<p>Did anyone get into top tier schools with "Low" SSAT scores?</p>
<p>How “top tier”? How “Low”??</p>
<p>How about… “how low can you go?” … Seriously, what are some of the lowest scores that have still gotten an acceptance. Although, the “where” is also of interest…</p>
<p>70s? Low 80s? GLADCHEMMS or similar?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1300729-2012-clean-official-boarding-decisions-applicant-stats-ecs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1300729-2012-clean-official-boarding-decisions-applicant-stats-ecs.html</a></p>
<p>I thought I had been through most of this site, but I missed that one! Thanks.</p>
<p>Most boarding school applicants don’t post here (although they may be lurking and reading the threads). I’ve seen the trend that usually the high performing kids post here the most so the data is skewed because of the low sampling.</p>
<p>Still - the answer is yes - students with lower than “advertised norms” do get into top performing schools sometimes as low as in the 60’s. But it’s the exception, not the rule. Only one or two students out of hundreds. And if schools advertised that they’d be flooded with unqualified applicants.</p>
<p>So here’s the deal - another way to look at this is that a lot of students with top scores also get rejected? Why? Because their resumes are not strong enough or their personalities aren’t a good fit for the school, or there are too many other students in the pile with identical stats and boarding schools want a range and mix of ideas, experiences, geographical locations, etc.</p>
<p>Also, the one thing I can say for sure - is not all hard working, gifted kids do well on an artificial test of academic intelligence. And not all high scoring applicants are good students (motivated, proactive). Years ago I interviewed two students - one worked hard for every grade, didn’t have perfect scores, held a part time job to contribute to the household., started a club on campus. Understood that learning was a process and a journey. A classmate opened books before the test, had straight A’s and perfect test scores and bragged about how much a school would be lucky to have him. Didn’t seem to understand that the process of learning was as important as just taking the test and “acing it.” The first student was accepted, the second was rejected.</p>
<p>Take that as a lesson - you are more than just a test score and if you realize that - the schools will see it too.</p>
<p>So stop stressing on test scores - do the best you can and then BE the best student you can.</p>
<p>im at andover and i know kids with SSAT scores in the 60s and 70s. don’t worry about your SSAT, it’s not that important.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the average SSAT scores reported by a school in an AVERAGE. </p>
<p>Take Choate, for example. Its average SSAT score is in the mid-80th percentile. Some Choate students will have higher, some Choate students will have lower. That said, if your score is on the lower side, it would be best to have some other excellent attribute on your resume to offset it.</p>
<p>If your score is very, very low, then you should weigh the “fit” of the school and assess the likelihood of your academic competitiveness there should you enroll. Class rank matters; just getting admitted is not the only goal.</p>
<p>As an aside to this issue: I have heard that the newest version of the SSAT is much harder than in past years… and it is affecting the percentiles… </p>
<p>anyone else heard that? Or is that rumor…</p>
<p>It’d help them look past your SSAT scores if you’re a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>I got an 80% on the SSAT first time. I took it again in December but have not yet received my scores. Will this score alone make schools reject me?</p>
<p>A recruited athlete as in…?</p>
<p>I play two sports but am on JV freshman year for both. Not varsity. I am a solid athlete though. Will playing sports help my application even though I am not a “recruited” athlete?</p>
<p>I took the ssat in november and yes, it is said by most that it was much harder than before. My adviser said that had i taken last years test, I would have scored considerably higher.</p>
<p>Verbal 664
Math 671
Reading 658
Total 1971
Percentile (I took the test in China.) 45%</p>
<p>Estimated National Percentile (US)
Verbal: 88%
Math: 91%
Reading: 92%</p>
<p>What does this mean?
Do I have no chance of getting in a school? I mean, 45% is quite low isn’t it?</p>
<p>But which part of the SSAT does the schools look at? The national percentile or the total score?</p>
<p>I remember a discussion I had with the AO of a top 10 boarding school on this very question. He said that the School had admitted a student three years earlier with an 84% verbal and a “sub 40%” math SSAT. He said that while it was a rare admit, two members on his team had met the student and come away thinking “this kid is going to be a huge plus on campus, a leader.” There was no other hook, no legacy, no special athletic or musical ability, no special geography. It was a personality call.</p>
<p>Of course, I asked how he did and the AO was blunt. The student was always in the lowest Math section earning C’s with a lot of work, although he earned B’s in his humanities courses. He was beloved by the community however and “where good things happened, he was always in the middle of them, or the reason for them.” Evidently, as a freshman prefect, kids would always tell the AO, who was also the dorm master for freshman boys, that they wanted to be "just like [student]. </p>
<p>That story has always stuck with me. It’s probably tough in a huge school like Exeter or Andover to make one-off decisions like that (or even have the time to consider them). And like Exie said, the schools won’t advertise admitting someone with a low score. But it does happen. And, like the AO said to me, “he was worth a dozen kids who scored off the charts.”</p>
<p>But ask yourself if you want to be that kid, who is studying like crazy, barely pulling a C, and landing in the bottom of his class.</p>
<p>While he probably took pride in being an inspiration to his fellow students, he might have been better served to be in a school that was a better academic fit.</p>
<p>The sense I got from the AO is that the kid loved his experience and that the school benefited enormously. Like I said, he told me it was “rare.”</p>
<p>Today, that kid is a Fortune 500 CEO.</p>