<p>If I were to get a 2400 on the SAT and a 36 on the ACT, would that essentially guarantee me admission into Caltech (or any other elite school, for that matter)?</p>
<p>I have almost no ECs, but have taken the absolute hardest, jampacked schedule my whole highschool career. My cumulative GPA is 3.80 unweighted and 4.233 weighted.</p>
<p>Would superb test scores discount terrible ECs?</p>
<p>
High SATs are a necessary but not sufficient condition for admission at Caltech and at many other top schools. </p>
<p>Specifically for Caltech, SATs give no indication of whether an applicant can survive core classes or whether he or she is truly passionate about science, both of which are probably the most important questions to answer for any applicant.</p>
<p>Right. We do turn down people with 2400/36 and a higher GPA than that. So no set of numbers will guarantee admission.</p>
<p>But if you get great math/science grades and got 5s on the APs...hint hint.</p>
<p>I grin everytime I see the word "guarantee" on these forums.</p>
<p>Would working on my school's website be an acceptable EC (would it be comparable to working on websites as a job)?</p>
<p>Yep, that would be pretty good.</p>
<p>When I was applying and (rather cheekily) asked the admissions office for the acceptance rate for perfect SAT scorers, they said around a third. It might be better or worse now given that the SAT is 2400 out of 1600 and that was seven years ago.</p>