We just received our sons SSAT scores and he got a scaled score of 2232, which put him in the 89th percentile (V90,Q56,R97). We are applying to Highly competitive schools like Taft,Milton and Choate. Last year we were wait listed for all 3. I know that alot more goes into admission than this score, but from anyone who reads this post knowledge, in general, how would this score be regarded? I can’t seem to find a baseline answer.
That score is above average for Taft and Choate and only 1% lower than Milton’s average so my guess is that it does not disqualify him. However, if he had a similar score last year I’m wondering if the quant score hurts his chances. I have been told that they absolutely look at your score/% for each portion, not just the overall %. What is his math teacher going to say in his recommendation?
@avasol000 You can’t find a baseline answer because there isn’t one. A kid with 99 and someone with 81 still adds up to almost a 90%, and there are kids in there with 60’s and 70s who have other skills. So the average score doesn’t mean each kid reached the average and they kept out all those who didn’t. It just means some did really well and some did ok and some did moderately well ( or even below). The SSAT scores seem to be less important at BS. At the college level they seem to weed out more based on the SAT scores but there seem to be a lot of smart kids at my kids top boarding school ( even in the highest level classes) who didn’t reach the lofty goal of 90%+ They seem to need the SSAT scores at BS so they can evaluate kids. It is the single thing they can use to weigh kids academically on the same scale.
Also your son’s score is higher in verbal and reading which means he can get thru the material (important) and lower in quant ( he might not yet be a STEM kid). I have read that verbal is more important not because it’s two scores but because it points to reading and writing.
If your child was waitlisted last year, then it means academically everything is fine. So the scores you had from last year were acceptable. There must have been some other reason for the waitlist (financial aid, geographic targets, etc).
The schools do like it when students apply again after getting waitlisted, as this shows interest.