Response to Britt on SAT retakes

Posted by Dee

AdmitSpit received the following comment from Britt today on the post titled, “Typical SAT scores for specific top schools.”

“I need help. Is it wise to repeat SAT in January? I got a good math score but my critical reading was below 600 but above 500. I want to go into a mathematical based field. Please help me before I register to do it over. I want to go Columbia.”

I think Britt’s comment dances around the essential question: under what circumstances should I retake the SAT?

My answer to this is, if you think you can score higher AND you want to score higher, retake!

It’s that simple, I believe. I scored a 2230 on my SAT the first time I took it, and for me, while I think I could’ve scored higher, I did not really want to score higher. Both parts are essential to deciding whether or not to retake.

What I mean by “I did not really want to score higher” is that the idea of sitting in the designated SAT administration classroom for four hours did not, for me, outweigh

When to know if you’re accepted early

Posted by Dee

It’s December, which means that results from early admissions will be back soon enough.

Again, there seems to be no comprehensive list anywhere on the Internet that compiles the dates when each of the top schools report their decisions for early admissions, so I created one! The name of each school, along with the date you should expect a response and any special notes are provided. This data was taken from each college’s admissions Web site.

Brown: Early Decision applications decisions mailed “mid-december” 2006.

CIT: Early Action application decisions mailed “mid-december.”

Columbia University: Early Decision application decisions mailed “mid-december.” You will either be accepted, in which case you must accept the offer of admission unless financial reasons release you from the ED agreement, deferred, or rejected