<p>I obtained an SAT score of 1700 last year. When I told students what I got they all looked down and say that it's too average and that I won't get accepted to any high ranked colleges, which hurts my self-esteem. I took rigorous courses in high school. Despite not getting straight As I did pretty well on the AP exams: 5 in ap physics, 4 in ap calc BC and 5 in ap chem and 5 in ap lit. Should I be upset about my sats score ? Are sats really good predictors of college success and intelligence ?</p>
<p>The sat’s are a good predictor of college performance in the aggregate. What this means is that in very large samples sizes (let say 50,000) increasingly higher scores on Sat’s are associated with better academic success in college. While this is statistically true there are many other factors that would (may not be easily measured in large samples) be important in considering college success. One key attribute is motivation, another might be willingness to work hard, another might be ability to adjust to new environments, …family support might be another variable.
In your specific case, you have demonstrated that you can do difficult college level work based on your AP performance and scores. You should take pride in this accomplishment.
You must also realize that most of the top colleges utilize these test scores (sat’s) as screening indicators to help them decide who to admit( a daunting task when you realize that places like Harvard, Yale and Princeton receive tens of thousands of well qualified applicants for a thousand or so openings.<br>
Also keep in mind that there are some outstanding colleges and universities that have recognized the limitations of the sat scores and do not require them to be submitted…Bowdoin and Bates are two that come to mind…for a more complete list try googling …top colleges not requiring sat’s.
The most important take away from the above is that you are a very solid academic record for 99 percent of colleges and universities in the US. You should be very proud of this and proud of yourself. The last one percent, the most competitive of the most competitive colleges, do take sat scores into account with the exceptions you can find. and for these few, sat score are in the range of 2200 and above. So you can either take the exams again, find outstanding schools that don’t require sat and or apply one of the outstanding schools that fit your overall profile. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Go to fairtest.org for a comprehensive list of test-optional schools. Many great schools now believe that SAT scores are NOT the best predictor of college success, and are providing options to those students who feel their standardized test scores don’t reflect their true ability. Some schools will ask for an extra essay, or an extra letter of recommendation. Wake Forest University was one of the first well-known schools to go test-optional, and their admissions blog has some great articles on the subject.</p>
<p>All of the data would indicate that these tests are NOT great predictors of college success. The fact that you can raise your score by 200 points by spending big $$ on test prep tells you that the playing field is not level. They also don’t measure passion or commitment. Think BIG and work HARD and you’ll do great!</p>
<p>Somewhat, I don’t think so though, some people I know did bad on those standardized tests but still graduate at the top of their class and actually learn something.</p>