<p>I was wondering how accurate collegeboard.com's scores are. When I went to a college fair and asked what grades you need, they were much higher than the scores posted on collegeboard.com. Can someone please give me an answer because I've been gauging my chances of this website.</p>
<p>Collegeboard should be really accurate, I use both their scores and the ones out of Princeton Review’s book. Colleges will often make it sound exceedingly difficult to get into their schools, maybe in hopes that better students will apply.</p>
<p>Thats the answer I was hoping for. thanks</p>
<p>Remember that statistics can be far off when comparing any one individual to the norm. </p>
<p>For instance - if you are looking at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) to determine if you are qualified for admissions you will find the overall GPA / SAT / ACT and other info, and it would all be statistically correct. But a more informed analysis includes that the average out of state student needs a much much higher GPA / SAT than is indicated at collegeboard. The reason is simple 80% + of the student pool must come from NC (by law), add in recruited athletes, URM, legacy, internationals, and other hooked up students and you will find that out of state students are competing in a very large pool for very few places. </p>
<p>So despite a realistic looking profile on collegeboard Chapel hill is one of the hardest schools in the country to get into OOS and you need top scores and accomplishments to be considered. But CH and many other schools will be happy to take your application fee.</p>
<p>I think they can be a little off. I noticed that the websites for some of the schools we were looking at listed slightly higher standardized testing than the CB site. It may be that CB is going by older numbers and the college website has newer numbers.</p>
<p>^ Agreed, there are some schools that collegeboard didn’t even have numbers. I think the best is to check on the school’s website personally or contact an admission officer if necessary.</p>
<p>I think College Board statistics for SAT, ACT test scores and GPAs are a bit low. I base this opinion on an observation that many of the college admission information sessions we attended quoted higher statistics than College Board. Also, when I go to a college’s own website, if they have profile information and stats on their most recent Freshman class, it is usually closer to what they said at the admissions session, and it is usually higher than College Board.</p>
<p>ncmentor nailed it. You also need to look at what degree your going into. For example, engineering students have much higher stats than the “normal” students that averages would suggest.<br>
But it all still comes down to the fact that you should ALWAYS strive to get the highest scores you possibly can get. Higher scores are always good and never settle for a score you consider “safe”. Continue to strive for higher scores and bettering yourself. You can never do too much work (as long as its quality work. Don’t do a bunch of average work).</p>
<p>“go to a college’s own website, if they have profile information and stats on their most recent Freshman class” - </p>
<p>Great Advice BayAreaCAMom, but you are still looking at statistics that can be far off when comparing any one individual to the norm. The numbers will be more up to date but may contain the same statical problems that I mentioned above.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the info. Ill go and check the school’s website instead of CB</p>
<p>College Board (like US News and Princeton Review) publish middle 50% ranges that are essentially a year behind. In other words, they are showing stats for the entry class of 2008, not 2009. The reason: the colleges do not report to those organizations the stats on their entry class until a few months after the class actually starts. So most colleges have yet to give those organizations the stats on the entry class of 2009 and thus what those organizations are reporting right now is class of 2008. Colleges themselves, however, will, if they publish middle 50% range on-line, publish it for class of 2009 because they in fact have the stats. Thus the college can easily be showing different figures than those organizations. </p>
<p>Also, CB and others publish university wide figures and actual middle 50% ranges can vary significantly among types of majors, for example, the 50% range for engineering is generally always higher than a university’s published 50% for the university as a whole and often by a large margin.</p>
<p>"You also need to look at what degree your going into. For example, engineering students have much higher stats than the “normal” students that averages would suggest. "</p>
<p>Absolutely. Killergiant: In another post you mentioned being interested in pharmacy. That would be another major where much higher stats are needed to be accepted into that major.</p>