Which is it? If a kid’s got over a 4.0, but an average SAT score like say, 1000-1100, are they still eligible to get into prestigious liberal arts schools like Wesleyan?
A high SAT score matters a lot more. GPA can vary wildly between schools but standardized test scores are what they can really use to measure students from different places.
And 1000-1100 (on the New SAT I’m assuming) is not a very good score. But I’m quite sure that Wesleyan went test score optional, so if you have other commendable things on your application, you should be fine.
It depends. Sweeping answers like “High SAT scores matter a lot more,” are potentially misleading.
It really depends on a number of factors. First, what’s the 4.0 made out of? If you have a 4.0 with a great deal of rigor, then that will be taken into consideration.
I am not an expert in this area, but I have spoken to many people who are. With 3 kids who’ve been high academic athletic recruits, I’ve spoken to coaches, ad coms, GCs, private college counselors, etc.
GPA matters. Standardized scores matter too. I think rigor, and showing a willingness to challenge oneself in high school is arguably the most important factor to ad coms at schools who truly do holistic reviews.
And we haven’t even introduced test optional policies.
Northwestern? Yeah, you need the test score. You’ll be numbered out there w/o it.
Williams? Amherst? Pomona? Totally depends. I am aware of even non-hooked kids who killed their IP diploma curriculum but for whatever reason did not do well on the SAT/ACT who had several very nice options.
If you’re hooked, you almost need to start a new thread. Athletic recruiting can yield some results that I think would shock most of the CC crowd. My nephew got into Brown with numbers that would blow you away … but he was a highly prized soccer player who had offers from almost the entire Pac 12.
I disagree that a high standardized test score is more important than a high GPA. Honestly for elite schools both matter because there is a huge pool of applicants who are high in both. But overall most schools will even tell you in their info sessions that the combo of GPA/rigor-of-classes-taken (relative to what was offered at your school) is more important than standardized test scores. And if you look at most of the elite school’s common data set you will see they rank GPA higher than test scores. Also, Wesleyan is test score optional but not GPA optional – what does that tell you? How do they value test scores more than GPA when they don’t even require one of them. The colleges will have detailed “profiles” on every high school. Before they do a detailed review of an individual applicant they will look at what school they applied from and review the profile. Then they will compare the student’s transcript to that profile and their other cumulative data on the historical performance of students from that school. If you get a 4.0 on the most difficult classes you could have taken in any given subject, that will usually matter more than test score. But if you’re test scores are particularly bad, and everything else is stellar, apply to schools like Wes that don’t require them.