1. For D3 high academic recruiting, when should I take the SAT/ACTs? The summer between junior and senior year I plan on heading off to academic showcases and such... so I figure I should have test scores available sometime before then?
2. In spring 2016 the new SAT is coming out... how will admissions be affected by that?
3. Some schools "superscore" the ACT and most allow score choice on the SAT. Is it common practice for baseball players to take advantage of this?
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My son a 2016 is taking the SAT spring of his Junior year and subject tests Fall of Senior year. The top academic schools require the subject tests (sat2), but check the schools you are interested in and and what you think you want to study in college as not every school accepts some of the subject tests and some schools require specific subject test see below for an example from MIT. there are probably 20 different subject tests available but MIT cares only about the 5 listed. this is an extreme example but most schools do have some similarities.
http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/tests
good luck
fenwaysouth is the resident high academic expert here, and he will probably have some great information for you. In the mean time...
A1. I will assume that you graduate in 2016. Ideally, you will have some target schools next fall, and you can find out which tests they will be accepting for your class. If no one will be accepting the old test, then you won't need to take it. I'm guessing some schools will take either or both. If that's the case, take them both and use the higher one. If you definitely need scores from the new test, consider taking it twice before the summer recruiting season. (Most people get a higher score on the second try.)
Also, make sure you look at the ACT. Many high academic schools will accept ACT as well.
A2. I don't know the answer to this one, but you will likely score higher (percentile) on one than the other. Hopefully, your schools of interest will take the higher score, but that will probably vary by school.
A3. Everyone (not just athletes) takes advantage of super score and score choice! You would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't.
My son is graduating this year and going to a high academic. He attended Headfirst between soph and junior years and hadn't taken the SATs yet. He didi well and got some positive followup from coaches but they said to let them know his scores ASAP. He took the SATs in Oct. and Dec. of his junior year and was able to send them to the coaches so they knew he would be a candidate to get admitted, not that he would get admitted but that he was a within the criteria of students that could get admitted. I think this helped him establish a good dialog with the coaches of schools he was interested in especially at the next Headfirst he attended between his junior and senior years. So to answer your questions
1.) IMO taken tests earlier can give you a leg up in getting to talk to coaches, especially when you go to academic showcase
2.) Hard to say
3. Most schools superscore so all students take advantage of it including baseball players.
good luck
If you may apply to schools that require SAT II (subject tests), a good target date for those is spring of Jr year, as you will just be finishing the classes that align with the tests (learned that while my daughter was going through the process). For my 2016 son he prepped for SAT all last summer and did very well fall of sophomore year. He will prep again this summer to take it again fall of junior year and will be done. Some of the high academic schools will need all your requirements complete before they can make an offer or give a likely letter, in that case you need your SAT and SAT II done before fall of senior year.
As for superscore - most schools will superscore SAT. The ACT may be superscored, but that wasn't the case at any of the schools my daughter investigated.
1) It depends on the school, and the leverage a particular D3 Coach may or may not have with Admissions during Early Decision. In some cases it is a great idea to have those scores ready, and in some cases not so much. I know some folks on this board that have taken the SAT very late and it didn't matter because ED1 was Nov 1 and ED2 was Dec 15. They had plenty of time If you were my son, I'd prefer to have them earlier because you don't want to be pressured in the Fall of the senior year, and you want to have as many options as possible. Senior year tends to be very busy with Unofficial Visits, Official Visits, SATS, AP classes, other sports & activities, etc.....Some D3 folks feel very comfortable committing early in the summer between senior year and others like to weigh as many options (mostly for financial reasons) as possible before the ED1 date. High academic schools tend to be need based financial aid, but any academic scholarships are mostly on a first come basis. So, in that regard it is best to be early as well.
2) It will have no affect on Admissions. They are still going to select the best candidates for their school based on their admission requirements.
3) This is something you need to ask the Coach. Some schools do and some schools don't.
Son just graduated from Swarthmore and works for HeadFirst over the summer. Take the tests as early as you can. With rare exception the schools will only look at your best score on each section at each seating ("superscore") and disregard the rest. SAT II's are more important than you think and more important than the schools will tell you to your face. Take them right after you've taken the respective school course (i.e. American History June Sophomore year, etc.). The Math SAT II's have higher value than the others especially for prospective science and engineering students. For high academic coaches, you really don't even exist without test scores and grades. Most importantly,you need to present a challenging course schedule. That's the starting point. Then baseball.
The Delta between SAT and ACT is usually small (90%) but unfortunately, since you don't know if your student is in the 10% with a significant difference, many high academic kids end up preparing for both and then taking both. This is a terrible system! 700 is your target for each section of the SAT. Scores above that stop helping (Son had a perfect verbal score and when a director of admissions told him that he didn't care, son was shocked and depressed). Over-testing doesn't help. Generally, after 2 sittings its time to admit, as Bill Parcells says, "you are, what your score says you are."
The writing section of the SAT was very subjective so most schools ignored it and looked for other evidence of writing skill. It is eliminated in the new test, but ignored in the old test. Don't worry about the new test; Adcom's are well prepared.
Hope that helps.
I lecture at an Ivy, played a sport at a Patriot, and kids played at high D3's so I can answer any academic questions you might have about the process.
Why is this? Why do they not communicate to students/families how important SAT IIs are?
Grade inflation in High School makes it more and more difficult to separate kids based on the rigor of their schedule and their grades. The schools are left to scour the record for evidence that the student can do college work. AP exams and subject tests represent unambiguous evidence. The process stinks but its the process there is. Grade inflation is the culprit.
Others may disagree but for us what worked was taking both the ACT and SAT. Both of my kids did well on the SAT but did markedly better on the ACT and that score factored in the scholarship equation. I would take them both before taking one twice.
We were told that the ACT benifited students stronger in math/science and SAT benifited those with stronger verbal skills. Our son took the ACT a few times and studied with a tutor and a prep class. The tutor was very benificial because they identified specific strengths/weakness and spent time targeting the weaknesses. Our son improved on his origional composite score by four total points with the help of the tutor. My advice would be, take it early to get a baseline score and find a really good tutor. I hope this helps!
Others may disagree but for us what worked was taking both the ACT and SAT. Both of my kids did well on the SAT but did markedly better on the ACT and that score factored in the scholarship equation. I would take them both before taking one twice.
This is the strategy that the college counselor at my son's HS recommends to all of the students.My son took the SAT & ACT in early February of his junior year.He scored higher on the ACT and took that test one more time in early June.I like this strategy and it works !
The fall of the senior school year is filled with all kinds of activities and deadlines.My son was glad he had already finished his testing.One less thing to deal with.
Good luck !
In this fictional situation...
low score on ACT
medium score on SAT, retaken to get high score on SAT
... won't the college still see the low ACT score?
No. They will only see what you direct the service to send.
Once you register for the test you get 4 free submissions of the scores to the schools that you designate. After that there is a charge to send them to schools.
So I believe if you took that option in some cases a school of your choice could receive all of the scores in this fictional case if you designated it to receive them.
Check on the individual school, but the ones my kids applied to accepted either SAT or ACT and took the highest of them.
I recommend taking the SATs as early as possible Jr. year. The student especially anyone going for high academic schools has covered all the test material well before that. You are not going to do better waiting.
1) You will get a feel for how well you do and you have time to take a review couse and work on improving before baseball season starts full speed in the winter and spring.
2) At least in our Area the leagues paly make up games and state playoffs on SAT days. They don’t care.
3) The Jr year is often the most challenging and the last one schools will be able to really make a decision based on the grads. It would be nice to throw up a good score or at least leave it to one section to work on.
I don’t think the change in the SAT will matter much. Most schools discount or don’t even consider the writing section. That’s why they are eliminating it.
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Early in the summer before your junior year figure out whether you will likely score higher on the ACT or SAT. During the summer before your junior year study for one or both of them. During the fall semester of your junior year, take the ACT and/or SAT. Do not wait for the spring tests because you may have to take the test again to achieve the score you need to gain admission to your target colleges. The spring tests may also be during your baseball season. At the end of your junior year, take the SAT II exams for classes that you have taken as a junior.
