This is not actually what it means. 32’s could conceivably run all the way up to 74th percentile (if there were no 33’s and 34’s).
But this IS true.
@multiverse7: Harvard’s disclaimer on their Common Data Set before the C9 data
If 25% of Harvard’s admitted students scored at or below a 32, wouldn’t that mean 33’s and 34’s run up to the 74th percentile?
Not necessarily. For example, say you had 100 scores and you ranked the from lowest to highest. If the 25th lowest score was a 32 then that would be the 25th percentile. That doesn’t mean scores above that couldn’t also be a 32 as well. Suppose the next 15 scores are also a 32, then the 40th percentile is also a 32. Also suppose that for some strange reason Harvard decides to take no 33’s or 34’s but lots of 32’s and below and some 35’s and 36’s. You could have the 74th percentile be 32 and the 75th be 35!
Statistics aren’t always what they appear to be.
I’m not a statistician, but I would say the actual chances of that happening in any given year are zero.
Agreed. It was just for illustrative purposes.
Gosh, an Ivy is certainly a possibility. Harvard could certainly end up working for you.
I went to Harvard, and before getting the acceptance letter, I never figured that I’d get in; I went to a school that was just worlds away from Harvard and it certainly wasn’t a path that I ever figured I’d be able to take.
So…study hard and hard for the SAT/ACT and take one or both again, and give it your best!
I agree with the above post: don’t focus on a particular school because either you’ll get into it and to others and then the choice will be traumatizing, or else you won’t, and that will be traumatizing. (Either way, if you focus on a particular school, it will end up being traumatizing.) So just do your very best and you can be confident that you’ll get into somewhere amazing.
Sell your soul to satan for Harvard lol.
Ivy League = crap shoot
I hope it works out for you though. Good luck!
Self study, as long as you do a lot of timed practice tests, can improve your tests scores.
Be sure you are going over your wrong answers and getting them right. Speed can make a huge difference in your score, and to get ypur speed up ypu need to drill/practice.