<p>It's a common statement on the other boards that Harvard only accepts about half (sometimes people say less than half) of the 1600 M/V SAT 1 scorers.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how Harvard does with the 2400 point scale? That is, what fraction of 2400 scorers are admitted? And are there any references for the score distribution of admitted applicants?</p>
<p>Thanks for any information that you may have to offer. And good luck on your admission!</p>
<p>I think it is too early for the new SAT admittance percentages to come out, but I would suspect it would be about the same as the 1600 percentage.</p>
<p>Have you seen a reliable reference for the 50% rejection rate of 1600s?</p>
<p>For the Class of 2007 at Harvard, reportedly, 39% of the 1,600 scorers were admitted.</p>
<p>I wonder how this compares at some of the other top schools? </p>
<p>Byerly, do other schools release the same percentage? I'm trying to figure out what fraction of the top SAT scorers apply to the top schools...somewhere there is a cutoff, I'm sure.</p>
<p>Of course, the cutoff could be just below Harvard for all I know...</p>
<p>In most years, a major fraction of the 1600 scorers apply to Harvard, I believe.</p>
<p>Reasonabledad:</p>
<p>Keep in mind that SATs are only one component of a student's profile. I actually head adcoms agreeing to reject a student with perfect 1600s but a less than stellar GPA because they felt this indicated an underachiever who would not be able to rise to the challenges of a college workload. </p>
<p>My S's school sends many students to HYPSM (11 to H last year). I have no idea what their SATs were like. But many, if not most, of those I know got into those schools took Harvard-Extension school classes, had great AP scores, etc...</p>
<p>Marite ~ Thank you, and it's great to have you posting on CC. I'm actually hoping to use the Harvard numbers and any other top college numbers to guestimmate the fraction of top SAT scorers applying to a school considerably farther down the rankings list...if I can find some data.</p>
<p>But I certainly agree that the SAT is just a test...it's just one thing, and maybe not even the first thing among many. </p>
<p>It's a starting point for me.</p>
<p>you should try to get about 2200+</p>
<p>Reasonabledad:</p>
<p>I suspect many colleges track students into tranches, eg. 1550-1600; 1500-1550, and so on. Or they divide up the verbal and math scores, 750-800; 700-750, and so on. It would be easier to find stats broken down in this fashion. I have not seen if the new SAT has resulted in different ways of publishing SAT scores. </p>
<p>Also, there is a difference between the profiles of students who apply and the students who are admitted. High scorers are likely to be admitted to several colleges. At the same time, highly selective colleges often admit students with less than perfect SATs but with other even more impressive achievements.</p>
<p>When you consider that Harvard accepts 9% of its applicant pool and that their typical applicants' SATs aren't vastly below the 1600/2400 scorer's, it's quite remarkable that 1600/2400s are admitted at four and a half times the rate of other applicants!</p>
<p>Thats true, gadad, but the reason why people consider the admittance percentage low for perfects is because they are seen to have 'perfect' academics (stupid I know) - so its like wow! only 40% of 'perfect academic' students are accepted!!!</p>
<p>I would wager that many of the 1600 scorers also have other things going for them. A high fraction will have attained other distinctions in addition to "perfect" SAT's and presumably high GPA's - there will be Siemens and Intel winners, champion debaters, USA Today 1st Academic Team All-Stars, etc etc.</p>
<p>As to the 39% admit rate (for 1600-scorers for the Class of 2007) I expect you'd see a more or less straight line increase in the admit rate as you go up the line from 1200 (virtually zero) to 1600 (39%). 1500 scorers would be admitted at a far higher rate than 1300 scorers, and so on. It would average out to a roughly 10% admit rate over all.</p>
<p>I wouldn't make the opposite assumption at all (ie, that many 1600 scoreres have nothing else going for them, which is why more than 60% of them are not admitted) - fashionable though it may be. </p>
<p>Rather, insofar as I can tell, its simply that there is no huge functional difference seen between a 1500 scorer and a 1600 scorer. Above a certain point, when it is clearly established that the applicants can handle the work - and probably handle it well - the admissions committee simply moves on to other factors, such as "diversity" in its various permutations, and a judgement about how the candidate individually may contribute to the class as a whole.</p>
<p>That makes a lot of sense: scores above 1500 are roughly the top 1% of the score pool, although the number could fluctuate a bit year to year.</p>
<p>Byerly, do any top schools publish the kind of data you mentioned, with the acceptance rate correlated to SAT score?</p>
<p>Actually, it would be almost as interesting to see what the profile of the applicants is as well (in addition to the acceptances). 39% of the 1600s who apply are accepted, but what fraction of the students earning a 1600 actually apply to Harvard?</p>
<p>While I don't have a supporting link off the top of my head, I'm reasonably sure than in most years more than half the 1600 scorers nationall apply to Harvard, which is a fairly amazing statistic. </p>
<p>They used to report it, but I think they are now trying fairly hard to downplay the whole SAT thing (easier to do when the option is open to you, perhaps) in order to deal with a problem syndrome: quality kids being afraid to apply because they're afdraid they won't get in ... particularly problematic when so many kids are applying early and realize they have only one bullet to fire.</p>
<p>Particularly with the changing demographics of the college-age pool, they are fully aware that they are going to have to find other ways of predicting future performance. Within 5 years, the pool will be "majority/minority" - particularly hispanic, where ALL the growth will be - and even that stat will mask more profound changes. The fraction of potential applicants from the top economic quadrant is set to plummet, so that a huge and growing fraction of the pool will be from the bottom quadrant, where a smaller fraction has tended to apply to college.</p>
<p>It will be tough for Harvard ... though tougher, perhaps, for some schools farher down the academic food chain.</p>
<p>Byerly ~ Belated but heartfelt thanks for all of the information!</p>
<p>reasonabledad, Brown gives a pretty good breakdown of admit rates and SAT scores:</p>
<p>well, i got a 2400 on the SAT, and I applied to Harvard EA. I also had pretty good ECs, and my teacher recs were wonderful, and pretty good scores on my SAT IIs. I got a B+ in one class first semester senior year, but other than that, my grades were all A's.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Harvard EA.</p>
<p>However, I learned today that I was rejected from MIT.</p>