<p>Ok so I'm applying from Singapore where an overcompetitive crowd does churn out plenty of perfect SAT scores. </p>
<p>I got 2380, (800+800+780)
Will that hurt my chances?</p>
<p>No, your scores are terrific. That being said, Harvard does not admit on scores alone.</p>
<p>Are those SAT I or SAT II scores? You reported these scores for SAT II in the Singaporean thread.</p>
<p>I loled. 10char</p>
<p>SAT IIs. My SAT Reasoning score is a 2310</p>
<p>In the Pursuit of Happyness, the Dean Witter guy said, ‘‘Be safe - get a 100.’’</p>
<p>My advice is: Be safe, get a 2400.</p>
<p>I’m joking of course. You definitely should not retake. Not even a 2400 guarantees success…worry about the other aspects of your application because a 2380 is very strong.</p>
<p>ahaha scared me there. thanks</p>
<p>The rest of your application is going to be far more important than are your scores.</p>
<p>I say this with only good intentions, but damn, how did Singapore get so competitive? There are only 5 million people in Singapore, yet all I hear about is how stacked the competition from Singapore is, and here is an OP who’s concerned that his or her superb SATII scores are not competitive. I realize that Asian countries are socially structured to put pressure on students to perform well, but has the margin between Singaporean and American students really grown to be that large?</p>
<p>lol
10char</p>
<p>“where an overcompetitive crowd does churn out plenty of perfect SAT scores”</p>
<p>plenty? I’m sure there are a few, but there can’t be a huge number of perfect scores</p>
<p>anyway, a 2380 is fabulous, do not retake it; I guarantee you that your acceptance/rejection will be be because of something else (recs, ECs, essays, etc) and not your test scores</p>
<p>Actually my high school in Singapore does produce truckloads of SAT II perfect scorers every year (and a couple of SAT I perfect scorers). And that’s for a school that follows a British-modeled education system and preps its students for Cambridge A Levels instead of the SATs.</p>
<p>Oh, well I can see there being a good number of SAT II perfect scores. I thought you were talking about people obtaining perfect scores on the SAT I (which is much to obtain than on the SAT II tests).</p>
<p>Haha I’ll be a freshman at Harvard and my scores were fairly lower–I got a 2150 on the reasoning, a 730 on Literature SAT II, 600 (yup.) on French SAT II, and a 700 on the U.S. History SAT II. </p>
<p>Scores alone will not get you into Harvard. What I’ve noticed as the common thread between admitted students is passion and motivation–you have to demonstrate these traits to the admissions committee, and test scores are not the means to that end.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, it’s true that scores alone aren’t enough. But for a school like Harvard to take a low-scoring international student over a high-scoring American, the former better be exceptional in some ways.</p>
<p>EHSO9…you’re my new hero! I LOVE success stories like yours. I see you’re from Alaska…wonder if that was a “hook” for them. What else did you bring to the table? My “D” just bombed one A/P and one SAT II. Other scores though included 2210 SAT and 750, 780 SAT IIs. Most A/Ps will be next year but her 9th/10th grade were 4s…then a 5 as a Junior. </p>
<p>I was wondering, if a person wanted a music concentration if that would in any way influence the decision as far as scores if they were not “perfect”? (The passion for music will show in her classes, scores, ECs, duration, levels of success, etc. Not worried about that part).</p>
<p>I’m sure that being from Alaska was a big plus as it’s doubtful there are many applicants from that state. Being from an underrepresented state always is a plus. I hear that about 15 years ago, only one student applied from Mississippi. Heard that from the person who at the time was coordinating alum interviews from there.</p>
<p>R124687, I kept incredibly active in the community throughout high school. I was class president for my sophomore and junior years and student body president my senior year. I volunteered A LOT (over 400 hours junior year alone, around the same senior year), interned for the mayor’s office, interned for a few different political campaigns, and also held the student rep seat for my school board. I’m pretty sure the school board position was the big one, since I represented 50,000 students. </p>
<p>Also, I moved out when I was 16 so I’ve been living alone since sophomore year–I worked at least 25 hours a week during sophomore year and worked full-time for junior and senior years to make financial ends meet.</p>
<p>The point, though, is to find something you’re passionate about and to dedicate yourself to it 100%. I love community involvement and politics so I tried to learn as much about them and got as involved as I could!</p>