<p>^
Well everything is biased. The thing is, I have a pretty good gpa but I know that there are people with lower ones who are smarter than me and higher ones as well. The past couple years of school showed me how subjective it can be like the factors you stated.</p>
<p>The standardized tests are not perfect, but they are far more objective.</p>
<p>I personally don’t know for sure, but I think I have evidence to back it up (unfortunately?) I got into all of my universities (UCLA, UCB, and UCSD) with an overall GPA of 4.35 and an SAT score of 1750 out of 2400. I think the reason behind this is because the since the SAT tests knowledge over 4 years, it’s pretty hard for an average junior/senior to do really well on the test since they must have forgotten a lot (like me). But with GPA, each grade that counts into it represents your performance for the certain year you did the subject, and so its more chronologically accurate? I mean, I personally have a distaste for exams that test knowledge of back when I was a freshman, when I’m already a senior, since the only knowledge you really have fresh in your mind is all the stuff you learn in your freshman year. I don’t know if this is an accurate answer, but oh well… hope it helps… I don’t know if you’re in college yet, but I hope you become successful with wherever your scores and GPA get you!</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks SAT is worth as much as, or more than, your GPA is delusional - and this is coming from someone who got 2340 without any formal prepping. In high school I was quite possibly one of the laziest students in my grade, almost failing to graduate because I didn’t have the number of units required. </p>
<p>SAT requires little to no knowledge and certainly no time commitment to do well in, as M is a joke, CR is general comprehension and W is pulling fluff out of your posterior and memorising a few grammar rules that are repeated to death in the exam. The SAT is simply a measurement of your reasoning skills and hardly reflect on your work ethic, argument construction and most importantly, your ability to understand and interpret knowledge. I’m not saying the GPA is a perfect indicator of those skills, but I’d say an average of your performance in a class setting over 4 years is, however bias it may be, a far better indicator of how you will most likely perform in college. Plus if you know your stuff and do your work, you aren’t going to get a terrible GPA out of the blue like some people seem to imply. In fact, I’d say you have to work rather hard to have recognisably terrible grades like mine. Just because you get a high SAT score doesn’t mean you’re a great student, it just means you know how to take a test that has a very widely known question structure.</p>
<p>^ Well colleges especially the top ones seem to think differently.</p>
<p>A little research would help this discussion. There actually have been studies about this. The best predictor of freshman grades is a student’s HS GPA … however it is not a very strong predictor at all. And the SATs are almost as good a predictor. Not surprising having both HS GPAs and SATs is a better predictor than any one alone. A couple follow-on comments … first, I do not remember if SAT subject tests were part of the study … second, even if we know what predicts freshman grades well I’m not sure how that translate into life success.</p>
<p>I sure hope SAT counts more than GPA, but from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t</p>
<p>There are some schools where scores are more highly weighted than GPA. Among them are Nebraska and South Carolina.</p>
<p>Not in the Northeast US though…</p>
<p>@Miugha</p>
<p>Well if someone doesnt score high which means they dont have the “basic reasoning skills” as you described, should they really go to college even if they have a high gpa?</p>
<p>@CinnabonCereal</p>
<p>Your an exception with your combination of scores and gpa. But your point about not being able to remember things from freshman year is kind of weak. At most, the math is up to algebra 2 and most of it is 8-9th grade math. If you cant yet grasp the simpler concepts, how can you move on in the future when all these basic concepts will come together?</p>
<p>I have a 3.65 weighted gpa and a 32 on the ACT… I sure hope standardized tests can make a low gpa look better! And yea, I agree that GPA’s vary a ton by schools. I just don;t think it’s fair how someone who can’t manage a 3.0 in my school go to some public school and get a 4.0 there :(</p>
<p>My two cents: SAT is a stronger measuring of intelligence while a GPA is more work ethic. My friend is the valedictorian of his public high school. I attend a nearby math and science specialized high school with crazy grade deflation(top 20 in US). My friend was not accepted to my high school! He has a perfect GPA with 3 AP classes this year! He gets less than 1 hour of homework per night! Even he says he is not at the caliber of most kids at my high school! Why should I be punished for taking on a greater challenge? With no AP classes, but the highest for a freshman, I get at least four hours of homework per night and I am working my ass of every night trying to get straight As! It is very discouraging seeing that I am on the border in English(I have a 92 :{) but my friend has As is lazy. Also my schools ranking system is crap. All the top kids are the idiots in LEVEL OF CLASS BELOW! REGULAR ONES. I get a point .1 boost for getting into top classes! Why should I be punished? Also, I am not going to brag about anything that validates me as smart, but for those who brush me off as someone making excuses, message me as i don’t want to post things publicly.</p>
<p>I don’t believe for a moment that the SAT is a measure of “intelligence”. At best, it is a measure of basic skills in the three content areas and a mastery of test-taking skills.</p>
<p>SATs only reflect a single snapshot of your mental capabilities. In great contrast to this, your GPA reflects your mental capabilities over the span of four years.</p>
<p>A good GPA demonstrates that the student is not lazy and it allows higher admission chances for students in schools where minorities are majorities.</p>
<p>Either way, a weak SAT score (relative to that school) can and probably will kill your application (unless you are hooked). Same goes with GPA and class rank.</p>
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<p>I actually got accepted to the College of Engineering at Cornell university and Carnegie Mellon University. Both were turned down for Rensselaer because I got 0 in aid from cornell and CMU and a $33,000 scholarship from Rensselaer. Nice try.</p>
<p>@JoBenny</p>
<p>and thats exactly the reason why. If you cant do well on a test that tests basic reasoning skills and some skills you are supposed to learn throughout school, what difference does it make if you have a perfect gpa. </p>
<p>But I do recognize the work ethic and commitment need to get a perfect gpa though but still!!</p>
<p>Course load + GPA is, in my opinion, a better representation of one’s abilities than the SAT. I think the ACT + GPA is a good combination though.</p>
<p>@blah</p>
<p>I agree about the course load.</p>
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<p>I can’t believe you even bothered to justify yourself to that post. :P</p>
<p>Also, just my two cents. I attended a Yale admission info session today (literally 7 hours ago), and they explicitly stated that they, along with other top tier institutions value your GPA more than the SAT scores. And that sucks for me, since I’m an extremely lazy student with a crappy GPA who happened to score extremely well on the SAT.</p>