Do you think that the scores of top applicants will be lower than usual (less chances to retake the test to increase the score) or higher than usual (Focus solely on SAT vs subject tests) for class of 2025 (High school class of 2021)? What would be the range for the Ivies like Harvard, Yale, Penn, MIT and Stanford? Would a score of 1560 be good enough in the absence of subject tests? What do you think?
With all that has happened and the uncertainty that still surrounds school openings, I think colleges will be a bit more understanding if a student was unable to get a higher score or take a standardized test due to their circumstances. I can’t tell you exactly how the range of scares will change.
But to answer your specific question, any score above 1500 is excellent, and anything above 1550 puts you in the 99th percentile. A 1560 is enough to make someone a competitive applicant. With a 1560, your SAT score will not be the reason your application gets turned down, so trying to take the exam to get 10 or 20 points more probably won’t drastically improve the quality of one’s application. I am a current freshman at MIT, and I can tell you that the admissions office looks beyond SAT scores. I got above a 1500 on the SAT but definitely not a perfect score, and I also took subject tests and did not receive perfect scores on all of them either.