<p>Hey everyone, </p>
<p>I just got back my October SAT scores and got:</p>
<p>CR: 700
M: 710
W: 750</p>
<p>I'm just wondering if these will give me a chance at Stanford. I'm a white suburban male, so I'm worried they might be too low!</p>
<p>Before you say it, I know scores aren't everything. I'm just seeing if it will put me in the running!</p>
<p>Thanks to all replies!</p>
<p>Can’t tell from just scores! It’s Stanford :P</p>
<p>check their midranges - for CR, I believe it is 670-770, I know it is higher for M, but don’t remember the number. So you’re at the low end for both, which isn’t the most favorable place to be, if you’re a standard-issue unhooked applicant, but as you know, it’s not just about scores.</p>
<p>Yes you have a chance…but I say this over and over again, any SAT score above 2100 is pretty much given the same consideration. a 2130 doesn’t “suck” compared to a 2400. Just make sure the rest of your app is better than the person with the 2400. GPA & essay are probably the most important thing.</p>
<p>googol123, could you cite your basis for believing that any score over 2100 is considered about the same? My observations, reading and experience are otherwise, and I am concerned that applicants may apply to an unwise mix of reach/target/safety schools on the basis of this type of input, so it would be good for readers to understand the source of your belief?</p>
<p>ditto Ailey’s comment</p>
<p>the comments left on chances thread by that year’s applicants are probably based on these</p>
<p>1) 2400 gets rejected
2) there are multiple things admissions look at
3) some people they know got accepted/rejected</p>
<p>saying anything above 2100 is pretty much the same is a bold
I’ve heard 2300, 2200, 2150 also</p>
<p>to answer the question, those scores don’t help you. they might hurt you a little.
i dont’ think you will immediately go to the rejection pile</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think this is true. Any score above 2300 is equivalent to 2400, perhaps…</p>
<p>Your score is fine. I know ppl who got admitted to Stanford with lower scores than that.</p>
<p>I’ll say it again - yes there are people admitted with lower scores. What there seems to be insufficient appreciation of on these boards is that those people have sometihng else super strong going for them, and I don’t mean essays either (this whole forum seems to have a touching faith in the power of essays to heal the sick and raise the dead, which is generally not shared by articles and books by admissions officers at the top schools). Usually, people at the lower end of the scores are URMs, athletes, first gen college, financially disadvantaged etc etc. And if you think you can tell people’s hook from a casual acquaintance, think again - I know a blond, blue-eyed girl who is 1/32 native american and so qualifies for that hook.</p>
<p>And with all that, the %age acceptances at different SAT score ranges are 3-4 times higher above 750 than from 650-700 on either M or R at most of the top schools. So you are playing poor odds if you are unhooked and think that you have a good chance of getting into a top school with SAT scores below 730 or so in either M or R without sometihng <em>spectacular</em> to make you stand out. Do you have <em>some</em> chance? yes. Do you have <em>good</em> odds? All the data I have seen says no.</p>
<p>People look at mid-ranges and think they have a handle on what’s needed. As several books point out, you need to know a whole lot more about acceptance distribution inside the midrange, which at the top schools is clustered nearer the top for standard-issue applicants.</p>
<p>I don’t want to beat this dead horse any further, but there is a lot of over-optimism about SAT socres on several of these boards, which the history does not support.</p>
<p>Thanks to all replies.. I guess we’ll see what happens in December. </p>
<p>Ailey: Did you really know someone who put that they were Native American on their app. when they were only 1/32? That’s nuts..</p>
<p>I agree with Ailey. If you are unhooked and without URM status, and your scores fall in the middle of the 50% range for a school, then they are not really ‘good’ scores for that school, especially if you’re an ORM from a competitive HS. After all, the 50% ranges include legacies, athletes, URMs, and so on. Without their scores, I’d expect the average score for a unhooked Stanford admit to be around 2300 or high 2200’s- but that’s just a guess. Anyway, work hard on your other stuff 
the SAT is just one test score.</p>
<p>rchockey, 1/32 is the lowest you can be and still be officially registered with the tribe, and hence qualify for the Native American hook…but I was just using that as an example. There are lots of others, my point being only that people don’t always know what hooks and tips the examples they cite had, and mistakenly rely on examples that may not apply to them.</p>
<p>somewhere between 1700-1900 will not even get considered right? .. i know SAT’s arent everything.</p>
<p>I have an 1850 and I’m still applying. Test scores aren’t everying, but you never know. There’s no harm in trying unless rejection is something you can’t take. xD But everyone has a chance of rejection.</p>
<p>On the subject of SAT Is…is the cut-off for equal consideration really 2100? Because I have a 2090…lol. :[</p>
<p>Clearly there’s no definite “cutoff”. The process is more holistic than that.</p>
<p>But if I HAD to estimate a sort of cutoff for nonhooked applicants, I would say that it’s much higher than 2100. Think like 2250. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get in with a 2090 or that you have no chance. It’s just that unless your application is pretty unusual or you’re a minority, that score is quite a bit below what I’d call a “safe” score for Stanford.</p>
<p>There’s no cutoff. Just probabilites that drop first relatively linearly and then rapidly as you go down the range, with an exponential dropoff at some point that varies by college</p>
<p>there is no “safe score” for stanford. like.. the admit rate for people with a perfect 800 on cr is still only 23%. i think you (who ever asked this) will at least be in the running. and i don’t think your scores will directly HURT you.</p>
<p>What I meant by ‘safe’ was as in ‘this score will only HELP your admissions chances, not HURT them’. F.x., 2400 would be a “safe” score since it can only help you get in Sorry, I didn’t mean safe as in.. you are a match for Stanford. Lol. I think the 2090 hurts, but it depends on where you come from (NYC or Jersey vs. Iowa) and how competitive of a school you go to. Someone applying to Stanford from my school <em>would</em> be hurt by a 2090; I go to a good school. Anyway, bottom line, Ailey’s right, there’s no cutoff and we can only say how strong a certain score is compared to the rest of the applicant pool.</p>