My school’s average SAT score is a 870. I got a 1330. I applied to Brown, Cornell, and Dartmouth. Will coming from a “bad” school help me?
I would be more worried about your 1330 score than your high school peers. For example, average SAT at Cornell is 1470. You need to look at colleges where 1330 is in the 75% range of accepted students to have a good chance at acceptance. Good luck.
The reality is that many applicants to top colleges will come from “bad” schools and still have GPAs close to 4.0 and SAT scores of 1500+.
OP: It may help. Depends upon where you are located with respect to your target schools & whether or not the target schools have a program to admit students from your district.
Unfortunately the weakness of your school district may diminish the perception of your high class rank (from other thread). It could call into question the rigor of the curriculum in your district and your ability to thrive at an Ivy pace in spite of being 2nd in your class.
Per the other thread you have a very compelling story but you (as all applicants) face very daunting odds at Ivies, particularly with low test scores. Once again good luck!
OP: Do you live near any of these schools ? If so, ask your school counselor/college advisor. While it is clear that your SATs are low, they are quite high for your school & some elite schools’ admissions policies help local students from underprivileged areas.
It probably won’t do the OP any good at the ivies the OP named. They’re turning down perfect stat students all the time, but they’re turning them down for 1400 and 1500 students, not so much for 1300 students.
That’s still a great SAT score, however, strong enough for many, many excellent and selective schools. Just not for the ivies and T15.
Depends upon where he lives & whether the school admissions policies take into account his school district.
OP: Aren’t you first generation & URM ?
I live in Connecticut. And yes I am.
It’s not that the high schools local to an Ivy are so bad that admissions standards can drop.
In my area, there are plenty of kids from underperforming hs who do not meet the bar, do not get in. And top performers they compete with.
And it’s not a comparison to the scores of kids with no (or low) college expectations. It’s more about other kids in that hs applying to your targets. And other local hs, down the street or across town. (Yes, that will include some solidly performing hs.)
Here’s the thing, OP: you should know whether or not your stats put you in range, your ECs are at the right level, the attributes they wan…before getting hyped about a tippy top.
Your AP scores are lower than the competition. And you want public health but note no ECs engaged with health and the public or their welfare or advocacy.
On top of that, you should know Egyptian is not considered URM. And nor is CT local to Brown, COrnell or Dartmouth.
@Salah923 : Unfortunately, you are not in their local areas. But each school may still have an outreach program. While your SAT scores are in the bottom 25%, they are strong enough to show that you can do the work.
I have forgotten the schools with such programs, but most are Ivies & top 15 national universities. The University of Pennsylvania has the most publicized program for inner city Philadelphia students. I hesitate to cite the others as I have only read about them, but I would not be surprised if all of your targeted schools have such programs. Call or email & ask admissions.
As for URM status: Although you do not fall into AA, Hispanic or NA categories, each school self determines their definition of URM. I doubt that you fit into any predesignated URM category, however, as “Egyptian”.
P.S. And, yes, college admissions officers should receive a school profile from your high school showing average standardized test scores. This should help you.
Your class rank is outstanding !
P.S. Yale may have an outreach program. Are you involved/participating in QuestBridge ?
Thanks for your response. I did not apply to Yale because my sat scores are way too weak. I wish I took the sats more seriously now 
& I am not involved in QuestBridge.
Maybe… if you can prove you live in a poorer area where education isn’t that great
@lookingforward if you actually read my post then you wouldn’t fail to realize that I made a program for diabetes awareness in my local library. I have also taken health and medical innovation classes that are rigorous for the past 3 years in my high school. I was an ambassador for my state’s science center and developed a program to teach kids about why we feel pain (although I didn’t mention this). I have other little things too. And NONE of the top kids in my high school are applying to the ivy league! There is only one other high school in my town and it is a technical school. They don’t know about the ivy league schools…they all think its expensive. and Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth aren’t in CT? Omg! I didn’t know!
Posts get deleted that don’t meet the ToS. No one is deleting posts based on SAT scores.
As to your original post, I think you will be looked at in context of your school but the 1330 is still low for the three Ivies you mentioned. Hopefully you have good match and safety schools on your list.