<p>I talked to an admissions officer at Stanford the other night, and I asked her about standardized test scores. I wanted to know if my bad math section on the SAT would hurt me. For the record, I have:</p>
<p>CR:800
M:670 (690 superscore, which stanford does)
W:800</p>
<p>Calc BC:5
Math IIC: 760
I am a white middle class male planning to major in political science.</p>
<p>I told her all of this, and she said "If you don't get in to Stanford, your test scores will not be why."</p>
<p>I realize that all of this is very specific to me, but for all those of you looking for chances, I think it is valuable to get some opinions every now and then from those that actually make the decisions, rather than random people on the internet. I guess the main point is that this gives a frame of reference as far as what standardized test scores upper-echelon colleges are looking for, and shows that those who claim (and there are many on this board who will) that without a 2350+ you have a zero percent chance at such a school do not know what they are talking about.</p>
<p>i agree, but a 2350 + would definitely help. no? how are you so awesome at english? english is very difficult for me. especially reading passages.. english is my second language.. im not a permanent resident btw which is again.. harder for me</p>
<p>well, the thing with big time schools (at least how it seems to me) is if you get into a certain range, your test scores won't hurt or help you. they just allow you to pass that step in the process. to answer your question, it doesn't seem like many schools place a whole lot of emphasis on differences in scores that are very high. for example, on the ACT, anything 32+ is in the 99th percentile, so it seems very unlikely that admissions officers would look down upon someone because they had a 34 and another person had a 36. a 2350+ can do almost nothing but good for your chances, but i doubt an applicant with that score will be seen any differently from a person like me, or at least that's what i extrapolate from the officer's comments. as for english, years and years of living in the united states ;). i'd love to help you, but i've honestly never studied a lick for standardized tests. i read a lot when i was a kid. it could help just to find an author you like that writes in english and spend a lot of your spare time reading. and as for writing, after you get a good feel for the english language from reading, just pick any thing that you're thinking about, an write about it. go back and read each sentence and try to think of ways to say it better. good luck.</p>
<p>You needn't worry unless you're counting on standardized tests to be your "hook" into Stanford. 2290 is a highly respectable score and 690 is within the midrange. However, take what an adcom says with a grain of salt. Even if the 690 would cause you to be denied (which it won't) she wouldn't have told you that.</p>
<p>this was for the benefit of other people, not me. i've long since given up on asking for chances on this website, and just wanted those that still ask for them to have something concrete amongst all the people's guessing that ranges from educated to totally random.</p>