<p>I was flicking through the RD decisions, and also judging from the few people I know who got in, it seems that they seem to generally go for people with high SAT scores and loads of other stuff, but seem to reject those with perfect SAT scores. Now this might just be because those with the perfect SAT scores didn't achieve as much EC-wise or personality-wise, but could it be possible that they see perfect scores as an indication that the candidate has been trained up to sit the SAT and as such doesn't really demonstrate true intelligence?</p>
<p>Sometimes perfect scores listed are from different sittings, or one sitting, several tries. In those cases, differences of 50 pts really mean nothing. Schools know this. I think someone with perfect scores and an equally compelling app in other ways has nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>i dont know that much about SAT exams or scoring since i'm not american and did not go through the US school system, but i thought that the difference between achieving 700 and 800 is only a few questions out of what is it, more than a hundred questions? pretty sure that means that in the grander scheme of things, the 800 really means nothing if your other elements are unimpressive, yeah?</p>
<p>having said that, my scores ranged from 610 to 710, so absolutely nothing stellar.</p>
<p>SAT scores have nothing to do with decisions this year, at least not for my school. Some kids got in with 1700s and 1800s. (Yea...this really ****ed me off!).</p>
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<p>I was thinking the exact same thing today. I was talking about it with some of my friends... I don't know, you might be on to something..</p>
<p>Harvard admission has been a complete and utter joke this year. I'm a junior, but the the most qualified seniors that applied got waitlisted/rejceted, and much less qualified kids got in. I think we had 5 get in, 3 rejected, and 2 waitlisted, which is really bad compared to other years.</p>
<p>I hate how a few small mistakes on a section can lower your scores down so dramatically. 2 or 3 wrong on the entire math section will take a person down a 100 points. A few small mistakes seems huge when magnified in the score report. Maybe I'm just complaining because I am not very good at Sat's. I'm sure if I did well I'd be saying how great the system is.</p>
<p>2/3 wrong on the maths brings you down 100?? That is incredible... now I'm scared ;)</p>
<p>i know that usually two questions get you down to 750 at least</p>
<p>I've noticed the same thing... it seems more common for people with high scores to be rejected than the ones with lower scores. Then again, maybe it's just this board?</p>
<p>well people with higher scores (near perfect, i mean) tend to be bookworms with little ec's and leadership as well. of course, this is just a very broad generalization, so no offense to anyone</p>
<p>BingCold, that's exactly what I was thinking. Makes sense, haha.</p>
<p>Maybe it's just a question of perception. The ones with perfect SAT scores who get rejected might just stand out in our minds more, rather than those with slightly lower SAT scores who also get rejected.</p>
<p>Also, perhaps those with non-perfect SAT scores aren't as likely to appy as those with perfect scores, so if we have more perfect SAT scores in the pool (versus likelihood of applying regardless), then more of those people will get rejected.</p>
<p>Yeah, that was horribly convoluted, sorry. :-P</p>
<p>If perfect scores are detrimental, I am sure glad I missed those 3 CR questions...</p>
<p>actually, sometimeslost, that seems to me a very good insight!</p>
<p>i agree with the above comment!</p>