<p>Is the SAT really that important? I've discussed this with my teacher today. She told me not to worry too much about the SAT. She told me that the SAT is only some percent off your college application. There will always be essays, recommendations, and extracurriculars. If she is telling the truth, then why do people spend years studying for the SAT?</p>
<p>Is the SAT viewed more importantly than the other factors? Like on a scale of 100, how many percent will the SAT affect you?</p>
<p>Many schools count the SAT as 45% of the admission factor. </p>
<p>SAT/ACT 45%
GPA/RANK 45%
ECs/other 10%</p>
<p>The SAT shows how well you reason things and thus the higher your score is, the more a college would want you.</p>
<p>In sum, the SAT is very important just to squeeze you into the “alright we’ll look at his/her application” category.</p>
<p>Then comes the “well, is his/her grades/rank/gpa good?” , and after that is “well, there seems to be 3-4 other students with the same GPA/rank/SAT/ACT” and finally “lets look at the 10% admission factor, his/her ECs…”</p>
<p>So basically, while SATs and ACTs count alot (and i mean alot!) in admission factors, ECs are what really distinguish you from the others.</p>
<p>Depends where you’re applying. At certain state schools, the SAT is everything- admissions, scholarships, honors college. But at top universities, your SAT score is expected to be high, so it is not that important. After a certain score (usually 2250+), your SAT is not important. Which is rather hypocritical, but hey! That’s life.</p>
<p>well your teacher was right: SAT is only one part of the admissions process. But, the reason people spend years studying for it is because it is the one objective part of admissions that isn’t too difficult to score well on.</p>
<p>Have you read any of Michele Hernandez’s books? She’s an ex-Dartmouth admissions officer, and she sort of spills the beans on how important the SAT really is. Admission officers will deny that the SAT score is the most important criteria, but according to her, it is. </p>
<p>Here is a summary that I wrote answering this question a while back:</p>
<p>"There are several reasons that the SAT is considered a more valuable admissions tool than your GPA. The most obvious is that the SAT is a standardized test. While your GPA compares you to the rest of your school, your SAT score compares you to the rest of the country. GPAs are not standard. An A earned in Mrs. Crawfords English class in New York City might only equate to a C in Mr. Pryors English class in San Diego. Plus, some schools are guilty of inflating the grades of its students. Because multiple high schools are competing for the same students, it is in the best interest of the school to produce a senior class with an outstanding GPA average. Parents in the district may hear that a certain high school consistently produces a senior class with an average GPA of 3.9 and they immediately sign their 8th grader up, not realizing that the average GPA of the class is a full point higher than it should be! A counselor in a competitive high school might go one step further and leave a students class ranking off of a transcript in order to make an inflated 4.0 look like a stellar score, when in fact it is just slightly above average among the class. You can start to see why a college admissions officer has a hard time putting a lot of faith into a GPA generated by school employees! But while these admissions officers may be afraid to trust some principals, counselors, and teachers, they can certainly trust an SAT score. It is standardized by a third party, the College Board, and it fairly compares Jane in Florida to John in Oregon. It can also provide additional, unbiased information about a students transcript or recommendations. Lets say that Tina received an A in geometry and had a glowing recommendation from her math teacher, but she only scored a 460well below averageon the SAT math section. An admissions officer would likely infer that Tinas grade was inflated and that her math teacher is an unreliable source. Sadly, this information will also be applied to other applicants from the school, both in the current application class and in years to come. As much as the SAT may seem like an unfair assessment to you, it is the only fair tool for admissions officers to compare students from different schools and educational backgrounds across the country.</p>
<p>The SAT is also respected for its indication of aptitude. Most admissions officers are intellectuals themselves, and they tend to value intellect in their applicants. For this reason they are more likely to dismiss less than desirable grades when accompanied by a high SAT score. If Clive submits a 2020 on this SAT but a GPA of 2.5, an admissions officer may explain the discrepancy by saying Clive was obviously quite bright but must not have been challenged by his high school teachers; he is likely to shine when he is properly engaged by the professors at their prestigious university. But if Cleo turns in an application with a 1430 SAT score and a 4.0 GPA, that same admissions officer is likely to be suspicious of her transcript and doubt her ability to keep up with the intellectual level of college courses. </p>
<p>Finally, high SAT scores are secretly coveted by colleges and universities because officials want to boost the average SAT score of the incoming class in order to appear more selective than competing schools. City University wants nothing more than to advertise that their freshman class had an average SAT score of 1820, which is 100 points higher than State College across town. A higher selectivity ranking attracts better applicants and more funding, and like all businesses, colleges are constantly competing for clients and market share. </p>
<p>That said, keep in mind that your GPA is not at all worthless! While the SAT might have won the match, the GPA manages to steal several rounds. It is the only numerical data that can reveal hard work, self-discipline, and consistency. Together with your transcript, your GPA can show improvement over time and intellectual growth. These qualities are quite valuable when you are being compared to another student with a similar SAT score but lesser GPA. It is still important to take rigorous classes and earn good grades to bolster your transcript and GPA."</p>
<p>^ I hope this is the case! It bothers me when people say GPA is everything and “ACT scores just reflect the quality of one’s work for 4 hours on a Saturday morning.” Standardized tests demonstrate how much students have actually retained from their classes/ their ability to do college-level work. I pray my high ACT score will make my un-4.0 GPA seem better.</p>
<p>It definitely is a bit overrated. Especially now that it doesn’t really resemble an intelligence test since all the changes. Nowadays ‘reasoning’ is defined by the SAT as ‘the ability to recognize which basic concept we want you to use on this indirectly-worded geometry problem’.</p>
<p>I’m kind of digressing from the topic but it’s somewhat relevant to this discussion. </p>
<p>I saw throw in a logic section on the SAT. Some of the stupidest people get into “good” colleges. </p>
<p>Example 1: A girl I know didn’t even know who Osama was despite living in New York for her whole life.
Example 2: A boy I know didn’t know anything. He doubted everything he was told because he was so clueless. I don’t remember specific examples though.</p>
<p>However, they both had high averages and decent SAT grades (1900) and they were accepted into some of the top schools. Had they both been interviewed, I would guarantee they would have been denied. </p>
<p>I can’t believe that people lack so much logic. They’re like mindless zombies that just read, study, and sleep.</p>
<p>Actually it’s more like this for most Universities.</p>
<p>45% - Academics
30% - SAT
25% - EC</p>
<p>Well at least in TOP universities. Rough estimate.</p>
<p>Ironically, there is a fair amount of evidence that SAT scores are poor predictors of college success compared to HS grades (yes, those unreliable, non-standardized, possibly inflated, grades).</p>
<p>For example, see [this</a> Berkeley paper](<a href=“Publications | Center for Studies in Higher Education”>Publications | Center for Studies in Higher Education).</p>
<p>Even the College Board came to the [url=<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Validity_of_the_SAT_for_Predicting_First_Year_College_Grade_Point_Average.pdf]conclusion[/url”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Validity_of_the_SAT_for_Predicting_First_Year_College_Grade_Point_Average.pdf]conclusion[/url</a>] that there is an additional (but relatively small) increase in predictiveness when the SAT was added to HS GPA, even though the CB focused on predicting only the first-year GPA in college.</p>
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<p>The basic problem of the studies that are based on the UC system is that they are hardly representative of the national pool of students. Tracking the performance of students who were mostly selected based on their high school record is bound to yield … expected results. </p>
<p>What is the next step? Correlating the success at the UC to the scores on garbage tests such as the Chinese and Korean Subject Tests?</p>
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<p>The data sample used was comprised of students accepted to UC before a new policy that emphasized HS GPA was put into effect for the UC system (I assume that is what you are referring to). One may argue that the students in the study would not be representative of the incoming freshmen nationwide, which would restrict the conclusions to UC-type students. However, the CB study concerned a wide range of institutions and came to a similar conclusion that the SAT provides a statistically significant but small improvement over the HS GPA taken alone. (And the CB limited the study to first-year results in college, which would be expected to be more highly related to the SAT than four-year results).</p>
<p>My point is that universities and colleges may be placing an emphasis on the SAT/ACT/etc which is not commensurate with the available data.</p>
<p>@fignewton, It is the same case with the GPA’s.</p>
<p>I know this from firsthand experience. I live in NYC and took the SHSAT to get into the specialized high schools. I missed my target school by a few points and just went to my zoned school. I pulled a 95 average easily with 2/10 effort. I retook the test and got into my target specialized high school and am pulling about a 85 average with 8/10 effort. My zoned school is actually called one of the best non specialized high schools as well. </p>
<p>This shows that GPA is also unreliable in SOME cases. Had I stayed in my old school and achieved the SAT score I have now, I would be eligible for many more top universities including the Ivy Leagues. </p>
<p>I still keep in contact with some of my old friends and they are getting 90+ averages like candy. When the SAT scores came out, they scored about 1600 (all 3 sections); when the AP scores came out, they scored below 3. All this is from firsthand experience so for the few people like me, the SAT is a savior.</p>
<p>^It’s not much what you get, it’s what you LEARNED. It’s my motto. </p>
<p>What I mean is, even though I get a 99% on my grade, it doesn’t mean I learned anything. So I have to put an effort into learning what I do, so I can show it in correlation to my standardized testing.</p>
<p>I think that high GPA’s (3.75 un weighted and much higher weighted) CAN be poor predictors. But lower GPA, below 3.2 ish may be fairly accurate. Even with grade inflation, if you are in the top 1-3% of your class, it shows that within your personal environment, and the resources available to you, you pushed to succeed. You took risks and rigorous classes.
But these kids are all different. I personally know of students that recieved 4-5’s on AP exams that did terribly in classes (C’s). Why? They didn’t do the work! But they knew the content, and they are “good test takers”, so they did well on the exam. Will that type of student do well in college? I also know of students that did extremely well in classes, not because they knew the content, but because they were…shall I say “very convincing” when it came to negotiating with teachers. They then got 2’s on their AP exams. Humm, College success? And then I know of students who do the work, do well in class, and score respectably on the AP exams- 4’s. Which of those three “types” of students do you want to admit to your school? I don’t think that any one set of rules about what is a better predictor for college success fits every student. And yes, I know that there are exceptions to every statement- so don’t flame me.
All I can say I that I would not want to have to look at submitted peices of paper and try to figure it all out! I would be terrible at that.</p>