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Should Soph With Good Score Retake SAT?

Written by Sally Rubenstone | June 9, 2012

Question: My son has a remarkably good SAT score from the test that he took in his sophomore year. Does he need to take more SAT's and/or ACT's to show that he can get a perfect 2400 and/or 36 for colleges like Ivy League schools?

It’s hard to answer this one without knowing what “remarkably good” actually means. But I’m guessing that you’re taking about above 750 in all three areas. Correct? If so, and if he were MY son, I’d want him to save some time (and some dough,) so I’d tell him not to re-test.

Note, however, that your son still needs to take Subject Tests, which you haven’t mentioned. Most of the “elite” colleges require two of them. But, at the more hyper-selective places, your son’s “competition” will include many students who have shown off their strengths in a broad swath of subjects by submitting scores for more than the mandatory two. So even if your son does not take the SAT Reason Test or the ACT in his junior and senior year, he should take as many Subject Tests as he feels comfortable trying.

(posted June 9, 2012)

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.