<p>i’d go for SAT. that’s coz i have got a high sat but a low gpa. really hope the sat works for me.:D</p>
<p>Uh Super HIgh GPA matters a lot more.</p>
<p>I vote for OK GPA and OK SAT scores, because EC’s will determine the rest ;0</p>
<p>The SAT, because it is standardized while the GPA is not. </p>
<p>A super high GPA may mean that the school had low standards or the student took non-challenging classes.</p>
<p>The problem is that the SAT cannot really be super-high. 2400 is not super-high. It would be great if there were a more difficult version of the SAT for the more competitive colleges so that the top percentiles can be stratified further into the truly gifted intellects and the merely bright kids.</p>
<p>That would depend on how low the other would have to be. If I had to choose between a 3.5 UW GPA w/ a 2400 SAT and a 4.0 UW GPA and an 1800 SAT score, I would probably go with the first option, but this could be because I’m more like the latter. I have a 4.0 UW GPA w/ an 1860 SAT. Idealy I would be happiest with a 3.8 UW and 2150 SAT. It would show that I’m pretty hardworking and pretty smart yet still human.</p>
<p>I’d prefer to have the high SAT score. More heads turn at a perfect SAT score than a perfect GPA by far.</p>
<p>“The problem is that the SAT cannot really be super-high. 2400 is not super-high. It would be great if there were a more difficult version of the SAT for the more competitive colleges so that the top percentiles can be stratified further into the truly gifted intellects and the merely bright kids.”</p>
<p>According to my calculations 16 out of 10,000 SAT takers score a 2340 or higher. With only 269 perfect scorers a year (not counting superscored of course) do we really need more stratification? And “gifted intellects”, “merely bright kids”??? what???</p>
<p>Anyway, my vote is for the sat</p>
<p>Well, for the 2300 kid. He helps someone run an SAT prep thing. That’s why he had a high SAT. And I’m not denying he’s not smart because he’s one of the smartest people I know. He’s just lazy. He doens’t do his homework ever and always has a lame excuse for not turning something in. He only gets away with it because teachers like him.</p>
<p>It depends what kind of GPA a Super high SAT scorer would have and what SAT score a Super High GPAer would have. But if we’re talking 3.5 2400 vs 4.0 1800, the choice is very clear IMO, 3.5 2400.</p>
<p>I’ve got both, but my ECs are mediocre at best, and I don’t think I have a chance at most superselective colleges. I’d prefer fairly high GPA, fairly high SAT, and outstanding ECs.</p>
<p>GPA doesn’t always tell everything. People say the SAT is based on luck. Yeah well GPA is as well. Sometimes you get ridiculously easy teachers who in turn make the tests, quizzes, hw, etc easy. I have had quite a few. I wouldn’t even have to study to get an A in the class. And I have some teachers who make the class so hard that it becomes impossible to get an A. While at another school that same exact class will be taught by an easy teacher and everyone will get an A. See how that works?</p>
<p>I would take a 2400 over a 4.5. 2400’s are way more rare.</p>
<p>High SAT. You can have a 4.0 UW, but if you school has alot of grade inflation, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>SAT based on luck? I think not. Saying these kids are merely smart but not genuis level? Please. Anyone who scores a 2400 IS EXTREMELY SMART AND IN MY BOOK IS A GENUIS. I do agree that a 4.0 is way more common than finding someone who scores 2300-2400. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>4.0 UW GPA @ Private School >>>> 4.0 UW GPA @ Public School</p>
<p>The above is true almost all of the time, yet both students look the exact same on paper (which seems very unfair to me since I go to private school)~ SAT is needed to differentiate between the two groups.</p>
<p>Though SAT-2400 are very, very rare… they can be mitigated by a poor GPA. There is no excuse for doing poorly in school for 4 years.</p>
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<p>I did not say that only 2400 scorers need more stratification. I feel that all high-scoring students (lets say the top 2% scorers) should be offered an exam that helps separate the (merely) extremely bright kids from the truly gifted intellects. </p>
<p>Let me explain. At the 750-800 level, the high scores don’t really test intellectual ability, but just the test-taking skills. The underlying exam questions are not themselves so challenging, rather the key to getting a perfect score is in not making silly mistakes or not falling into one of the many “SAT traps”. This is why the most selective colleges don’t care so much if your score was a 2400 or 2300. They know the SAT just does not have such a high resolution.</p>
<p>Instead, if you had a separate exam for the top scorers with all really hard questions in which they were tested on higher order thinking skills you would be able to separate out the truly gifted individuals from the highly prepped smart kids.</p>
<p>And BTW, there are tens of thousands of high school seniors with scores in the 750-800 range every year.</p>
<p>I’ve pasted the data below from Collegeboard for 2007:</p>
<pre><code> Critical Reading Mathematics Writing
</code></pre>
<p>Score Range Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total
750800 13,647 14,713 28,366 23,281 11,852 35,136 8,418 11,396 19,814 </p>
<p>The entire report can be found on:</p>
<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<p>Yajimari21 A 4.0 at a private school could be better than a 4.0 at a public school, but that would be dependent on course selection, which is why colleges take course rigor into account.</p>
<p>My choice would be to have both high GPA and high SAT.:)</p>
<p>That data doesn’t even superscore the best tests. It only takes the latest.</p>
<p>vicariousparent: that’s the principle behind above level testing a la Duke TIP where you are tested in 7th grade.</p>
<p>There’s something inherently eccentric, for lack of a better word, in a large discrepancy between GPA and SAT/ACT scores. If I was reviewing an application, I would not dismiss it outright but would expect quite a bit of explanation on the part of the student.</p>