<p>Dartmouth11, if you go to the NYC school that I think you do, the students there are really smart since they have to go through an admission process with essays and interviews. My school has some smart kids, but not in the great volume that your school does. This might explain the high ACT scores at your school. </p>
<p>My school produces many "jockey nerds," students who excel at sports and academics. Just last year, of the 4 kids on my school's All-American 400 meter relay team, 3 went to Ivy league schools. the one kid who didn't is a senior now so we'll just wait and see for him. Those 3 kids also were solid academically, all were in the top 10% of the class and one was #2 in the class. These jockey nerds usually don't get 2200+ SAT scores, but they usually have good enough scores along with athletic ability, so they are accepted into some prestigious colleges.</p>
<p>I still blame the low performance on the ACT at my school on the fact that no one cares about it. It is all SAT all the time. Before my sophomore year, I never even heard of the ACT, but I knew all about the SAT.</p>
<p>As for the 30 ACT being a magic number, everyone at my school has a different opinion. The smartest kids want 2200+ scores. One kid retook a 2190 just to break 2200 (he did break 2200 on his second try). For others, being average is good enough. At my cafeteria table, a 2000 SAT is the magic number since it is a goal that some of my friends and myself had set for ourselves. We all have different opinions for colleges. There is one kid who is the quintessential prestige whore. He is applying to some top colleges (Princeton, Georgetown, Lehigh, BC, etc). Another kid is applying to one school that he knows he can get into but is searching for scholarship $. The 3rd kid wants to go to a party school. I myself am applying to a slew of safeties. NYU is the only school that I think I could be rejected from. Despite all of this college talk, no one has mentioned the ACT at my table. This is because none of us has taken it.</p>