<p>I felt I had to post this, having gone through the last few months of many ups and downs with the college applications process, and still going through it with my niece and two nephews.........its been an education, an experience to never forget and something that I give every kid applying to college lots of credit for.
When I was reading over the recent results from the March SAT, I was super impressed and quite floored by the incredible scores. My son scored a 2040 which was amazing and my nephew scored a 2300 even more amazing but as we are surrounded by these scores and they are tossed around like everyday numbers, we must keep this in perspective. The average SAT score is about 1540 for the average high school senior. Therefore the incredible numbers on this board while ultra impressive do not at all represent the majority, in fact they represent only a tiny and highly accomplished sliver. Therefore.........</p>
<p>PLEASE DO NOT FEEL DISCOURAGED WHEN READING THE SAT SCORES/GPA'S AND CHANCE THREADS ON GETTING INTO A PARTICULAR COLLEGE</p>
<p>My other nephew who is a sophmore came on this board a few days ago as I told him its a vault of information.....came on and was totally intimidated. I can really understand why he reacted that way, and his exact words to me were "Going on that board made me feel like I will never get into college, I think I am better staying away from it". So I do think that CC, while being an outstanding resource is catered to the very very highly accomplished student, many ivy league/top tier students and some of the "normal" or average students can feel like they are drowning in a sea of near perfect scorse and gpa's. Of course with this being a hypercompetitive year as it is, everything is just magnified and that much more competitive with the crazy numbers of kids applying to college this year! </p>
<p>Just keep in mind this is not the reflection of the average kid, and that chances are if you are even on this board, you are a highly competitive student, who is concerned about his college future and that there is a school for everyone!</p>
<p>As a new parent to this board I agree with you. I find a great deal of interesting information about the college process and wish I had come across this site earlier. My son is more near the average(90 GPA, 1190/1710 SAT, 27 ACT, some honors courses, no AP, in a small private HS, good EC's) and the schools he applied to were lower tier one and two ( I consider SUNY Binghamton a reach school for him). It's unfortunate that there is so little input on this site for the middle of the road kids and their schools. My daughter who is currently in 10th will fit the mold of the majority of students here so it has been very interesting and informative to read the many post about different schools and admission issues that concern them. It could definitely be discouraging and intimidating to those who don't fit this mold.</p>
<p>okay i half-agree with what you say. Yeah the average score is 1540 but "average applicants" do not get into top colleges. Most of the times posts talk about the top 50 colleges in US and those colleges set very high standards. Initially i also thought that CC posters were unreal when they said to an applicant to an ivy with a 2200 sat score that "it would help to retake the sat and increase your score!!" but i realize that they might be PARTIALLY right. Indeed it is only to give others a "reality check" when they are told that 2200 might not cut it for MIT.</p>
<p>"It's unfortunate that there is so little input on this site for the middle of the road kids and their schools"</p>
<p>I am hoping that over the next few years (D2 is a freshman) this site will become more popular for this group....I'm going to have to start all over again....(VERY different kids)....</p>
<p>I guess it depends on your choice of college. Most people on CC are those applying to top colleges (atleast they say so) and hence the "overachiever" stats. If you aren't applying to the Top 50, I don't see why you should be nervous. But if you are applying to the Top colleges, this is nothing but plain reality.</p>
<p>I disagree that one should not be discouraged about getting into a PARTICULAR college if his test scores are below 25th percentile. Low scores hurt your chances.
I agree that one can get into great schools without 2250+ SAT. Especially if the person does not depend on merit aid.</p>
<p>As for the scores you quoted: 2300 is really high, this site or not. I do not remember reading suggestions to re-take SAT with this score. At least they are not common. 2040 is trickier. It can be pretty good if the lowest score is for the writing section. Or it can be low even for moderately selective state schools if the Math+CR are around 1250 or if an engineering applicant sored below 600 on math.</p>