<p>By and large, adcoms are not nearly as impressed by 2400 SATs as HS students are. At the most selective schools they’re looking for the whole package. Strong SATs will help but at the end of the day strong SATs alone won’t get the job done.</p>
<p>I think it’s funny how quite a few people in my school get a 2400 each year, but they all have like 4.2-4.3 GPAs out of 5.3.</p>
<p>It seems like nobody on this forum knows about Academic Index from A is for Admission. It discusses how critical test scores are to admission at top colleges. Maybe the info is outdated?</p>
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<li>it’s sort of outdated</li>
<li>No one said test scores weren’t critical, but that doesn’t mean they guarantee acceptance</li>
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<p>Colleges won’t want to accept someone with a 2400 if he or she had no extracurriculars and simply studied all day. Someone who can score a 2400 or even a little bit lower while balancing a rigorous courseload and some extracurriculars is someone that a college would admit. However, few of these perfect people exist.</p>
<p>I think a lot of the 2400-rejects are the typical high school slackers who ‘accidentally’ score a 2400 and then decide ‘well, might as well apply to [any top 20 school]’, but, because of their lacking GPA, ECs etc. get rejected.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m reviving a dead thread. I don’t want to like reassure myself or anything, but I think somehow people on CC put wayyy too much emphasis on EC’s and “leadership.” IMO these are all BS. Do you seriously think that those talented enough to score a 2400 on the SAT couldn’t do some clubs in college if they chose to? And leadership, thats the biggest BS ever. Leadership on high school is totally a popularity contest. I know like 5 kids who got a 2400 on the SAT (adding me 6), and they all got in Harvard or Yale. Is that a conincidence? I dont think so.</p>
<p>My son had a 36 in one sitting. He only applied to 5 schools. MIT & Princeton (rejected), WashU (waitlisted) U of Alabama - for scholarship/accepted and our flagship the U of Minnesota - accepted and attending the honors program with full merit scholarship. He is happy and we don’t have to try and find $1000 week for cost of attendance.</p>
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<p>I seriously doubt you know 5 kids who got a 2400, or 4 or 3. </p>
<p>Just look at Silverturtle (2400,4.0). He’s one of CC’s most respected members. He got into some great schools like Brown and Columbia, but HYP didn’t work out for him, even as a URM.</p>
<p>Just shows that anything can happen, even with perfect stats.</p>
<p>^ He put white on his app.</p>
<p>if you are urm and you have those perfect scores, 4.0 gpa, and few clubs, it’s a grantee that you will get into an ivy.</p>
<p>@woeisshe</p>
<p>Sorry, I was unaware. Figured maybe he had put both. I respect him for not putting it though. A girl in my school who’s whiter than I am got to put Hispanic and it definitely boosted her admissions at many colleges because she wasn’t exactly a superior applicant.</p>
<p>Still, even as a 36/2400/4.0, ST didn’t get in, which in my opinion is ridiculous. He shouldn’t have had to have been a URM to get into one of those places.</p>
<p>@kob, With acceptance rates below 10%, even perfect score applicants are crapshoots. And that 4.0 GPA isn’t as to get as you think. Still, plenty of white and asian applicants with lower scores got in over him, which means he was lacking in something.</p>
<p>I believe Notre Dame said they denied 50% of 2400s and 70% of valedictorians this year.</p>
<p>50% at each top school is a number that gets thrown around a lot on these forums. Seems like a reasonable figure.</p>
<p>The SATs are like a bar for colleges. If you hit above the bar, it doesn’t mean you’ll get it, but if you hit below it, then they’ll generally not proceed further with your application.</p>
<p>Or so says a prevailing theory.</p>
<p>Basically, after a certain point, it’s all the same to them and they won’t actually care if you got 2280 or 2400. But the SAT score is the initial thing that tells them to consider you. So getting a perfect score will make sure you’re not weeded out in the first few rounds of determination, but after that everything else (GPA, EC’s, community service, essays, interview, etc.) will become the <em>real</em> determining factors.</p>
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<p>Out of 1.6 million kids who take the test each year, around 300 score a 2400. And you know “like” 6 of them, including yourself? LOL</p>
<p>Don’t be too surprised by their statement. I can count 4 off the top of my head.
Could be spread out over multiple years, not just one by the way. And also, I believe 300 is an outdated statistic, as it’s probably more these days.</p>
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<p>About 300 score a “natural” 2400 in a single sitting. Probably many multiples of that number achieve 2400 if you allow superscoring, which of course almost every college does.</p>
<p>But I agree that colleges aren’t impressed with 2400s per se. A 2300 is just as good if the GPA, class rank, ECs, essays, teacher and GC recs, etc are just as good. </p>
<p>As for actual stats, Brown tells us: in 2010 (Brown class of 2014), Brown admitted 31.9% of those who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT, and 21% of valedictorians. My guess is their acceptance rate for 2400 SATs (including superscored SATs) is around the same level as that for 36 ACTs, or even a bit lower, because they don’t superscore the ACT. And Brown is by no means the most selective of the Ivies. So anyone who thinks he’s a shoe-in because he’s 2400/val is deluding himself. Better than even odds he’s rejected.</p>
<p>* think somehow people on CC put wayyy too much emphasis on EC’s and “leadership.” IMO these are all BS.*</p>
<p>I keep saying that and getting grief in response. Tread carefully, my friend, LOL!</p>
<p>I believe Notre Dame said they denied 50% of 2400s</p>
<p>Good grief. How many 2400 applicants can ND get? Even factoring in superscoring, there can’t possibly be that many 2400s…and they can’t all be applying to Notre Dame!</p>