I have low SAT scores, can I still go to college?

Folks, its only a test.  (You do know the College Board is making a profit from SAT takers, right?)  So the answer is YES! of course you can go to college... so what, you suck at taking the SAT.  There isn't a college admission officer alive who won't admit that SAT scores are not a valid predictor of how a student will do in college.  Even the College Board was forced to admit that high school GPA is the best predictor of college success, not the SAT.  That's right: GPA is the best predictor of college success.

Can you forget about your SAT scores?  Just blow them off?  No, colleges do look at them so you want to make sure you get the best score you can but please, keep it in perspective.   The higher your GPA the less your SAT scores matter.  If you have a solid GPA (3.5 or higher) you can be perfectly content with a mediocre SAT score (450-500 on each section) as it is your high school GPA that the colleges care the most about.  And don't forget the other college admissions factors:  what else you've been doing with your time (composing music, becoming an Eagle Scout, working to help support your family, etc) and those impressively hard Advanced Placement classes you've been taking.  These factors all work together to boost you into the college of your dreams.

If you aren't great at the SAT: make yourself great at something else and colleges will be bending over backwards to admit you.

Taking the SAT

My most important comment about the SAT is the timing for taking the SAT.  The SAT should be taken before the end of the junior year.  Juniors should start taking the SAT during the second semester while they are deeply engaged in math, lab science, and English literature classes as this is the moment when they will be most acadmically prepared.  Waiting for the summer to pass by and taking the SAT in October of the senior year will cause a decline in their SAT scores unless they have dedicated their summer vacation to serious SAT prep.  Furthermore, it is important to recognize that seniors will have too much to do with college and scholarship applications to give serious energy to maximizing their SAT scores.

On a related note, students can take the SAT as often as they want in an attempt to get a better score.  Colleges do not frown upon repeated attempts but rather see such diligence as a sign of seriousness.  Colleges will simply count the best score.  It does not matter if the best score was the first attempt or the last attempt.  Really.