<p>Top schools always say they dont care about ACT or SAT scores too much.
I would like to see proof of this, so are there any statistics showing, for example: 15% of students with a 26 on ACT got accepted, etc?</p>
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<p>This is a pretty fast and loose interpretation of what they say, and one that could be very misleading if you take it to heart. There are no official test score cut-offs and it is not the most important or only factor, but that doesn’t mean they “don’t care” about scores, they do. Don’t forget that test scores are one of the factors used for rankings like US N&WR. If you look at the 25:75 ranges for schools, the more selective schools also have the higher ranges.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any data for Y, but here is B:</p>
<p>[Brown</a> Admission: Facts & Figures](<a href=“Undergraduate Admission | Brown University”>Undergraduate Admission | Brown University)</p>
<p>The great line I heard many years ago from a senior Yale admissions person was this:</p>
<p>“How much weight do we put on SAT scores? It’s hard to be precise, but it’s a lot less than you think and somewhat more than we say publicly.”</p>
<p>My sense, based on the Brown data and other selective schools that publish similar data, is that high scores are definitely correlated with admission rate, but that the highest scores maybe reach a 20-25% admission rate (i.e., lots of people still get rejected) and admission rates drop very sharply as scores drop. It’s hard to believe that pattern would exist if scores really didn’t matter at all. But it’s also clear that something or things, lots of them, besides scores matter a lot. (It’s also clear, by the way, that the higher your scores, the more likely you are to be admitted to multiple highly selective colleges. Look at the differences in yield rate for admitted students in the Brown data.)</p>
<p>Remember, there’s a correlation/causation question here. The fact that very high scorers get admitted at a higher rate doesn’t mean that they are getting admitted at a higher rate because they have very high scores. It may mean that very high scores are highly correlated with a complex of other factors that determine admissions results, including grades, challenging schedules, what teachers say about you, how well you express yourself, and what you have been able to accomplish. Merely having high scores probably does not get you anywhere, but having the whole package and looking like a great candidate for admission may mean that you are likely to have relatively high scores, too.</p>
<p>Thank you for the perfect responses!
You guys are truly awesome people, thank you.</p>
<p>JHS’ comments are excellent – there is a correlation between test scores and admission, but the direction of causality is not easy to deciper. </p>
<p>In response to your questions about stats, here’s info I posted in an earlier message:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It also stands to reason that since Yale’s overall admission rate is under 8% it is not likely they will admit 15% of students with ACT = 26.</p>
<p>You want stats? Here you go:</p>
<p>A. SAT Percentile Distribution, Matriculants </p>
<p>Percentile 10th: 25th: 50th: 75th: 90th
Verbal 650: 700: 740: 790: 800
Math 660: 700: 760: 800: 800
Writing 660: 710: 750: 790: 800</p>
<p>B. SAT Critical Reading</p>
<p>Score: Number of Applicants: Number of Admits: Number of Matriculants: Rate of Admission</p>
<p>below 500: 587: 2: 1: 0.3%
500-590: 2250: 27: 23: 1.2%
600-690: 6617: 318: 227: 4.8%
700-750: 6964: 675: 428: 9.7%
760-800: 5359: 800: 472: 14.9%</p>
<p>C. SAT Mathematics</p>
<p>Score: Number of Applicants: Number of Admits: Number of Matriculants: Rate of Admission</p>
<p>Below 500: 409: 0: 0: 0.0%
500-590: 1565: 19: 17: 1.2%
600-690: 5981: 288: 224: 4.8%
700-750: 5658: 466: 319: 8.2%
760-800: 8164: 1049: 591: 12.8%</p>
<p>D. SAT Writing</p>
<p>Score: Number of Applicants: Number of Admits: Number of Matriculants: Rate of Admission</p>
<p>Below 500: 521: 2: 1: 0.4%
500-590: 1999: 29: 27: 1.5%
600-690: 6239: 266: 187: 4.3%
700-750: 6461: 551: 361: 8.5%
760-800: 6556: 974: 575: 14.9%</p>
<p>E. ACT Percentile Distribution, Matriculants</p>
<p>Percentile 10th: 25th: 50th: 75th: 90th
Composite score 29: 31: 33: 35: 35</p>
<p>Middle 50% between these ranges</p>
<p>Test 25th % 75th%
SAT Critical Reading 700 800
SAT Math 710 790
SAT Writing 710 800
SAT Essay
ACT Composite 32 35</p>
<p>SAT
78% CriticalReading scores were between 700-800
79% SAT Math were between 700-800
79% SAT Writing were between 700-800</p>
<p>Data set online didn’t include SAT2s.
Varibles on scores will include those who have English as a second, third or fourth language etc…</p>
<p>By the way, my stats above are for Class of 2015 Yalies. I didn’t clarify that.</p>
<p>Are there any stats for the composite CR+M+W score ?</p>
<p>That would be a somewhat useful compilation but unfortunately, no. That’s not broken down for us.</p>
<p>It would be useful as long as it reflected some intentional work on the part of the Yale admissions office. I know many places effectively discount the W portion of the test. I don’t know exactly what Yale does, but I doubt it is accorded as much weight as the other portions of the SAT I, or as many other numbers that might appear on an application. I suspect that a 1600-scale composite would be more interesting and relevant than a 2400-scale composite.</p>
<p>At the University of Chicago the score doesn’t even appear on the data sheet that admissions officers work from. Now, doubtless, there is a distribution of SAT I-W scores among Chicago admittees, and it probably even looks like a normal bell curve, but it would be misleading as a guide to admission probability.</p>
<p>To T26E4:</p>
<p>Those are interesting numbers. It would appear that 1,822 of the 2,073 admitted reported SAT scores, as did 1,151 of the 1,351 who matriculated.</p>
<p>This means that the overall yield rate for those who took the SAT’s and supplied scores was 63.2%, but that the yield rate was 79.7% for the 200 of 251 admits who matriculated, but who did NOT submit SAT scores!</p>
<p>(The overall yield for the Class of 2015, reported to date, seems to have been 65.2%)</p>
<p>Who do you suppose these 251 admits, and 200 matriculants, were who did NOT submit SAT scores?</p>
<p>I would assume those 251 admits and 200 matriculants who did not submit SAT scores took the ACT, but will be interested to hear T26E4’s response.</p>
<p>Somebody jokingly emailed me that with a 79.7% yield rate they must have been full-pay international admits!</p>
<p>But maybe T26E4 should just recheck his sources for accuracy or completeness.</p>
<p>I see that by the numbers he reports there were 21,777 Class of 2015 applicants who took the SAT test. </p>
<p>This only amounts to a bit under 80% of the 27,283 applications that Yale reports it received for the class of 2015. </p>
<p>Usually Yale has claimed that a far higher fraction of its applicants have taken the SAT test.</p>
<p>Gibby’s conclusion would be logical as far as I can tell. My guess is the 200/251 were those who solely submitted ACTs. Remember, some may have submitted both – and these would be part of the 1822 number.</p>
<p>Nothing surprising here though, IMHO.</p>
<p>^^^ My son, who is a current freshman at Yale, submitted both SAT and ACT scores. I imagine many more kids did the same, with a lesser number submitting just the ACT.</p>
<p>Interesting, if true, that only 79%+ of Class of 2015 applicants submitted SAT scores, since the CDS form for the Class of 2014 reports that 89% of applicants reported SAT scores. <a href=“http://www.yale.edu/oir/cds.pdf[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/oir/cds.pdf</a></p>
<p>Also it is hard to believe that the yield rate was over 79% for those Class of 2015 admits who only took the ACT test.</p>
<p>It would be helpful if you could get clarification on these numbers. They seem surprising to me, even if they don’t to you.</p>
<p>I would rather suspect that the non-SAT-taking fraction of the class includes a number of international admits, and possibly applicants recruited for Yale through programs such as ConnectEDU, etc. which, by their nature, ensure that almost all applicants in the program who apply will be admitted based on a prior commitment to enroll.</p>
<p>[How</a> a Match.com for Students Could Make College Admissions Obsolete - Craig Powell - Business - The Atlantic](<a href=“How a Match.com for Students Could Make College Admissions Obsolete - The Atlantic”>How a Match.com for Students Could Make College Admissions Obsolete - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>While 89% of applicants submitted SAT scores, 32% submitted ACT scores – so there is a bit of an overlap. Much may depend on which scores Yale decided to use when reporting data from kids who submitted both tests. For example, if a student submitted both SAT and ACT scores, but his ACT score was higher than his SAT, how does Yale report that information on the CDS? Does the student get put into the ACT pile because his score was higher? Or, as T26E4 suggested, does the student get put into the SAT pile because he submitted both scores.</p>