<p>This is from the main article on Duke admissions this year. Does anyone else find that encouraging? For some perspective I believe 25% of the applicants at Princeton applied with 1570+. I wonder if the odds are super high for the very top scorers at Duke...</p>
<p>but seriously, if you look at the SAT score distribution, and assume a normal curve, only about 9,000 of the 1.5 million test takers would be expected to have a 1560 or higher. So it seems reasonable that 1 in 9 of these high scorers would apply to Duke.</p>
<p>As to whether this really has much advantage for high scorers at Duke vs. another elite place, I really can't say. I have always considered Duke to be a bit of an SAT whore, as it's low yield makes it pine for high scores to boost its USnews ranking. At the same time though, the difference between a 1500 and a 1560 score is possibly as little as three raw points overall, and the scores really are comparable.</p>
<p>So while higher scores are always a plus, I don't think they do you any exponential favors.</p>
<p>That means 4,000 applicants have a 1570+, and roughly 8,000 score a 1570+ of the 1.5 million or so test takers. I'd believe that half of those high scorers apply to Princeton.</p>
<p>One question I have never seen answered is about the 8000 number you cite above. I believe that those are single sitting scores not multiple sitting scores. As such, the number of 1570+ scorers is probably a bit higher. Additionally, I do not believe your claim that 1/2 of those scorers apply to Princeton, or any other school for that matter.</p>
<p>Also.. as of the years before.. DUke has both taken high scores and better off non -high scorers too...</p>
<p>in the end it ends up that the net effect comes of not because of the Sat1 M+ V only... but the sat 2 also.. which plays equally important role..</p>
<p>That is why I have been looking for SAT2 numbers for all of the schools. The only ones I can find are MIT and UC-Berkeley. Here is the reference to MIT's SAT2 scores:</p>
<p>I estimated roughly 8000 test takers scored 1570+ by assuming a normal distribution of SAT scores and using the standard deviation and mean (212, 1028) scores for the distribution of composite scores. Multiplying the percentage scoring 1570 and above as given from the curve by 1.5 million (roughly the number of test takers for class of 2005) gives about 8000.</p>
<p>True, I don't know how the score table the collegeboard provided dealt with repeat testers.</p>
<p>So, it's a rough estimate, but still a reasonable figure. Regardless, my point is that I'm not surprised that Pton has 25% applying with 1570+, nor that Duke has only 5% with 1560+.</p>