Does NYU Require SAT Subject Tests?
The “Dean" didn't find the NYU testing instructions “obscure" but maybe that's why I've got the fancy title. 😉 You can find the NYU test requirements here: http://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/apply/freshmen-applicants/instructions/standardized-tests.html
You will see that NYU is (mercifully) a “test flexible" college, meaning that candidates are given a variety of test-submission options. SAT Subject Tests are NOT required by students who fulfill one of the other options. These other options are:
The SAT Reasoning Test; or
The ACT with Writing Test; or
Three AP exam scores; or
The International Baccalaureate Diploma; or
Three IB higher-level exam scores (if you are not an IB Diploma candidate)
Note that if you are submitting AP, IB, or Subject Test results instead of the SAT I or ACT, there are some rules that govern which tests you must send. Those are explained on the page cited above.
Students educated abroad may also have the option of submitting results from an approved national examination. These are listed on the Web page cited above, too.
So, if you have already taken SAT Subject Tests and are pleased with your scores on THREE of them, you can use these scores as your test-flexible choice but, otherwise, you are not expected to send Subject Tests to NYU.
Hope that ends your confusion!
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.