Even though I’ve generally seen that anywhere greater than a 700 is considered a great score, how would a score slightly under, say 680 or 690, fair? A friend of mine is wondering as he is planning on applying to UVA, Vanderbilt and Princeton.
It depends on the test. For Math II, specifically, an 800 is really the only score you can get on that test if you want to apply to those types of schools, especially for engineering. For the science Subject Tests, high 700s; for literature and the histories, anything in the 700s (higher is preferable, however). Languages are hard to do well on if you are not a native speaker because the native speakers ruin the curves for everyone else, so if you do well on a language test and you are an english-speaker, that stands out.