Soph SAT Won't Hurt Yale Chances

Written by Sally Rubenstone | Jan. 3, 2014

Question: Hi, I’m currently a senior in high school who just submitted his application to Yale. When I was a sophomore, I was given the advice to take both the SAT1 and ACT as “trial runs” and then improve upon the test score of the exam that I like most. So I retook the ACT and managed to score a 33 composite. My subject test scores stand at a 760 (lit) and a 730 (chem). But with Yale’s no score choice policy, I also had to send in that sophomore year SAT 1 score in order to have the subject tests considered as well. So my question is: given that I have an ACT score that is much better than the SAT 1 score (which I only took once sophomore year), will the SAT1 score heavily impact my chances of admission or will the admission committee give greater credence to the ACT score? (Sorry for the length of this question haha; the issue was worrying me a little bit and I have seen others who are in similar positions worrying about this same thing)

The sophomore SAT score will not affect your admission decision. The Yale admission officials will use your better score (the ACT) and will realize that your SAT I score was from 10th grade.

Yale, as I’m sure you know, is a very tough nut to crack. So if you don’t get in, I assure you that it won’t be because the Yale admission folks saw that sophomore score.

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.

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Soph SAT Won't Hurt Yale Chances

Sally Rubenstone

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