The SAT 2 Subject Tests are a series of about 20 exams that the CollegeBoard uses to test your aptitude on individual subjects (as opposed to the SAT which only tests your general ability in math, reading, and writing). They cover almost all the standard subjects you would take in high school: math, English, history, foreign language, and the sciences. The tests are an hour in length and are entirely multiple-choice.
Which ones should you take?
As I’ve mentioned before, getting into an Ivy League college requires more than just high test scores. The choice of the tests themselves are equally (if not more) important than the scores you get on them. If you want to portray yourself as a promising future engineer, taking the SAT 2 in Math I or II along with the SAT 2 in Physics would be considerably more effective than taking the SAT 2 in US History and Spanish – even if you would score higher on the second pair of exams. The reverse holds true if you want the opposite image.
Some of the colleges even require that you take specific exams. For example, the application to Cornell’s Engineering School requires one SAT 2 in math and one in science. Some colleges like Harvard requires three SAT 2s. Check your college’s application requirements before you take your SAT 2s. Obviously, you need to make sure that you take all of the required ones.
After you figure out which ones are required, think about which subjects you do the best in at school. Prime candidates for SAT 2 subjects are those you are taking honors or AP classes in. You can even save some time studying by taking the SAT 2 right after taking the AP exam or final exam so the information is still fresh in your mind.
Another tip to keep in mind is to spread out your SAT 2s. While you can technically take up to three exams on a given day, it is extremely exhausting and stressful to do so – and that would take its toll on your performance. Taking two exams is fine as long as you have confidence in your ability in both of those subjects. For the subjects that you are not so sure about, don’t try to pair them up with anything else. This way, you can devote your full attention to that subject in the days building up to the exam.
It is also worth pointing out that it is not worth taking an SAT 2 in a foreign language if you are native to that language. This is especially true for Chinese and Korean (which is given by their high 750+ averages and extremely low standard deviation). You’re better off saving your money and just mention somewhere else on your application that you are fluent in those languages and only take what really matters. But if you had to learn these languages (or the others) from scratch in high school, feel free to take the SAT 2 once you feel confident.
Finally, always remember to come to the test room prepared. Make sure you have taken a practice exam at least once or twice so you know all the directions and how to pace yourself during the test. Sleep well the night before and have a hearty breakfast in the morning.
In the countries of Eastern Asia, such as China, Japan, and Korea, your admission to a college is comprised of a single test. Every school has its own entrance exam and your score on that exam determines entirely whether you are in, or out. That’s it, one exam. If you miss a school’s cutoff by one point, they’ll tell you, “Sorry, better luck somewhere else.” It does not matter whether you were valedictorian of your high school or one of the bottom-dwellers—as long as your score was above, you’re in; lower, you’re out.
Fortunately (or unfortunately for the lazy) college admissions in the United States are much more personal and comprehensive. In the United States, colleges consider everything you have done in your years of high school: your standardized exams, grades, extracurricular activities, jobs, volunteer work, research projects, recommendations, and essay are all part of the equation.
Colleges know that some people might just be bad test takers and would gladly accept you if the other parts of your portfolio reflect that you are a bright and motivated individual. A subpar SAT score would not discredit the rest of your hard work.
On the other hand, this also increases the confusion on how much emphasis is placed on these standardized exams when admission officers look at your applications. Since the SAT is only one variable in the equation, it is hard to know how much effort you should put into prepping for that exam. Would your effort be better spent on, for example, volunteering or improving your essay?
The truth is, the SAT is important—up to a certain point. The majority (read: over half) of the applicants to the Ivy League have a combined SAT of 2100 or higher. Clearly, you need other things in order to catch the attention of the top colleges.
You can view your score on the SAT as your first impression to the college:
- A high 2350+ SAT score would give a great first impression to the admission officer reading your application and they would probably grant you acceptance if the rest of your application lives up to that expectation.
- A below-2100 SAT would give them a worse impression so you would need to work harder on the rest of your application in order to change that opinion of you. Note that it is never too late to change their mind no matter how low your score is (unless you fall below the 25 percentile, at which point you should consider retaking).
- But for the majority of us who fall within the 2100-2300 range, the SAT gives you as good of an impression as most other applicants and would not put you at any disadvantage. At this point, what you need to do is stand out in other ways (like scoring well on the SAT 2s).
So what does this all mean to your strategy to college admissions?
It just means that you should not worry too much about your SAT score once you go above the 2100 range. Past a certain point, the Ivy League colleges know that the difference in ability between you and the next applicant cannot be fully portrayed as a single number. Instead of spending more time and money on SAT test prep, your efforts would be much better spent applying for an internship over the summer or getting that leadership position in a club you are passionate about.
That way, the school knows that you are more than just a number.
Why do some kids with 2400 SATs and 4.0 GPAs get rejected from Harvard while others with 2100s and 3.8s get accepted? Why do colleges ask about your club activities, community service, and hobbies in the application process? How come minorities, athletes, and students with legacy have an easier time getting in?
What kind of students are the Ivy League colleges really looking for? What kind of students get into the Ivy League?
Imagine, for a second, that you are the president of a large corporation. What kind of employees do you look for when recruitment season comes along? Would you spend money paying for another computer programmer even when you already have forty of them? Or would you be more willing to hire a janitor to fill the shoes of the one who just retired?
Similarly, would you rather hire someone who has over twenty-five years of experience in graphic design or someone who has done a little of graphic designing, computer programming, and cleaning in his previous jobs?
Finally, as the president of the company, would it be more profitable to make acquaintance with a potential long-term investor or a world-famous taster of fine wine?
Despite their appearance, at the very core, every private college is a business entity. Every college needs a steady flow of tuitions, donations, and branding to stay successful. Therefore, they all have to make the same decisions as any other business during their recruitment season.
When plowing through the enormous stack of applicants, Ivy League colleges look for three traits in a student: uniqueness, passion, and value.
Uniqueness 
Every college wants a diverse student body. Colleges do not need an army of students with high SATs and perfect GPAs with few other achievements or hobbies. Every student who is accepted into an Ivy League college fills a different role in the incoming class. Colleges want their students to learn from each other. As long as someone has enough uniqueness that lets him or her stand out from the rest of the applicants in some way, the college would want that student.
But how can you possibly separate yourself from the rest of the 150,000 Ivy League applicants this year? Do you need to be an Intel STS Finalist to get into Harvard? Do you need to be a National Speech and Debate champion to be accepted to Dartmouth? Do you need to be in the National Math Olympiad to get into Princeton? Do you need to be an award-winning pianist to get into Yale?
Of course you don’t! The students described above would certainly be high on the colleges’ lists but that does not mean that you cannot also stand out. Colleges do not only want students who are the best in one area. They also want students who are good at several areas. As long as the set of traits you possess have not already been fulfilled by someone else in the applicant pool, even Ivy League colleges would pay attention to you.
For this reason, being an athlete or minority also increases the set of traits you possess and helps you stand out from the rest of the pool. Their inclusion adds to the overall diversity of the entire student body.
So the first thing to keep in mind when you are applying to Ivy League colleges is to show them all the major facets of your life. Tell them about the set of skills, experiences, and traits you have that would be impossible to find in any other student in the country. Do you ballroom dance, play the tuba, head the debate team, and speak German AND Russian? Great, the Ivy League wants you ;) We’re all unique in our own ways because of the way we were brought up. Tell colleges what you have to add to the diversity of their incoming class. But also be wary of listing down everything you know or everything that has ever happened in your life. Colleges like their students to be diverse but they also want to see passion.
Passion/Focus 
It is good for a student to have varied interests. It is bad, however, for a student to have varied interests with no clear focus. You have to show passion for the things you do. It should be clear to the colleges, after skimming through your application, of one or two main themes that pervade through your class choices, activities, and achievements.
If you want to show a passion for math, for example, you should mention the math competitions you participated in, courses you took over the summer on math, and research you had done in the fields of math. Take honors and college-level classes in math. Take the math SAT 2s and APs. Get a recommendation from your math teacher. Etc, etc. You want the college to be able to recognize you as “a math guy.” Only after you have established at least one such title should you begin to consider adding secondary and tertiary subtitles (e.g. “a math guy who plays soccer” or “a math girl who had worked at a pet shelter for three years”).
Activities you don’t show passion for would not add anything to your application and would only dilute the legitimate passions you do have. This is a problem that I see with many of the rejected students. 2100 SAT, 3.7 GPA, 680 SAT2 US History, 700 Biology, 650 Spanish, National Honors Society, worked a library for a summer, member of math team, and member of debate team.
Impressive? Maybe, but this is not the profile of an Ivy Leaguer. Sure, this student might have pretty nice numbers and participates in many activities, but he or she does not show passion for anything in particular. Colleges would not be able to give the student a title (except maybe a “a student with above average stats and ordinary clubs”). Without passion, you would not get a meaningful title from the college that would allow you to stand out from the crowd.
On the other hand, if you have developed your passion significantly enough, college could even promote you from just “a math guy” to “the math guy” or “the guy who does math, sings, and speaks German.” It is at this stage when the Ivy League college seriously considers your application and assesses your potential value for the school.
Value
We have to remember that at the very core of an Ivy League institution is a business entity. By considering whether to accept you, the college is deciding whether to make an investment in you. They are betting on whether, after you graduate, you will become successful and donate back to the school or make your name known and increase the school’s prestige. They have to consider your potential future value after granting you a seat on their campus.
This is the reason why students with legacy are taken priority over normal applicants. Colleges know that students with legacy have a higher chance of living up to their parents’ performance than someone without legacy (which brings less risk to the college’s investment). Families with legacy are also, of course, more likely to give a donation to the school. That is why students with legacy have very high value for the college.
But for the rest of us without legacy, how can we increase our value to the school? Simple: we show them our worth.
We have to show colleges that, even in high school, we are capable of holding a job or becoming distinguished. Specialized jobs and internships are a good way to show that you are mature enough to handle a position in the “real world.” Winning competitions and performing research can also show that you can uphold the college’s prestigious image.
One of my friends in high school took a hobby in creating Internet games—and he got really good at it. In fact, he was so good that several companies even offered to license his games for upwards of a thousand dollars each. His grades and standardized test scores were mediocre (in the ballpark of 2050 SAT and 3.8 GPA), but his ability to monetize from his hobby was a very attractive trait to universities. Therefore, it was no surprise that when December came, he was accepted early decision to his dream school: Cornell.
A final note on your college applications is to always tell the truth. Never fabricate any information on them, no matter how minor you think they are. If you have something you know would fit very well on your application and would make you stand out from the rest, you have to put in the effort to make that a reality.
Remember, the Ivy League colleges, like all private colleges, are businesses in essence. They do not only look at your numbers but they also want to know the person behind the numbers. How are you unique from the thousands of applicants with similar stats? How have you shown your passion for doing what you love? And how have you shown that you can use that passion to benefit the future of the school?
Colleges need to know what you can give back to the school if they give you a seat in exchange. Their seats are, after all, limited.
Welcome to my blog on How to Get into the Ivy League Colleges.
The fact that you have stumbled upon this page means that you either are or have a student who is interested in attending one of the 8 most elite universities in the United States: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell. You want to have a wonderful future full of opportunities after graduating from the most exclusive colleges in the country, and perhaps even the world.
But you also know that admission into one of these colleges is not an easy task. With acceptance rates dropping every year to even single digit percentages, you feel that your bright future is slipping away. You hear all sorts of things from all sorts of books, friends, brochures, and counselors on what you should and should not do. “Just be yourself,” “show your passion,” “take the SAT in March,” “volunteer,” “work,” “join clubs,” “apply early decision,” etcetera, etcetera. With the overload of so much (contradicting) advice, you don’t know which ones to follow and who to believe.
What you will find in this blog is simply the truth about the college admissions process from the point of view of a student who has been through the entire experience, and has seen many others who have also been through the same experience.
I can tell you which strategies have worked for us, and what ones have not. I graduated from an elite high school where 1 in every 4 students (of a class size of 800) goes to an Ivy League college. Being in such close interaction with so many friends who are also attending top colleges, I can tell you which habits and which decisions will get you there too. I will tell you all about the SATs, the SAT 2s, the grades, the essays, the recommendations, the volunteer hours, and the interviews and what is the best way to approach each one.
In hindsight, I sometimes wish that I had known all this information when I was still a high school junior who was just about to devote his next two years to this confusing process of college applications. I always regret the enormous time and effort I have wasted doing the wrong things and so little time spent on the right things.
Nonetheless, here I am, writing from the library of Columbia University, so that you won’t make the same mistakes I had. In the upcoming weeks, I will be putting all these thoughts and experiences down on paper (well…on your screen) in this blog. I hope that will take at least some weight off your shoulders.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season! =)
The SAT 2 Subject Tests are a series of about 20 exams that the CollegeBoard uses to test your aptitude on individual subjects (as opposed to the SAT which only tests your general ability in math, reading, and writing). They cover almost all the standard subjects you would take in high school: math, English, history, foreign language, and the sciences. The tests are an hour in length and are entirely multiple-choice. 
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