<p>if you have a 2400 in the sat reasoning and 3 800s in sat subject tests, are you necessarily guaranteed a spot? if you get these scores (and assuming good grades) and are an incredibly boring person, will you get in?</p>
<p>thanks for any input.</p>
<p>Well, I guess they consider it somewhat of a hook. But it's certainly not a guaranteed 'in'..
It would certainly make you stand out though.. It also depends on the number of sittings I guess.. Imagine if you did it all at once (urrmm, twice, of course, since you cant do them both at once XD)</p>
<p>Did you score the double 2400? If that's true, that's seriously epic! I bow for you.</p>
<p>Harvard has definitely rejected people with perfect scores and of course accepted people with perfect scores. Keep in mind, they look at your application as a whole, so a strength in one are may not necessarily carry the rest.</p>
<p>I think the answer to the OP's question is that if you have a perfect 4800, and very good grades, and are an incredibly boring person, you will probably not be accepted at Harvard. I don't think there's much evidence that test scores are used for much more than (a) part of a rough initial screen to see which applicants merit careful attention, and (b) a very weak factor in any assessments after that point. So perfect standardized test scores will definitely get you a hard look, and won't ever hurt, exactly, but aren't anywhere near sufficient for admission. They won't be regarded with awe, and they won't make up for awkward essays, lukewarm recommendations, or an aura of not being someone who is passionate and curious.</p>
<p>If SAT scores were that big a deal for Harvard, its 75-25 range would be much, much narrower. Harvard accepts a lot of people with lower SAT scores not because it doesn't have plenty of applicants with higher scores, but because the people with lower scores have attributes Harvard values more. </p>
<p>And every year Harvard finds some way to brag about the number of perfect SAT I scorers it rejects. Back when the SAT I was on a 1600 scale, Harvard used to reject about half of 1600 scorers. There are a lot fewer 2400 scorers, and Harvard may not reject half of them, but I'm not certain Harvard even really pays attention to the writing test (many elite colleges don't).</p>
<p>Sorry.</p>
<p>Also, I should have added before, that one of the MIT admissions staffers wrote a great blog entry about this topic two or three years ago. The basic idea was: we don't pay attention to perfect scores. Low scores can raise concerns about an application, but once we determine that the test score are "alright", that's pretty much the end of their effect on decisions.</p>
<p>Of course, the qualities that selective colleges like Harvard are looking for DO correlate positively with high test scores, so it's not surprising that lots of people with high test scores are admitted, even if the test scores themselves aren't very important in the evaluation process.</p>
<p>A couple of 800's may be construed as chance, not a whole slew of them and
in one sitting?</p>
<p>At my school there have been 2 such cases of perfect scorers getting into H
(being waitlisted and rejected most other places by the way mostly due to
their really low GPAs). </p>
<p>As for the "boring" part
- no one who has had the intelligence to score prefectly in <em>all</em> these exams
would have possibly left their background to chance interpretation? </p>
<p>The 2 students at my school (different years) had ECs but had not won any
major awards.</p>
<p>i sure as hell hope they ignore writing.
i then have a 1570 + 2400 (in lit, chem and math 2c btw, god lit was tough)
hopefully not a boring guy, but yeah... a boring person can get through if he can show passion in wat he wants to do... thats where essays can help</p>
<p>I think it doesn't help that much if you don't already have an excellent resume</p>
<p>however, if you have an excellent resume, a 2400 or a near 2400 would def make you stand out from the other applicants with excellent resumes</p>
<p>admission officers believe that SATs are a rough estimate of your IQ, so, I believe that it is quite important. </p>
<p>Btw, I have a 2390 :)</p>
<p>Well, I have a 2400 on the SAT I, two 800s + one 790 on the SAT II, and a 36 on the ACT (I'm one of the few people who took both the SAT and ACT), but my GPA totally stinks and my EC's are practically bare to the bone.</p>
<p>MIT012, I really hope that you're right, haha.</p>
<p>well considering that a lot of kids in prestigious colleges have perfect or almost perfect scores, they certainly count for something</p>
<p>Hmmm...interesting question. If all my scores were in one sitting (2400 + 800 + 800) except one (750 --> 800), will that matter? Obviously, I have grades and ECs to back it up, but clearly standardized testing is my strength...</p>
<p>i think the fact that you got a 2400 and three 800's says enough. congrats, btw</p>
<p>Thanks. I know it sounds ridiculous that I'm asking that, but was just wondering... When you have so many applicants, it's hard not to have a "rejections committee" mentality to some degree...</p>
<p>They do not guarantee admission. They are quite impressive. I'm guessing if you're the kind of person who can put together those types of scores, you're also the type of person with excellent grades and strong ECs. If so, you have an excellent shot. If you only have SATs, don't hold your breath waiting for acceptance.</p>
<p>How would a school like Harvard view a 2300?
800 Writing, 780 Math, 720 Critical Reading.
Subpar?</p>
<p>^Same as a 2400. "Welcome to the club. What else have you got to show me?"
"Else" being the key word here.</p>
<p>^No. People need to stop saying that scores that differ by 100 points are the same. Sure, they don't focus too much on them. But no school except maybe MIT has suggested ANYTHING along the lines of the SAT scores getting dismissed once they are above a certain threshold.</p>
<p>This is where the details come in. If you got 2300 in 10th grade, early 11th, last chance in December of sr year? Is it superscored? Did the 2400 come after 6 tries, one sitting, many sittings? I'm sure the score will attract extra attention to the application regardless, that's why I stress the "else" part.</p>
<p>I don't think the MIT position in the blog I cited is unique to MIT at all. I referred to it as indicative of the attitude at all elite universities: standardized testing is not that interesting.</p>
<p>Here's a line from a high-ranking Yale admissions person a few years ago: "How much attention do we pay to SATs? A lot less than you think we do, and a little more than we admit." (But, like the MIT blog, he went on to say that there was no functional difference between how they regarded a 2400 and 2300.)</p>
<p>I have not heard that from any rep from Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Penn, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>I'm just going off these:</p>
<p>Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics</p>
<p>A person with 2300-2400 has more chance of getting accepted than a student with a 4.0 (not a true comparison, but you know what I mean).</p>
<p>Either schools like Princeton highly value to the SAT, or the SAT has a huge correlation with grades and ECs. Is this a false dilemma? Is there an alternate explanation for the huge correlation between SAT scores and acceptance?</p>