<p>I got an 87. Is that good?
I'm a total noob at this whole boarding school process ;p</p>
<p>Vandak-your score of 87 places you in a good spot to apply to any school. Do not take seriously the students that say they have 99, 15 EC, perfect grades and award-winning letters of rec.</p>
<p>Many students that consider themselves “perfect” fail to get into any school. From experience, schools are looking for well-rounded kids that can contribute to the community. Any given year, any given school is looking for something different to make up that particular class. Andover AO told us that they are looking for “kind” kids.</p>
<p>From what I have learned…over 83 makes you competitive for any tier school. Examine your strengths and weaknesses. If you havent had geometry than it is clear that your score in math will not be the same as someone who is coming in taking Calculus. The schools look at all those factors.</p>
<p>What language(s) interest you? Sports? Art? etc. (these things matter also)</p>
<p>You have a decent shot with your score—go for it…Good Luck!</p>
<p>Interesting / related article on the Washington Post:</p>
<p>“To get the real star students, college admissions should look beyond SATs”
[To</a> get the real star students, college admissions should look beyond SATs](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902997.html]To”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902997.html)</p>
<p>I’ve read just to go for no sections in the 70s.
So GOOD JOB!!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the article, Alex. I remember reading some time in the past that Andover had adopted this strategy. </p>
<p>I found it odd that the jist of the article is that colleges should use these more subjective measures yet he begins by saying that he was originally waitlisted at Yale precisely because of a subjective assessment, a “flakey personality.”</p>
<p>I agree that schools should look at these intangibles and I think that they do a great deal. I’ve always said that I don’t really want my kids to go to a school where their classmates would have been selected only “by the numbers.” </p>
<p>So, back to Andover… Their application is loaded with these “creative, analytical, synthesis” type questions, yet their published average SSAT score is what, 93? My guess is that there is indeed a correlation between high SAT and creative synthesis. It doesn’t mean that the high score will predict high levels of creativity, but the converse: high creativity predicts high scores. But sometimes, with EXTREMELY creative and divergent thinkers, this quality actually works against them on standardized tests, causing them to argue with the questions, read too much into them, and bang their heads against the desk because either all the answer choices are correct, none of them are, or there is no definitive way to answer - there are just too many possibilities. (I’ve got one like this, can ya tell?) :)</p>