SAT score importance given to individual scores or total?

Applying to College
1

<p>I was wondering this as I was reading my SAT Score Report </p>

<p>In total I got a 2090... roughly 97th percentile. It seems a lot of people don't get scores so closely clustered together.. considering none of my scores were in the 97th percentile (close... but still significant).</p>

<p>Score Breakdown:
CR: 680
M: 700
W: 710</p>

<p>Lets assume a hypothetical friend gets the following score:
CR:640
M:790
W:660</p>

<p>Would they view them as the same, or what? Obviously it could depend on the school, especially if it were an engineering school.</p>

2

<p>Far fewer students get high CR score than get high math scores. 800 CRs are still rare while a math 800 is a dime a dozen To see how colleges will view you, compare your individual scores with their medians. For a reasonable shot at a very cometitive school you want to be well above median in all. At less competitive schools median.</p>