<p>Are you gueranteed to be accepted to at least one of the top 10 colleges (ie. harvard, stanford, u know the drill) provided you score a perfect on the SAT?</p>
<p>Provided you are only average (or less) on other stats.</p>
<p>No. </p>
<p>Most applicants to the top 10 schools in the US have stellar stats, meaning very high/perfect SAT scores + wondrous EC's + up-to-the-sky GPA + who knows what else. I'm sure even the recruited athletes are great students.</p>
<p>SAT I is only a small part of the application; there's no way you're "gueranteed" admission based only on perfection on the SAT I.</p>
<p>No...hell you can be "almost" perfect on the SAT and get 700-750 in each section....a 1600 really isn't much different then a 1400 or 1500. Literally that can be the difference between getting 1 wrong and maybe 4 wrong out of ~60 questions. Not a major difference.</p>
<p>It may not be a major difference, but in the eyes of adcoms, 1400 and 1500 is quite off from a 1600.</p>
<p>Either way, to answer the OP's question, a 1600 won't guarantee admissions.</p>
<p>It does mean something, but not everything. There is a HUGE difference between a 1400 and a 1600 - the former, absent any other information, has maybe a 4% chance at HYPSM. The latter has about 50%. Granted, 1600s tend to have more impressive ECs, essays, etc, but the difference can't be denied.</p>
<p>Nope as per what i observed ...for science based students and intels what matters more is the non english part of sat 1 and more emphasis on sat2 is given ..... a 2050 man with 2300 ++ Sat2 scores has better chances at HYPM .. coz then the average per subject becomes 725 ..as a 2250 sat1 + 2150 sat2 man who infact has lower sat2 academics .....</p>
<p>Let's be realistic. If you applied to the top 10 schools with a perfect SAT, and had a decent app, I would bet that you would get into 3, at the least. If you applied to the top 20, you would get into 10. SATs matter a LOT, don't let anyone fool you.</p>
<p>A perfect score doesn't guarantee anything.</p>
<p>Yes, scarletleavy, that's it!!</p>
<p>bill_smear: I'm not sure a "decent" app will get you into three of the top 10 schools even with a perfect SAT. Define "decent". And I'm assuming by top 10 you mean universities (e.g. Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Mit) and not liberal arts schools like Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore.</p>
<p>The number one thing that adcoms care about is challenging curriculum, then gpa/rank and then standardized test scores. After you qualify on those academic measures, then they look at EC's, essays and recs. </p>
<p>At the top 12-15 college, so many people apply with outstanding academic measures that they just can't take everybody who is qualified, and so they look for unique applicants who have "passion" and achievement (national/regional) in one or two EC's. For every outstanding applicant who is accepted, there are 4-5 almost identical applicants who are waitlisted/denied just because they don't have room. Admissions standards are lower for URM's, legacies, athletes, development cases, VIP's, and ED applicants.</p>
<p>They won't split hairs over a 1550 and 1600 on the SAT. However, there is a lot of distance between 1400 or 1500 and 1600. The point is that a 1550 is pretty much every bit as good as a 1600.</p>
<p>My S had the holy grail of SAT scores...1600 and was wait listed at two Ivy's, accepted to one and denied at his first choice (ED). His other scores were 790,780 and 690, GPA (unweighted) 3.94 and lots of EC's. But, he had no real strong "hook." At the top tier schools, grades alone do not guarantee anything.</p>
<p>Look at the Harvard boards "Zuma's Stat Roster." They just don't care about scores as much as anything else.</p>
<p>ok put it this way: a perfect score doesnt guarantee admissions but a low score pretty much does (in the bad way!)</p>
<p>This reminds me of a case last year at my High School. The validvictorian of my HS last year had a near perfect gpa, and 1600 on the SATs. He applied to the Ivies, and only to the Ivies. His ECs were zip, he had nothing, but his scores were perfect.</p>
<p>When it came time to recieve admission status, he was rejected by every single Ivy.</p>
<p>SAT scores and Transcript do not mean everything, there are so many other factors to consider.</p>
<p>Tooya,</p>
<p>It's spelled 'valedictorian'.</p>
<p>How many students have combined scores above 1500/2300?</p>
<p>so what is the debate n discussion abt then .. ..gud sat1 scores only or gud sat1 +++sat2 scores both ... as these two are extrtemely different</p>
<p>A 1600/2400 will help a lot. It doesn't guarantee anything, but it is a huge plus. Unless you have NOTHING for ECs, or got caught trafficking marijuana (something of that nature), you have a much better chance than anyone else.</p>
<p>definately we all know that it will be a gr8 boost .. yet at top places sats doesnt matter a hell lot........</p>