Black High Scorers on SAT (cross post)

Applying to College
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<p>I had also posted this on the Parents' Forum, and want to make sure that students also see this. Some additional info: Being among the group of black high SAT scorers does not guarantee admission to all colleges. My older S had a 1410 SAT and was rejected by Columbia, probably because his unweighted average was about a 2.9. I also know a black student who was deferred and then rejected by Harvard with SATs above 1500. Perhaps the reason was relatively weak ECs. One can find other examples by looking in CC's archives.</p>

<h2>Black High SAT Scorers </h2>

<p>This info from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education will give black high scorers some idea of why they are in such demand. If such students also are African American without Caribbean or African-born parents, they are in even higher demand since while the majority of African Americans are not offspring of immigrants, the majority of high scoring black students are.</p>

<p>The fact that 100,000 students of all races scored higher than 700 on either the m or v part of the SAT and 33,000+ scored higher than 750 on either the m v SAT this year shows why it's not possible for all such students to get into a place like HPYS or even the top 10 universities: There simply is not enough room.</p>

<p>The rest of the article also is interesting, including theories about why African Americans score lower than any other major racial/ethnic group on the SAT.</p>

<p>" In 2005, 153,132 African Americans took the SAT test. They made up 10.4 percent of all SAT test takers. But only 1,132 African-American college-bound students scored 700 or above on the math SAT and only 1,205 scored at least 700 on the verbal SAT. </p>

<p>Nationally, more than 100,000 students of all races scored 700 or above on the math SAT and 78,025 students scored 700 or above on the verbal SAT. Thus, in this top-scoring category of all SAT test takers, blacks made up only 1.1 percent of the students scoring 700 or higher on the math test and only 1.5 percent of the students scoring 700 or higher on the verbal SAT. </p>

<p>If we raise the top-scoring threshold to students scoring 750 or above on both the math and verbal SAT — a level equal to the mean score of students entering the nation's most selective colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, and CalTech — we find that in the entire country 244 blacks scored 750 or above on the math SAT and 363 black students scored 750 or above on the verbal portion of the test.</p>

<p>Nationwide, 33,841 students scored at least 750 on the math test and 30,479 scored at least 750 on the verbal SAT. Therefore, black students made up 0.7 percent of the test takers who scored 750 or above on the math test and 1.2 percent of all test takers who scored 750 or above on the verbal section." </p>

<p><a href="http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_col...sions-test.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_col...sions-test.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I agree that nobody should count on anything when it comes to the ultra-selective colleges. In a recent year, about 700 people nationwide scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT. Of these, about two-thirds applied to Harvard and less than 200 were accepted. One way of looking at this is that your chances of getting into Harvard with a perfect 1600 is still less than 50%. The other way of looking at it is that a person with a 1600 has 5 or 6 times the chance of an average applicant.</p>

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<p>"If such students also are African American without Caribbean or African-born parents, they are in even higher demand since while the majority of African Americans are not offspring of immigrants, the majority of high scoring black students are."</p>

<p>Northstarmom: I'm a little confused ... how does an admission committee know the country of origin of parents of an African-American college applicant. Are you suggesting that adcoms give lesser consideration to applicants with Caribbean or African-born parents?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I'm a little confused ... how does an admission committee know the country of origin of parents of an African-American college applicant. Are you suggesting that adcoms give lesser consideration to applicants with Caribbean or African-born parents?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>They are starting to ask. Some schools have asking for further clarification just like they ask asian students. Also, if a student is a permanent resident, schoola are asking for your country of citizenship along with your alien registration number.</p>

<p>I don't think that they are starting to give lesser consideration to applicants of carribean or african born parents, but there is a shortage of African american students who are not the offspring of immigrants, and colleges are trying to attract these students. Even though there are only a small number of african american students at "elite schools" overall, the majority of these students are the children of carribean or african born parents. So if a school is looking for tip factors, an african american student, especially one with roots in the rural south would get a bigger tip.</p>

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<p>This is what makes the whole thing seem so weird. Last year the Harvard Black Alumni Club figured out that about 45% (?) of the black acceptees at Harvard were not from the "proper" black group meaning persons more likely to have descended from slaves during the Civil War period. </p>

<p>There is a movement afoot to change the word "slave" in all US history textbooks to "enslaved African-Africans." On the other hand, the word "slave" is derived from the word "Slavic" because of the number of Slavs enslaved in Europe. On the other hand, persons brought to the US during the slave trade from Africa were not free in Africa before they were transferred to North America because slavery was huge among the Africans at the time and they were just sold to the North Americans by the Africans.</p>

<p>Affirmative Action is a politcal process that is trying to correct a problem in today's society. I don't think it is proper to think of it as a way to correct past wrongs. Otherwise I think we at least have to go back to Genghis Khan, and everybody is going to have to supply geneology records.</p>

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<p>Gee, this poses a prob for my D: offspring of a Dad from the rural South of African-American slave and Native American descent AND a mom 1st generation Caribbean immigrant (raised in the inner city US from age 3). Will we use the "one drop taint" rule, I wonder?? </p>

<p>Shades of deja vu!</p>

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<p>^^^I highly doubt that colleges are actually trying to do this.</p>

<p>And the OP's discovery is fairly obvious and not at all shocking.</p>

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<p>Gee, this poses a prob for my D: offspring of a Dad from the rural South of African-American slave and Native American descent AND a mom 1st generation Caribbean immigrant (raised in the inner city US from age 3). Will we use the "one drop taint" rule, I wonder?? </p>

<p>OM ( sans the G) ! Something else in common, only this describes ME rather than D. Don't tell me from Alabama, and/or of ( allegedly) Blackfoot descent??!!?? MY D is 1st gen of carribean decent on her dad's side ( third on maternal grandmoms...).</p>

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<p>High scores for URMs were never a guarantee for admission - nonetheless, URMs w/ high scores generally have a higher chance of getting accepted (which is also why a large % of black students at the top universities are from immigrant backgrounds).</p>

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<p>Well I'd sure be interested in hearing where some high-scoring Blacks on the SAT here at CC have gone, and what type of merit aid was received. First I guess we'd have to define "high scoring". Given Northstarmom's original post, I'm guessing we'd be referring to a student who scored a 700+ on any section of the SAT. I'm not sure what the ACT equivalent would be . . .</p>

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<p>1600/2370 SAT here, Black Male, got into Stanford SCEA waiting on other schools.</p>

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<p>FredB -- Jeepers!! Whatta score! Congrats!</p>

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<p>So where else are folks thinking of going? Looks like my D's headed to Brandeis. It occurs to me that this thread really ought to have a cross-reference to the National Achievement Scholar thread -- I just don't know how to do that. So . . . I'll post a link!</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/387154-national-achievement-scholarship-program.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/387154-national-achievement-scholarship-program.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I wonder what proportion of the Black high scorers on the the SAT are NOT National Achievement Scholars -- and what the reasons for that might be?</p>

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<p>Well my D scored a bit better on SAT then PSAT, thus "commended" but not a scholar. In her case, don't know if she'd be a "high scorer" by the OP's definition in 05. That was before the writing portion. Being a "high scorer" in the writing portion is harder to interpret.</p>

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<p>Shrinkrap, has your D heard from all her schools yet or made a decision?</p>

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<p>"I wonder what proportion of the Black high scorers on the the SAT are NOT National Achievement Scholars -- and what the reasons for that might be?"</p>

<p>My 2 sons' cr, m on the SATs were a 1410 and 1540. Both were NM Commended, too, but neither became a National Achievement Scholar, just semifinalist. That was because their unweighted gpas were about 2.7, 2.9. The organization actually sent them letters letting them know why they didn't make finalist.</p>

<p>They were both classic underachievers who never were motivated by grades or parents' various ways of urging them to achieve up to their potential. They'd grown up knowing how to be a National Achievement scholars because their dad, who was first gen h.s. grad, was one and... sigh... I had been just a semifinalist due probably to not having the gpa that was needed. </p>

<p>I know other students who didn't make make the cut despite having very high SATs. They also were academic underperformers.</p>

<p>I'm know that some black high scorers on the SAT don't become National Achievement scholars because their schools didn't encourage them to take the PSAT their junior year. I met a black student who was working as a waitress and had large loans in order to attend U Va. Based on a variety of things about her, I tagged her for an Achievement Scholar, but it ended up that she wasn't. Her SAT scores were very high, well above the 1200 (cr, m) that my sleuthing indicates is the cutoff for the program. Ends up she had done extremely well on the PSAT as a soph, so hadn't bothered to take it as a junior because she correctly figured she didn't need more practice. She had no idea that the junior year PSAT was the gateway to scholarships and many other opportunities. Parents were college professors, who clearly also most not have known.</p>

<p>"Well my D scored a bit better on SAT then PSAT, thus "commended" but not a scholar. In her case, don't know if she'd be a "high scorer" by the OP's definition in 05."</p>

<p>I'm the OP, and, yes, any student of any race whose NM Commended is a high scorer though you would never know that by the comments commended students make about themselves on CC.</p>

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<p>SupermomIA, the only admittances and money is from "safeties" so far, although she did get what I think is a "likely" letter from her #1, Scripps, and a "distinguished applicant" or some such, from UC Santa Barbara that's in the top 5 or so. No decisions even close, and I'm still hoping for some kind of epiphany.</p>

<p>P.S. D was national ACHIEVEMENT commended, not National Merit.I was about to say I wish, but I'm over any SAT "what if's" at this point.</p>

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<p>The National Achievement commended still are among the highest scoring black students in the country and still have scores that could qualify them for virtually any school in the country including HPYS. If their SAT scores are commensurate with their PSAT scores, the colleges that their stats would be too low for would be Cooper Union and CalTech, which overwhelmingly rely on scores for admission decisions. One year, for instance, all of the students in CalTech's frosh class had scored 800 on one of the math SAT IIs.</p>

<p>If you go to the research area of the College Board web site you can find a racial breakdown showing the percentage of students scoring at various levels on the SATs. When you see this, I'm sure you'll be surprised to see how few black students score as high as your D did.</p>

<p>Incidentally, since h.s. grades are the best predictor of college gpa, if your D gets accepted into a college where her scores are on the low side, don't worry: as long as her grades were high, she'll have what it takes and that may include graduating with honors from a highly competitive college.</p>

<p>Best of luck to her and you as you await the rest of the decisions.</p>

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<p>I'd love to be surprised; Unfortunately I've memorized the charts. I am impressed, but find it hard to measure the implications of the three way composite ( 2040), as easily as the math/reading (1280). For example, as was the subject of part of our locked thread, you can find out math, reading, and writing by race, but not composite by race. Anyway it doesnt't really matter anymore, especially since it seems D could care less about any of this. She DOES love to meet the other kids "like her" ( i.e. they've all been told they are not Black enough, and don't know too many Black kids in their echelons at school), at the various school invites, but mostly she likes musical theatre and Chapel Leadership....If i had any "what if's " it would be "What if she was really into this elite thing "...and I'm not so sure I want to go there.</p>

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<p>Thanks for posting this.</p>