<p>Is the no "cut off score" is only a marketing tool? It is a way for colleges to get rich by charging application fees. For example my counselor told me that a college called her up and told her that they will not admit anyone from my high school who has an ACT lower than 33, yet I found THE "no minimum score" phrase on their official website. </p>
<p>Is it all true? I mean when I looked up the admission websites of schools like Princeton and Dartmouth, they all have a chart explaining the percentage of admittance from each score range. For example, 23% admitted from the range 30-33, 2% admitted from "below 30", and 75% from 33 and up. Apparently they do admit student with ACT in the lower 30s. I just don't understand.</p>
<p>Please feel free to leave your thougts and comments below.</p>
<p>This is that thing they call “holistic admissions”. Schools pretty much never publish a minimum score. They like to be able to admit some students with low scores that have some other defining feature – athletes, URMs, children of large donors, maybe someone with a fantastic EC. But if you are not “hooked” in some way, you really need to focus on schools where your scores (all of them) are at around the 50% mark or better. So if the school gives a 50% range (say, 600-700 CR on the SAT is one of their ranges), you would want to have at least a 650 to consider the school a match. AND, if they are a school with really low acceptance rates, you would want to be higher, and you STILL need to apply to some schools where the acceptance rate is higher and you have scores on the higher end of their scale. Just to make sure you have acceptances to work with in the spring.</p>
<p>If your school has Naviance, that can be helpful to see what typically happens to a student with your scores and GPA at specific colleges.</p>
<p>Go ahead and apply to a couple of schools where your scores fall under that 50% point. But consider them “reaches” and not as likely to admit you, and focus time and energy on schools where your stats are on the higher end.</p>
<p>For those not familiar with the ACT score range the ACT to SAT conversion is ACT 33 is equivalent to 2220 or so.</p>
<p>Not having heard the exact words your counselor used, nor those that the college admissions officer used, and not knowing which college at issue there is little point in addressing the comment itself that the “college will not accept students below some score.”</p>
<p>In practice many applicants to the most selective colleges are accepted with 2220 SAT and 33 ACT.</p>
<p>I encourage you to talk to your counselor. I expect that there is a misunderstanding, at least in regard to the alleged minimum.</p>
<p>The students they do admit in the lower 30s are probably students that are varsity athletes, legacies, etc. By not setting a minimum, they are able to, yes, increase the number of applicants that think (hope) they might gain admissions, but moreover, they give themselves the freedom to accept students they really, really want.</p>
<p>Thank you all! It does clear up a little. But if you look at Columbia’s 2016 profile, out of all of the people who were accepted and submitted the ACT, 22% has an ACT between 27-31. So all of them are legacies and athletes and such? That seems to be a lot.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school 23% of the student body are athletes. If there is a small/negligible crossover with legacies, huge EC’s, fantastic musicians, etc getting to 22% at Columbia is not a reach.</p>
<p>Also URMs, and people with fantastic ECs. And maybe some geographic diversity (North Dakota & Alaska). Or some story of overcoming incredible adversity (immigration, homelessness, etc.)</p>
<p>what about in the case of international students and students with multicultural background.</p>
<p>Depends on the “multicultural” part. If part of it is URM (say, American Indian, or African American), that could help. If you mean Asian, it will not help. For an international student, only if you are full pay at schools that are not need blind.</p>
<p>Really, it is very important to spend most of your time and energy on MATCH schools. Not on reach schools. There are thousands of colleges in the US. You do not HAVE to go to one of the top 25 colleges to get an excellent education and succeed in life.</p>
<p>Those with lower scores that are admitted to that school may have a hook that the students at your school don’t have. </p>
<p>Maybe those lower score students are athletes and the school isn’t recruiting any athletes from YOUR school.</p>
<p>Or maybe those students perform exceptionally well in and outside the classroom, but also have documented disabilities that make taking standardized exams extremely challenging.</p>
<p>If there is a college or university that you want to apply to, and you have the money to shell out for the application, even if your guidance counselor doesn’t think you will be admitted, it is entirely OK to take the chance and file the application. That decision is up to you.</p>