SAT data shows where Conn. students applied to college
As current high school seniors in Connecticut and the U.S. anxiously await university decisions, College Board has released its data on where the high school class of 2022 sent its SAT scores.
The College Board releases annual state breakdowns of SAT performance that also analyze which universities students send their scores to and which majors they apply to when they send their scores.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most colleges and universities in the U.S. required students to send either an SAT or ACT test score to apply. However, several institutions dropped the requirement amid pandemic complications to large-scale test taking. Since then, many either have revised their testing requirements or dropped them altogether. Because of this — and the fact that some students choose to take other standardize test, the ACT — where SAT scores are sent may not fully represent where Connecticut high schoolers actually applied to college.
Out of the 43,520 high school graduates from the Nutmeg State in 2022, 89 percent of them took the SAT. Of these 38,903 students from Connecticut who took the SAT, 18,703 designated that their score reports be sent to institutions. For these students, one university stood out as the most popular to send their SAT scores to: University of Connecticut.
UConn received 41 percent of the sent scores, 66 percent more than the next most popular college — Central Connecticut State University. In fact, the top four colleges that Connecticut high school seniors sent scores to were all within the Nutmeg State, with the fifth most popular school being in Rhode Island.
Not only was UConn the favorite among Connecticut high schoolers, other East Coast states showed interested as well. Massachusetts had the second-highest rate of seniors who sent SAT scores to UConn at 9.4 percent.
Rhode Island had 5.1 percent, New Hampshire had 4.9 percent, both Maine and New York had 4.2 percent,.
Connecticut students sent SAT scores to over 2,500 colleges and universities; the above list of schools only reflects where a notable amount of scores were sent. Of the top 44 schools, about 51 percent are private institutions and 49 percent are public.
Just under 22 percent of Connecticut seniors who sent SAT scores sent them to Ivy League institutions. Connecticut came in at No. 13 out of the 50 states for its rate of seniors that applied to Ivy League schools in 2022. Minnesota came in at No. 1 for this category, having 35.5 percent of seniors’ SAT scores sent to Ivy League schools.
College Board’s data also shows Connecticut high school seniors’ intended college major. The greatest percentage (16 percent) of students listed their major as “Undecided,” and “Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services” came in at No. 2 with 14 percent.
As shown by the SAT data, Connecticut students applied to majors with a preference in business and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and less interest in what is commonly referred to as Liberal Arts studies.
The SAT data does not include where these seniors were accepted to school nor where they attend now. However, for those who enrolled, the class of 2022 is now in the middle of its first year of college. Now, the class of 2023 will be awaiting decisions as they begin to roll out beginning in March, with final decisions due to universities due by May 1.