<p>ok so im rlly looking into some hard b-schools.. as in wharton, stern, sloan etc....
my ec's are good.. im just worried about academics</p>
<p>i have 90/100 average and a 2370/2400 on my SAT...</p>
<p>i have heard that colleges look at academics as a whole, like gpa and sat combined..
so if you have a high sat and a low gpa and they average those two out you can still make the academic cut...</p>
<p>how does this stuff work.. i know my average is low for wharton and sloan.. and my sat is above average.. how will they look at that?</p>
<p>These schools view applicants as a whole. The great SAT will catch peoples’ attn. So will the 90/100 – but in a bad way. What’s your class ranking? It’s hard to know.</p>
<p>Nice SAT! Unfortunately, I think colleges will tend to look more negatively at a lower GPA/high SAT then a lower SAT/high GPA since a GPA is an accumulation of your work throughout high school and reflects your work ethic, etc. more than the SAT does. What do you mean by 90/100 average? Does that mean a 3.6 unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>well a lot can happen in four years… people go through life struggles, face hardships, lose loved etc. which can affect them during a 4 yr span… 4 yrs is a long time and a lot can happen…</p>
<p>my school doesnt do gpa and class rank… it is a rigorous college prep school.</p>
<p>This seems to me like an argument for valuing grades more highly than test scores. After all, college lasts for four years. So what’s probably a better predictor of the way you’ll handle ups and downs in college–the way you handled ups and downs during high school, or how well you did filling in ovals on one Saturday morning?</p>
<p>From what I’ve recently read, I think especially at these schools you have to have both high GPA and SATs, but the SAT is more important. Also, the SAT2s are equally important. At this level, work ethic is not as important as genius. People with a good work ethic and not genius (not saying high SATs=genius or low doesn’t, just that its a better indication) are considered grinds, and for the top schools, are less valued. You don’t want a rec to say “he struggled with the material but through hard work he did well.” That’s a dime a dozen.</p>
<p>I completely disagree. If I rooted around on College Confidential, or if I googled, I could find a fairly recent quote from the Dean of Admissions at Yale saying that the single most important document in an applicant’s file is the transcript. Or, if you doubt me, you can either post-stalk me to find posts in which I’ve linked to that quote before, or you can Google it for yourself.</p>
<p>In college, particularly at elite colleges, being smart isn’t sufficient. You’ve got to do the work, and do it consistently and well. Transcripts and teacher recommendations say a lot more about an applicant’s ability to do that than standardized test scores do.</p>
<p>GPA is amassed over a longer period of time and is typically considered more indicative of overall ability and work ethic. </p>
<p>SAT is a one day event and certainly doesn’t prove ‘genius’. It does however, reflect your ability to take standardized tests.</p>
<p>Redpoint, the rec won’t say “he struggled with the material but through hard work he did well”, it will say “he worked hard and performed well.” I guarantee you those types are not a dime a dozen.</p>
<p>Schools like Wharton and Sloan can fill their classes multiple times over with high GPA/high SAT students. You’re going to need a truly compelling story to have them pay attention.</p>
<p>How much GPA and SAT contribute towards admissions decision varies by school, as well as numerous other factors. However, the admissions stats data for most top schools suggest a lower percentile GPA would hurt more than the same percentile on SAT. For example, the Stanford website admissions stats page shows a 1% admit rate for persons in 80-89th percentile class rank… while the stats suggest a ~2% admit rate for a similar percentile in SAT/ACT (approximate because stats for exact percentiles are not available). Having a low GPA and SAT both hurt you significantly, but a low GPA seems to hurt more. </p>
<p>Most top school take a holistic view and consider the whole application, rather than just discarding applications because of a low score. It’s certainly not impossible for the original poster to get accepted to highly selective schools with a 90/100 average. I was accepted to Stanford, MIT, Cornell, and Brown with approximately the same average (91/100). Instead it means that you need to have something really unique app that stands out enough to make them overlook your poor grades. A high SAT score is not enough something like ECs, awards, initiative, personality that looks impressive on a state/national level.</p>