<p>Also a perfect score doesnt guarantee success in life! (which is relative.. i guess)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that 1600 is not just a SAT score. If you take a kid that would normally get a 1000 on the SAT because he's lazy, stupid, etc., and magically give him a 1600 (maybe it's a computer glitch or something), he would not get into HYPMS. But kids who get 1600 tend to also be very smart and hardworking in HS, so they do well outside. Therefore, just having a 1600 isn't really that good; you need to be the "1600" in the rest of your academics/ECs as well.</p>
<p>"you need to be the "1600" in the rest of your academics/ECs as well."</p>
<p>what a line......</p>
<p>I would tend to believe that an applicant with a 1600/2400 would also need to have demonstrated intellectual curiosity, a creative spark, initative, a little risk taking (not necessarily intellectually) and perhaps examples of strong leadership. I know most of us were in gifted programs in elementary and middle schools. One of the criteria for getting accepted into the gifted program at my school was of course standardized test results. However, they also took into consideration and heavily weighed other factors such as the ones I listed above along with maturity. Those with high test results but lacking the other qualities were not accepted into the gifted program. I would presume college admissions works along the same way. An SAT score on its own does not measure IQ nor does it determine one's potential, but it is the combination of several factors that determines ones true abilities.</p>
<p>2400 or 2300 or your neighborhood equivalent can probably "guarantee" you admission at less selective schools, smaller state schools, etc. where only 5 or 6 candidates a year apply with such high scores.</p>
<p>But at the HYP level, they could easily fill their beds several times over with students with scores these high, so they do not stand out as much. </p>
<p>Student One
2400
Valedictorian
and Nothing</p>
<p>Student Two
2370
6th in class
did something outside of studying and test prep</p>
<p>Student two is much more likely to fill these beds</p>
<p>Yeah...might want to bump down student two's SAT to a 2250...for an added effect...</p>
<p>this is true</p>
<p>SATs are definitely not everything. Most schools will look at your other things like how many ECs, leadership positions, community service, jobs,ect., and are more likely to accept you if you are well rounded with pretty good SATs and GPA than if you are perfect and have no life besides school work. I got to Notre Dame and they make it clear that they look for well rounded students and not just perfect students. They reject many valedictorians, and people who get 1600 every year.</p>
<p>"But at the HYP level, they could easily fill their beds several times over with students with scores these high, so they do not stand out as much."</p>
<p>The great myth. On the old SAT, the 99+ stopped at 1550. 99+ is about 7000 students. On a 2400, the equivalent should be about 2330. So HYPSM aren't filling their beds many times over with these "commodities." These are rare scores, and they help hugely -- everywhere.</p>
<p>Or may not help at all. I have told the story many times on these boards of our high school's valedictorian last year with >4.3 UW GPA, perfect 1600 SAT AND perfect 36 ACT (how many kids can do that do you suppose?), who applied to all 8 Ivies and one safety. He was accepted ONLY to UPenn and his safety. These scores get you on the porch, but alone will not get you through the door.</p>
<p>Why didn;t that person get in?</p>
<p>Who knows? He was a delightful, quiet, polite young man who was much admired in the school. He obviously didn't fill the demographic that they needed.</p>
<p>Are you sure of the scores? In a prior post I looked at, you said yet another "near perfect" GPA/SAT/ACT person had the same rejection from all the Ivies. Can you offer specifics?</p>
<p>How were his ECs?</p>
<p>Let me guess. I'll bet they were GREAT!</p>
<p>This is the same individual, and yes, I am sure of his scores (published in our newspaper when he was interviewed). Mensa, you are mistakenly assuming that students with perfect grades and GPA who are not accepted to superselective schools have some "fatal flaw" in their application. This simply isn't true. There are many threads here with the statistics for these schools concerning which students are REJECTED. At Harvard, that means 60% of valedictorians and ~50% of 1600 (perfect) SATs are REJECTED. As I said before, the scores get you on the porch, but not in the door. Please search for the thread about andison (Andi's son) who had all of these attributes, did not choose appropriate safeties in addition to his reaches, and was accepted nowhere. He's spending this year doing a gap year and licking his wounds.</p>
<p>From one IVY or two it's plausible. From all 8, it's not plausible.</p>
<p>He was not rejected from all 8, but from 7. He was accepted by Penn which has a slightly higher acceptance rate than the others. Who really knows what is in the minds of adcoms? 4 other students from his class of 70 were accepted to Ivies (2 Yale, 1 Harvard, 1 Brown), all URMs. He is Asian.</p>
<p>I disagee that SAT scores are not extremely important but:</p>
<p>1) For every five people with top SAT scores in the 1500-1600 range, they only have room for one, and they make that choice based on EC's.</p>
<p>2) They won't split hairs between a 1550 and 1600.</p>
<p>3) If you are a URM, legacy, athlete, development case, or VIP, things are easier.</p>
<p>In answer to a previous question: For the class of 2003, there were 673 students nationally who scored a perfect 1600. Further, two thirds of them applied to Harvard and fewer than 200 were offered admission. --- "What It Really Takes to Get Into the Ivy League", Chuck Hughes</p>