<p>Most colleges, as I've heard, consider GPA to be of more importance than SAT I/II scores.
However, I've also heard some privates consider SAT to be more important than GPA;
are there any colleges that actually believe the latter?</p>
<p>Great question. I think they really work in conjunction with one another, particularly if grade inflation or deflation exists. Adcoms know which US schools (and which countries for that matter) have the easiest/toughest grading practices and the easiest/most rigorous workloads. GPA is probably the best indicator of an applicant’s discipline/desire in doing the classroom work but an SAT test measures their ability to learn. I cannot imagine that any colleges would use the test score over the GPA - or vice versa - “across the board”.</p>
<p>CalTech does SAT>GPA. Also, Princeton is known for placing high standards on test scores, more so than other elite universities.</p>
<p>^But pretty much all accepted applicants to Caltech have very high GPAs.</p>
<p>^^ I would say that Caltech does focus on scores but only because CalTech stresses the objective factors. GPA is almost always high and most applicants to such high caliber schools have high GPA but CalTech also makes sure SAT scores are very high. Caltech is either at the top or very close to the top in terms of average SAT scores of admits. However, EC’s and fit are also important.</p>
<p>A lot of state schools put heavier emphasis on the SAT/GPA compared to soft factors. Especially since the very large ones will most likely use the SAT as a cut-off point before using the GPA to further split the applicant pool int Admits and Rejections</p>