
The bottom line is: don’t let a school’s testing policies dissuade you, especially if you have a score that aligns with that of their accepted students, or if you have a profile demonstrating your ability to succeed at that school. Schools using holistic admissions will also give great weight to the more qualitative components of your application, such as essays and extracurriculars. While students with stronger scores might have a leg up on the competition, it’s not unheard of for applicants with lower scores to still be accepted. If you want to apply to one of these schools, then go for it, regardless of their testing policies. Should I Apply to Schools that Require All Test Scores?Īt the end of the day, your test profile is only one component of the application. For advice on whether to invest additional time and effort on improving your SAT score, read our blog post, Should You Retake the SAT? But if your score is already in or above the middle 50% range for the schools on your list, you may want to dedicate your time to other endeavors.

The higher your score, the greater the boost it will give to your application. If you want to improve your score and haven’t taken the SAT more than three times, you might consider retaking the test. If you have this many SAT scores, consider applying to schools that allow score choice. It also indicates that you have not been spending your time wisely, choosing to sit for the SAT instead of investing in your community. Taking the SAT this many times suggests that you have not applied yourself. The biggest red flag for schools is seeing more than three SAT scores on your record, especially if there is no upward trend in the scores. Showing a positive score trend across two or three SAT sittings actually suggests that you have determination and are willing to push yourself to succeed. In reality, schools will not be disappointed to see a low SAT score on your record if you eventually raised your score. Many students worry that sending in multiple test scores dooms their college applications.

Send scores if you have them (we strongly recommend still taking the SAT/ACT and submitting scores if they’re in the school’s middle 50% range students who don’t submit scores are generally admitted at a lower rate than those who do send results). Send only your stronger test scores (usually the single sittings with your highest individual section scores).When it comes to sending standardized test scores, each school usually adopts one of three policies:

The answer depends, as some schools may not request your entire testing record. If you’ve taken the SAT multiple times, you may wonder what schools will think of your scores.
