600, your score would be counted as a 1400.

They do that to try to game the U.S. News and other college ranking systems.

score means nothing. it's the speed of finishing with score. :D

The SAT is newly designed so there's no admissions data on it from the colleges yet.

But under the old system, a 1530 would translate into a 2295 out of 2400, which is very good. That would be above the average admitted student at any school in the country, including places like Harvard.

A 1560 would be around 75th percentile at the most selective schools, which is where a white kid from suburban California really needs to be.

College admissions at the most selective schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Williams, Amherst, etc.) is much different than it was 30 or even 20 years ago.

Places like that used to be bastions of white wealth and power. It's much different now.

25% or so of the class is now reserved for very low income, Pell Grant eligible students (from families with total income less than $50,000 and no assets).

15% reserved for Hispanic.

15% reserved for black.

10-30% (depending on the size of the school) will be recruited athletes.

10% will be legacies.

There will be some overlap (i.e., some students will fall into multiple categories), but as you can see, there's a lot of spots "gone" and not open to a white middle class kid who does not have a "hook" (recruited athlete, etc.)

How do you take the SAT 5 times?

You take it junior year right? And then apply for college at the end of junior year/beginning of senior year... right?

There are 6 or 7 different SAT test dates per year.

And most college applications are due mid-Senior year.

That's right, they don't ask for admissions info on the new tests where he could check the box for his ethnicity (Hispanic).

He's definitely not from a low income family, but he's not a white kid either as far as they are concerned.
He meets every requirement for "special consideration" because of his heritage.
It'll be up to him if he takes advantage of it.

There was a time when I would have discouraged it, but with all the reverse discrimination in the world today there has to be some way to level the playing field.

My son took the SAT 4 times.. He was trying to get to a certain number in each category to be accepted where he wanted to go. First time was a wash out, next he got what he needed in Math, but bombed the other two, then he got what he needed in English and on the final attempt, he got the Reading and Comprehension score he needed. They took the highest score of all four tests in each subject and the highest overall based on those highest scores from those 4 tests. Doesn't matter if you take it 20 times, that's how it works today.

It is great that you support your son in his choices but you really have to look long term in this case. That is a very hard road to take for the long term. 20 years from now when all of his white collar friends are off on Friday playing golf, he will be working 6 days a week trying to make a paycheck. Getting paid flat rate SUCKS.. and unlike most careers where the longer you are in a career or with a company, the more you get paid, with flat rate, the longer you are in it, the less and less and you will make and the harder it will be to make money as you get older. I certainly mean no disrespect but just telling it like it is from someone who has been down that road. Of course there are success stories also, but they really are a small percentage.

I can respect that decision. It's his life, and ultimately not your projection of his.
Diesel mechanics are in high demand. Either way. Most people have no idea what they want to do when they graduate HS. Better do something now then waste years figuring it out at 7 grand a semester at an uni.

Btw I bet he'll make more then a recent grad with a 4 year liberal arts degree.

Very nice score.

I'm not sure if people took it multiple times in my HS to get a high score, but it wouldn't surprise me. Pretty much every time it was taken, we'd have a handful of kids get perfect scores. I didn't study or prepare in any way. I did pretty well, not that well, but good enough to get in to just about any college.