At what point do SATs not matter for top 20 schools?

Test Preparation
1

<p>will a 2350 be valued over a 2300 or a 2250, etc? Is there a cutoff over which the score no longer counts, or does every point matter? There is so much variance between sittings at 2300+ that I don't see how they can give much consideration to those differences. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SATPercentileRanksCompositeCR_M_W.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SATPercentileRanksCompositeCR_M_W.pdf&lt;/a>
From that chart, seems like there are about 3K people with 2300+, and 50K with 2100+, and percentiles for ivies at 25% and 75% are often 2100 and 2300ish.</p>

2

<p>Depends, because you could have a 2350 with 800, 800, 750, which means you’re done, or you could have a 2250 with 800, 800 and 650. A 650 is a big difference from an 800. Or you could have a 2300 with 800, 800, 700. 700 is definitely considered differently than an 800.</p>

3

<p>650 is a big CR number for schools–it’s hard for them to justify seriously considering candidates below that.</p>

<p>Most adcoms consider 750 the “max category” for each section of the SAT-1.</p>

4

<p>This is a really interesting topic that I’ve been wondering about myself. My counselor told me that for M/CR, retaking it once you’ve hit around 1550 doesn’t make much sense. She also said that many colleges don’t look too deeply at the writing, so as long as that’s pretty good and m/cr is in the 1550 range, it shouldn’t make much difference.</p>

<p>Hope this helped.</p>

5

<p>most unhooked candidates to the Ivies have 750+ on each test, so your goal should be to get there. Slightly down the food chain, a 2100 is golden. Of course, Caltech and MIT are outliers, since nearly every student has an 800 on M and in the case of Caltech, also on CR.</p>

6

<p>According to the most venerable silverturtle: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/955109-silverturtles-guide-sat-admissions-success-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/955109-silverturtles-guide-sat-admissions-success-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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7

<p>Once you get to 2400, you don’t have to worry that your testing was the reason for your rejection…</p>

8

<p>My impression is that once you reach a certain level of test score, it is not worth your time to attempt improving that score. At that point you are much better off putting your time and effort into other areas of your application. Instead of wasting time preparing to re-take the ACT or SAT, work on improving your essay, do more volunteering, make an impression on those who might write your recommendations, etc.</p>

<p>A better essay can easily be worth much more than improving your SAT from 2250 to 2300.</p>

9

<p>The “cutoff” at top schools is lower than 2250. Of course, if you totally blow M or CR, it’s not good, especially if your proposed major needs that skill. Overall, holistic schools like top scores, but aren’t beholden to them. The entire app as to show the right stuff. A 2350 kid can look pretty lame, if the rest of the app is lackluster. Take a look at the number of 2300-2400s accepted at various colleges- you’ll see it’s no guarantee.</p>

10

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<p>Right, but check out the websites for those colleges that provide testing detail (Amherst, Brown and Dartmouth, for example): the 2300’s have significantly higher odds of admissions over the 2100’s. Granted, those smart kids probably also have higher grades.</p>

11

<p>^ and the truly “smart” kids have not only good stats, but good depth and breadth in ECs, good essays and there are no “between the lines” hints in the LoRs that the teacher would have preferred not to write.</p>

<p>Do look at Brown’s own profile- the largest % matriculated (29.4%CR and 25.7% M) shows 700-740. Assuming top of the scores in each, would total 1480/1600. Or a presumed 2220.</p>

12

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<p>That is because there are more of them than there are 2300’s. (Not to mention that the bigger dogs up the food chain take the 2300’s hurting Brown’s yeild.) The more important statistic is admissions rate – can’t matriculate if you aren’t offered a spot.</p>

<p>For example, those with a 750+on CR are accepted at a 17% rate. In contrast, those with a 700-740 are accepted at a 10% rate. In other words, the 750+ scores are accepted at rate ~70% higher than the slightly lower scores (700-740). And the top band is accepted at a rate twice that of CR scores from 660-690 (7% acceptance.) Similar disparities are found for W & M.</p>

<p>[Brown</a> Admission: Facts & Figures](<a href=“Undergraduate Admission | Brown University”>http://brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html)</p>

13

<p>^I am surprised that it is not even more than 17% vs 10%. I look at it as the kid that may have gotten around 2100ish only has raw chance of 10% vs 17% for someone who could have gotten 2-300 more points on SAT. That sort of tell me that after certain point the incremental gain in score, while it makes a little bit of difference, it really does not make a huge difference.</p>

<p>I know I am twisting things a bit by taking low end of a range and comparing it to the high end of another range, but that is a problem with interpreting this kind of stat.</p>

14

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<p>They may have higher odds, but as the person you responded to said: It’s no GUARANTEE.</p>

15

<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that there are other tests other than the SAT. For example, if you score an 800 on the Math II test, a 750 on the SAT math section won’t matter as much.</p>

<p>Here’s an interesting chart of the GPA and SAT scores of people admitted to MIT. Notice the line of SAT scores in the top right.</p>

<p><a href=“http://0.tqn.com/d/collegeapps/1/0/s/M/-/-/MIT.png[/url]”>http://0.tqn.com/d/collegeapps/1/0/s/M/-/-/MIT.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;