I am an 11th grade student in High School. I have a good GPA (4.0UW, 4.74W, Top 3 In Class), but have only a 2130 PSAT (620R, 800M, 710W). I will take the full SAT in June.
The thing that bugs me the most is that I will not become a National Merit Finalist in my state. All students who were accepted to the top schools this year were National Merit Finalists. About 12 per grade get the distinction in my school. However, many who I know with a high enough PSAT score actually have a lower GPA than me. Some have like a 3.6UW, 4.1W. (Though the 2 people above me also have high PSAT scores).
I was shocked at my score, especially when I already took the SAT Subject Tests (Math 2 and US History) last year and got a 780 on both. I studied all summer long for the PSAT, and it all went to waste. (I scored a 206 sophomore year, which would still put me as Commended.)
I have good EC’s, including State Science Fair category winner, among others. I am very good in both Math and Science, and have top grades in each of those two subjects.
I have two questions:
Can a good GPA make up for a bad SAT?
What are good schools for people with a good GPA but bad SAT? I want to go into a science field. I have looked at such schools as Penn State Schreyer Honor College, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which are test optional schools. Schreyer does not consider SAT at all.
1.) Somewhat, but no GPA will make a 2130 look like a 2330. Don’t worry about it, though, 2130 is not a bad score, plus admissions can be surprisingly holistic.
2.) You’re mistaken if you think there is a “category” of colleges out there that you should be looking at. Your scores aren’t much different from thousands of other students in that there isn’t an enormous gulf between your GPA and SAT, despite what you believe. If you had a 4.74W and an 1830, that’s starting to say something. There are dozens of good schools where a 2130 would make you competitive.
Take the SAT again, and try the ACT, but don’t fixate on your score. A 2130 is good enough for most colleges, and the overwhelming majority of students would kill to get that score. I certainly wouldn’t encourage you to compromise or sacrifice any other interests or activities in order to prep intensively for another round of tests. There’s a decent chance that your score will rise modestly, but focusing all your energy on a chimerical increase is unwise. You do not need to look at test-optional colleges, but you should apply to a good balance of “reach,” “match,” and “safe” colleges. Everybody should. Harvard, Yale, and Stanford would be long-shots even with a 2300+ score, and so identify colleges where your chances range from good to certain, add a few reaches, and know that you will get into an excellent college with the stats you have right now.
213 on the PSAT is not low. I’m sorry that it wasn’t enough to make the cutoff for NMSF where you are, but your score is very good. Some of the cutoff scores are insane. You should be able to find some merit money with a comparable SAT, and your GPA is great.
1375 UC Berkeley
1375 Case Western
1365 W&M
1365 Emory
1360 Boston C
1360 NYU
1355 Cooper Union
1355 UVA
1355 UIUC
1350 Rochester
1350 Brandeis
1325 Wake Forest
1325 UMiami
1320 UCLA
1315 Lehigh
1305 UNC
1290 UCSD
1290 Boston U
1290 Wisconsin
1265 U Florida
1250 UCSB
1235 Yeshiva
1230 UWashington
1210 UC Davis
1175 Penn State
1165 UC Irvine
2130 is a perfectly fine score. Frankly it’s a little ridiculous to freak out about it. Like woogzmama said, having a higher score wouldn’t really guarantee admission at super competitive schools. But anyway, keep in mind that SAT scores often come out higher than PSAT scores. Your final score will probably be higher than 2130.
Wait until you take the actual SAT. I got 215 PSAT as a junior and a 2340 when I took the SAT at the end of the year with almost no prep (though a lot of that was math, made a lot of stupid mistakes on the PSAT and then got an 800 on the SAT).
Even if your score doesn’t increase drastically, the 2100s will still get you into very good schools that are out of reach for most students.
@Matt846 I just found out I was accepted into my state’s governor school (Acceptance Rate = 12%), beating THREE future NMFs from my high school. Does this mean I should be more optimistic about college level and applications?
Got 5’s on all AP Tests (Took 4 past year), so have a total of five 5’s on the AP.
But PSAT (as I said above) not NMSF qualifying…
Will admissions think that my school inflates grade if I have a 4.0 GPA, 5’s on all AP’s but not a National Merit Semifinalist? In my school, getting all 5’s are rare, and most have 225+ PSATs to boot…
Echoing every other poster: it’s a PSAT score. It is neither definitive nor fatal. Don’t post again about this until you have an actual SAT or ACT score.
(also, if the super-selective unis take students from your school, your GPA and your class rank are going to matter much more than NM) (well, except for a handful of schools like Vandy that are making a point of courting NMFs)
^
The “1480” number cited above is for admitted students
(“Those admitted boast an SAT average of 1480 …”).
The CDS ranges are supposed to be for enrolled students.
My “1385” number for Georgia Tech is for freshmen enrolled in Fall 2013.
It results from the following MS Excel calculation:
=AVERAGE(620,710)+AVERAGE(670,770)
The numbers are as reported in the Georgia Tech 2013-14 Common Data Set, section C9.
The first pair is the SAT-CR 25th percentile - 75th percentile range;
the second pair is the SAT-M 25th percentile - 75th percentile range.
The GaTech 2014-15 CDS seems to be the latest available at this time.
(http://www.irp.gatech.edu/publications/common-data-set/)
It reports the following 25th percentile - 75th percentile ranges:
Reading 630 720
Math 680 770
By my formula, the average would be:
=AVERAGE(630,720)+AVERAGE(680,770)
= 1400 (avg SAT-CR + SAT-M)
The Fall 2015 entering class may well boast a higher average
(but presumably it won’t be as high as the admitted students’ average).
Good point about the difference between enrolled and admitted statistics. The admitted average for 2014 was 1460, so there was a drop of 60 points from admitted to enrolled, so if a similar drop off is seen this year the enrolled would be around 1420.