SAT Individual Subscores vs. Overall Score

Test Preparation
1

My SAT is as follows:

M: 800
W: 800
CR:700
Total: 2300

Do high selective colleges such as UPenn, Stanford, etc. care about your SAT individual subscores or just your overall SAT score? For example, will my 700 in critical reading set of any alarms for an admissions officer that will make them consider my SAT as low and hurt my chances even though my overall score is high? For reference, I am indian, so obv high test scores are an expected criteria for me (also I do understand that there are many other factors that a college will consider and that my SAT alone will not get me in)

2

Lol, I am basically in the same boat except with a 720 CR.
I heard someone say colleges want 750+ in each section so I’m not exactly sure.

3

Oh please. 700 in CR is surely in the 90-somethingth percentile. I highly doubt that any college would deny admission for you based only on that score. You have a 1500 CR+M, which would qualify you for almost any merit scholarship based on scores and GPA out there.

4

700 is 95th percentile. You should be fine.

5

You’re fine. My friend got in ED to UPenn with 800, 800, 710 (reading). SAT doesn’t matter a lot for those top school as long as you have 2250+

6

@MrWiggles, congrats to your friend. Just wondering as race does place a role in admissions, was your friend Asian like me?

7

@successonsuccess Yes, he is Chinese. It does play a role, but not as much as you think (for most schools). A lot of chinese kids and parents are very aggressive in the college application process. He got an essay writer to basically make his essay for Penn really good. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t smart. He is a very intelligent guy, with his application heavily focused on math and had a lot of math-focused achievements - AMCs, AIME, math team, math awards (top math student), etc. Penn probably liked that his resume/application was so clear. From his application it looked like he knew what he wanted to do.

8

@MrWiggles, completely agree. Just wanted to get a better sense of the situation your friend was in. Thanks for the help.

9

Just chiming in as another Asian (I’m also international): I had an 800, 800, 720 (W) breakdown, and I got into Yale and Penn (RD for both)