<p>Here is my way of approaching this difficult problem:</p>
<p>1) SATs and/or GPA get your foot in the door.
2) ECs, Talents, and Recs get you in the room.
3) The essay closes the door behind you.</p>
<p>Here is my way of approaching this difficult problem:</p>
<p>1) SATs and/or GPA get your foot in the door.
2) ECs, Talents, and Recs get you in the room.
3) The essay closes the door behind you.</p>
<p>People always talk about all the perfect scorers that get rejected by top universities. But what about all those that get in? </p>
<p>If I am correct HYP reject about 1/2 of perfect scorers. honestly, 50/50 chances at harvard sounds pretty good to me.</p>
<p>"Here is my way of approaching this difficult problem:</p>
<p>1) SATs and/or GPA get your foot in the door.
2) ECs, Talents, and Recs get you in the room.
3) The essay closes the door behind you."</p>
<p>So someone with a 4.0 uw/1600/800/800/800 with very little ECs (let's say Who's who and 40 hours comm serv to fulfill grad. reqs.), who has a terrible relationships with his reccomenders, and no talents besides academic, and who writes a terrible essay gets rejected everywhere he/she goes? Absolutely not. I think he's probably a guarantee for 1/3 of the schools in the top 25</p>
<p>
[quote]
So someone with a 4.0 uw/1600/800/800/800 with very little ECs (let's say Who's who and 40 hours comm serv to fulfill grad. reqs.), who has a terrible relationships with his reccomenders, and no talents besides academic, and who writes a terrible essay gets rejected everywhere he/she goes? Absolutely not. I think he's probably a guarantee for 1/3 of the schools in the top 25
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry, I should have confined the scope of this analysis Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Rice, Georgetown, and Dartmouth; there might be others, but I am not familiar with the amount of competition they receive or their admission-patterns.</p>
<p>Colleges look at contexts.
Amherst admissions officer said SATs are not very important when considering those from poor economic/social background but are important when considering those who've had means to study for the test. My friend from ghetto school got into Swarthmore with 1300 SAT and another from similar background got into Harvard with not-quite-high SAT. </p>
<p>But don't justify your low score by saying SAT's don't matter much, because unless you're disadvataged, they do matter much.</p>
<p>OMG guys, who cares who makes it. lets only care about our direction. the numbers might be discoraging sum1 or encouraging. so who cares? lets just try to get in our college we r applying to.</p>
<p>btw, i m going to apply to harvard, yale, princeton, and basically all the ivy leagues. then i will send my applications to the top 50 universities of the U.S..</p>
<p>Yes, the phrase that "not all 1600s get into Ivys" does not really say anything except that a 1600 is not a prerequisite for gaining admissions into one; I also think the claim "SATs do not count much" is overrated; in reality, SATs count a lot, but that does not mean that one must have the highest score possible, only that it falls in a certain range, all things being equal.</p>
<p>I strongly doubt a 1000 scorer would get into Harvard and 1200s-1290s are rare admits because of certain mitigating circumstances; these two facts alone tell me that the SAT counts significantly.</p>
<p>"the creator of this thread is trying to make himself feel better, thats y he created a thread "</p>
<p>Actually, I'm quite comfortable with my 1470 (760V, 710M).</p>
<p>And to the previous poster, who stated:
"I strongly doubt a 1000 scorer would get into Harvard and 1200s-1290s are rare admits because of certain mitigating circumstances; these two facts alone tell me that the SAT counts significantly."</p>
<p>Those two facts do not tell you that the SAT counts significantly. All it says is that if you get under 1300, you don't have good chances, which I agree with. I was speaking to the upper echelon of SAT test-takers, with the range of 1350 or 1400 +.</p>
<p>
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Those two facts do not tell you that the SAT counts significantly.
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</p>
<p>
[quote]
All it says is that if you get under 1300, you don't have good chances, which I agree with.
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</p>
<p>So there is somewhat of a cutoff in terms of who is considered; I think that is a fairly significant factor in admissions. In regard to your narrowing the scope down to 1350+, I would be inclined to agree; however, 1600s are given more weight than 1350s, the real question is "how much more?"</p>
<p>and then again, if the SATs didn`t matter, why would it matter to most admission committees? of course it matters to some extent.</p>
<p>SATs matter a lot. They are just as important as your grades or your courseload . All these things are important and have weight in your application. Having said that, the SAT isn't everything, but it is a quite a big chunk of your academics.</p>
<p>This post is misleading and frankly wrong. For white students and asians, unless you have extreme ECs, you basically need a 1500+ at top schools.</p>
<p>YES U R RIGHT ENCO.........dang, i hope this ends the convo because i think that THE SAT MATTER A LOT</p>
<p>The SAT matters. Test scores are an even playing field. That way, you can compare someone who may not have had the best study conditions to someone who has his own wing of the house and an E46 M3 parked next to a B7 S4 (both chipped). If the 1st had a 2.9, but explains his situation and gets a 1590 you know he may excel. If mister moneybags with the E46 gets a 800-1150 but has a 4.0....something might not be right! They matter. For some schools maybe even a little bit more than GPA, for some a little bit less. Discounting it might give false assurance, but it is important. If you are stressing just calm down and do your best...chances are you'll do well enough if you are a good student anyway.</p>