"competitive score"

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>*i've attempted to search the forum for something along these lines, so forgive me if it's been discussed.</p>

<p>assuming all other aspects of the app are strong, what sort of sat score would you say is "competitve" for top liberal arts schools? obviously it's a pretty nebulous estimate and reall dependent on many factors, but i'd love to hear your thoughts!</p>

<p>also, do admission officers tend to take into account intended majors when looking at sat scores? for example, looking for higher math scores for an engineering major and higher reading/writing for lit major? </p>

<p>thanks for your input!</p>

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<p>It depends what you mean by “top.” If we’re talking Amherst and Swarthmore and the like a competitive score would be around 2250. </p>

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<p>If you major in lit you better title your first novel “How not to waste $200,000 of your parents’ money.”</p>

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<p>i’d say anything about 2100 is competitive.</p>

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<p>2200+ is competitive. 2300+ will put you over most applicants.</p>

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<p>major-specific scores are not predominant in LACs for the obvious reason that the focus in LACs is not solely around your major but around your broad-based education. so you have to aim to achieve a balanced score in each section.</p>

<p>i’d advice you to target 750 or above in each section to be so-called competitive but if you have chances to retake, be sure to retake because better scores might be the tiny factor that gives you an edge. that sort of explains why i’m retaking my 2350.</p>

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<p>i agree with srrinath about 750 or above in each section to be competitive, but i don’t think that it makes sense to retest for a 2350 unless your grades are low. seriously, they don’t care that much about the sat. they just want to know your score matches your grades. this isn’t medical school.</p>

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<p>A lot of people here take the SAT really seriously and therefore do well. They then have a different idea of what “competitive” is. I’d think a lot of them would also like to think that their high scores are valued, when really, scores below them would also be competitive. </p>

<p>I think 2100+ (provided it is ~700 each section) is good enough for any college you are applying to. As in, if you get rejected from a college and your SAT was a 2100+, you probably weren’t rejected because of your scores. </p>

<p>Above that might catch the attention of some colleges. Having high math SAT scores might benefit someone applying to MIT, but in general, 2100 is fine.</p>

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<p>There’s not one scintilla of truth to that. </p>

<p>[Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/)</p>

<p>28.1% of applicants with a 2300+ SAT were accepted to Princeton whereas only 6.2%-10.6% of applicants with a 2100 SAT were. If you assume that all of those applicants were rejected for reasons other than their SAT scores, you also assume that a 2300+ SAT scorer, on average, is 3-5 times more likely to have good grades and EC’s than a 2100 scorer. </p>

<p>While having a 2400 doesn’t make you any more competitive than having a 2390 (yes, THAT thread…), having a score significantly above a 2100 certainly does.</p>

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<p>I would think 2100-2200 is good enough to stay in the running, 2200-2300 is great and will probably put you above some, and 2300-2400 can be a great asset for you.</p>

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Is Princeton one of the few schools to make a chart with separate admission rates based on various score/GPA divisions? Most schools seem to only show % of admitted class in 700-800 range per area and middle 50% range.</p>