<p>Collegeboard makes huge money off of SAT’s. Why do colleges not say, nah, forget the SAT? Because collegeboard would try to do something about it. If Harvard said: “The SAT isn’t going to count in admissions anymore” many applicants wouldn’t bother taking it, and paying. That’s a lot of lost money. The University of California is actually in a step in right direction though, they are trying to not even consider SATs. Which, honestly, the SAT is even poor at measuring test taking ability. Where does one draw the line that tests must be rushed, oppose to having ample time? In real life, except for few crisis situations, how often are you under time constraints, of about 30-20minutes that you can’t control, when trying to do math? When engineers are coming up with bridge building designs, is their foremen over their shoulder shouting: “Figure it out in 3 minutes, or else the State won’t fund us!” when they have 3 years to build a bridge? Or since when do we only have 20 minutes to read a passage, and then consider what the author meant? The SAT tests the SAT. That’s about it. Possibly it tests a students ability to learn something completely unconventional, as to test their “true intelligence.” Maybe it would benefit the economics dealing with aliens, and only has 13 minutes to make a deal.</p>
<p>For the folks critisizing the SATS ability to predict a students performance in college … you’re both right and wrong but unfortunately I believe the wrong portion wins out. There have been numerous studies on this. </p>
<p>You’re right … SAT scores are not a good predictor of college performance (college GPAs) …there is only something like .30-.35 correlation between SAT scores and college GPAs. I believe the best individual predictor is the student’s high school GPA … so your position sounds good.</p>
<p>But it’s not that simple … high school GPAs are a better predictor than SATS but they are just a tad better than SATs … in other words high school GPAs also pretty much suck as a predictor of college GPAs also (the colleration was like .03-.05 hgher). And here’s where your argument really gets in trouble … the best predictor is combining high school GPAs and SAT scores. People can rant and rave all they want … but colleges do not have their requirements for no reason … and not surprising the vast majority of highly selective schools as for the information that gives them the best chance of predicting college performance … and that would be BOTH high school GPAs and SATs</p>
<p>honestly- the most outrageous things can happen…i mean we can all say he will get rejected,but i know a kid who got an 1800 , 88 percent gpa, and he took only 1 ap in high school, and he got in harvard…and no his ECs werent stellar except football, but there are smarter and better football players out there…so nothing is impossible…good luck, hope you get accepted :)…keep your head up</p>
<p>Metapontum, zephyr thanks. Pretty epic posts. Finishmydrink, failure in this aspect will motivate me to do exeptionally well on my MCATS, and much better in college. Whew. I’m glad the decision is coming out Wed. I’ll let you all know what happens in the RD thread; you will not be surprised.
Zephyr, yes, in a sense my application is different, but admissions officers are predictable, after all, I have been rejected from nyu,boston u, american u, and columbia, pretty sure Cornell and Yale’s results are not going to be any different. </p>
<p>Oh… and
For the record, I am a girl. Not sure what made you all assume I was a guy. Haha.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the support.</p>
<p>Metapontum, zephyr thanks. Pretty epic posts. Finishmydrink, failure in this aspect will motivate me to do exceptionally well on my MCATS, and much better in college. Whew. I’m glad the decision is coming out Wed. I’ll let you all know what happens in the RD thread; you will not be surprised.
Zephyr, yes, in a sense my application is different, but admissions officers are predictable, after all, I have been rejected from nyu,boston u, american u, and columbia, pretty sure Cornell and Yale’s results are not going to be any different. </p>
<p>Oh… and
For the record, I am a girl. Not sure what made you all assume I was a guy. Haha.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the support.</p>
<p>So, the absolute worst that can happen is you go to Syracuse, which when you come right down to it is a pretty good school.</p>
<p>SAT is used because it is standarized. It does a good job of eliminating variables. It’s no where close to perfect but unless a better solution is thought of, SAT is staying. </p>
<p>Everything else on your application can vary vastly from applicant to applicant. You can pay someone to write you an excellent essay or letter of recommendation. You can go to a super easy HS and be the valedictorian with a 9.0/4 or w/e the grading scale is.</p>
<p>
Sorry, I stopped reading right there. It’s not about whether or not your think it is, nor about your opinion at all (I’m not thinking little of your opinion, it’s just that - no one’s opinion matters unless they’re on the college’s admissions committee). When it comes down to it, the only thing that matters is what they think. Here’s what they think:
A student’s GPA and SAT score, combined, give a good (though not great) prediction of college success. Every college does its calculations differently, depending on past students and their success and studies on this matter and so forth, but they consider both the SAT and GPA/rank together in order to see if you’ll survive their courseload and difficulty. The SAT alone, and the GPA alone, are bad predictors of college success, as someone mentioned before. Together, they’re a lot better than one on its own. </p>
<p>As someone mentioned, the admissions committee will take a look at the SAT and at the GPA. They’ll definitely feel that something’s weird, and this’ll likely work out in the advantage of the applicant. However, when it comes down to it, they can’t take a great deal too many risks - if the applicant is deemed unable to handle the courses at the college, the applicant will l be rejected, with few exceptions. The 1470 very well might ruin the application. It might not. But if you have a score lower than the national average, generally speaking, it’s really detrimental for an Ivy applicant’s chances. The rule is rejection. The exception is acceptance. Hope for the exception - which is why, definitely, applying was the right decision. Anyway, decisions are tomorrow so just hang tight 
I’m rooting for you.
PS: Knew you were a girl from your username.
^That was a joke.
PPS: How’d you mess up the SAT that badly? I mean, even if you’re a bad test-taker, you have a high GPA, so you’ve definitely got the intelligence/capability (IMO), so what happened there? Especially seeing as the test can be retaken…</p>
<p>One last thing: Cornell doesn’t take the writing into account in admissions, so if you have something like a 1200 on CR + M, it’d be awesome. (Yeah I know that would mean a 270 on W, whatever.) A 1200 still isn’t all that good, but it’s a lot better than a 1000, and I doubt it’s a chance-killing score.</p>