<p>What scores do you think you should have to have a solid choice at an ivy or an equivalent school?</p>
<p>Are you familiar with college Common Data Sets? If not that is a great place to start for some perspective. Disregard the under 25th percentile. Those scores are special circumstances and don’t give a realistic picture. </p>
<p>I think if you lump the schools together, on average, over 2000 on the SAT for Blacks offers the best shot at acceptance but not the only shot. </p>
<p>2250+. </p>
<p>2250 is such a high bar for any student that I’m reluctant to set it that high. Only about 1,500-2,000 Black students out of 150,000 cross this threshold each year according to SAT stats. So, yes, it offers a solid choice but most schools will have to reach down below that threshold to fill up their classes with people who represent the country.</p>
<p>@madaboutx "Only about 1,500-2,000 Black students out of 150,000 cross this threshold each year according to SAT stats. " </p>
<p>Do you have a link to this data? I have never seen it, and those numbers seem high based on the data that I have seen… Thanks. </p>
<p>If you have exceptional rigor in your course curriculum with at least a 3.7 gpa you can be competitive with a 2000sat/30 act at some of the Ivy League schools. It is a holistic process so it’s not going to be just about your scores. Will you find someone w lower test scores who’s been admitted of course, just like you’ll find students w perfect test scores who were denied. Find the common data set, if your within their 25% to 75% rate for testing you have a chance. Only About a 1,000 black kids attend Ivy League schools a year so the preponderance of admissions are going to be kids who fall within the common data set estimates.</p>
<p>@planner03 I don’t remember the place I saw those stats. I got the number about a year ago. College Board has the percentiles, the NMSC may have the numbers somewhere on its website. I checked out the percentiles and the figure is about right when you consider how many students take the test but again, I have seen the stats as a number not a percentile, I just don’t remember where at this time.</p>
<p>A side note, so much of education is focused on improving the low end of test scores which dumbs down the entire education system. I think that the focus should be on increasing the number of students at the upper end of test scores which will elevate the entire educational system. Schools that perform the best are always focused on boosting their top talent in terms of resources and investment. A little trickle down education but it works.</p>
<p>@madaboutx,I think your numbers are too generous. Here are some links for ACT for class of 2012 and 2013
2013, go to page 14 <a href=“http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2013/pdf/profile/AfricanAmerican.pdf”>http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2013/pdf/profile/AfricanAmerican.pdf</a>
2012, go to page 14 <a href=“http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2012/pdf/profile/AfricanAmerican.pdf”>http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2012/pdf/profile/AfricanAmerican.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you consider a 2250 about a 34 ACT, then in 2013 there were 99 at 34 and above and in 2012 68. Add in the 33’s and that’s an additional 111 for class of 2012 and 160 for class of 2013, so 259 scored 33 and above for class of 2013 and 179 for class of 2012.</p>
<p>I can’t immediately find similar numbers for SAT, but here’s some older data. <a href=“A Large Black-White Scoring Gap Persists on the SAT”>http://www.jbhe.com/features/53_SAT.html</a> In 2006 976 scored above 700 on SAT math and 1117 scored above 700 on verbal. Can’t tell from this how many scored above 700 on both, but 1500-2000 scoring 2250 plus seems unlikely.</p>
<p>wow i thought there were a lot more high scorers.</p>
<p>And this from 2005 <a href=“The Widening Racial Scoring Gap on the SAT College Admissions Test”>http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html</a> see the last paragraph.
244 scored 750 or above on math and 363 scored 750 or above on verbal. Although it’s 8 years old, it’s unlikely the numbers have changed significantly since then. </p>
<p>My numbers are not too generous. First, a composite score of 2250 doesn’t require that you get at least a 750 on each component. A 730, 800, 720 could get you there. Second, 1% of 150,000 is 1,500 and 2250 is in the 99th percentile. Not sure why this is a debate though. The number is extremely low regardless.</p>
<p>It does seem that 1500 is a bit too high. Often times one person may be good at one section and bad at another… Considering that the ACT only had about 100 people get a 34 or higher it is reasonable to have less 2250+ sat scores than the 1500 you predicted. The number may be closer to 300 if you think that the 1% who got a 750 in at least one section didn’t do so well and only about a fifth of them were 750+ material on all 3 sections. Lets say there were 1500 ‘750+’ scores for each section on the SAT, we could view it as different people got a 750 on math than the people who got a 750 on critical reading. Overall assuming 1500 people got 2250 means that people either got 750+ on all their sections and the rest did not reach 750 in any section. Therefore there would be much less 2250+ scores than what was predicted.</p>
<p>16,378 scored 2250 or above according to college board <a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-Composite-CR-M-W-2013.pdf”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-Composite-CR-M-W-2013.pdf</a>
Based on some of the other numbers we’ve seen, it seems unlikely that 10-15% of these are AA. But madaboutx is correct. Whatever the exact numbers are, they are very small. To the OP, prepare well for the SAT and or ACT and try to get the highest score possible. There is a lot of demand for high scoring URMs. </p>
<p>All right thank you to all that have commented</p>
<p>@prefect I agree with your interpretation. For the graduating class of 2013 there were 222,237 ACT takers and only 89 (yes 89!!!) scored a 34, 35, or 36! The concordance tables place a 34 or up as similar to a 2250 or up so based on the SAT data from 2005 it seems very, very unlikely that more than 200 or so AA students score higher than 2250.
@madaboutx True, 200 or 2000, not great.</p>
<p>I just wish this same type of question would not pop up over and over…AA students asking in one form or another how low the bar will be set for them. CDS are readily available; they are hoping not to be held to “that” standard though…but once they get accepted into prestigious school x and the rumblings of affirmative action start, the same student is offended than anyone would suggest such a thing…</p>
<p>The data us old. There are better scores now. And @ prefect. They are nit looking for the floor anymore of less than any other group is. There are thousands of chance me questions on this site; this is no different.</p>
<p>You also have to factor in that not every African American who scores well on standardised tests is applying to the ivy league. </p>