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[quote]
Airbag, you ADDED the differences in the 25/75 percentile SATs, rather than AVERAGING them
[/quote]
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<p>Divide the "differences [between verbal-section scores and math-section scores, individually]" by two. That should be roughly the average.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, dividing the same data set by a scalar value doesn't change the ratios or proportional differences between the data points, so your suggestion does not change the thrust of my original argument, which is that Notre Dame has noticeably better SAT ranges than does BC.</p>
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[quote]
According to the US News 2008 rankings guide, Harvard students outperformed Columbia students an average of 25 points per test at the 75th percentile, and 30 points per test at the 25th percentile. Do people really think this alone makes Harvard significantly better than Columbia?
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<p>It says nothing about the school, actually. rather, it says that the average student at Harvard did better on the SAT relative to the average Columbia student by about 55 points [avg(25+25)+avg(30+30)].</p>
<p>Yes, I'd say that is a factor to consider when you look at the selectivity of the school. Personally, I believe Princeton/Yale students are a notch above Notre Dame students in intelligence, on average. By this quantitative reasoning, Notre Dame students are also a notch above BC students.</p>
<p>Your argument seems to be based on your perception of what qualifies a "significant" difference. Since significance is entirely based on how one chooses to perceive something, it would be useless for me to argue with your beliefs on what score difference would qualify as "significant." The facts show that the ratio of average SAT scores of Princeton and Yale to ND is about equal to that between ND and BC. Interpret them as you wish, but don't expect much sympathy coming into a ND forum and trying to tell ND students that their school is on the same academic tier as a clearly less selective institution.</p>
<p>As if it were necessary,
USNEWS 2008:</p>
<h1>18 University of Notre Dame</h1>
<h1>34 Boston College</h1>