<p>Yes, perfect SATs neither prove nor disprove brilliance. Retaking SATs several times to obtain a perfect score definitely proves something, but it isn't brilliance. (It isn't necessarily inconsistent with brilliance, either, but it doesn't help the case much. "Brilliance", by the way, is not the only quality worth having, and there is no field in which it is sufficient for success, standing alone.)</p>
<p>Nightingale: I love "gaming" admissions, too, but I sense that you are waaaaay overthinking this. People use the phrase "Tufts Syndrome" for the phenomenon you describe -- highly qualified students being rejected at a second-tier school. I believe it exists. But I think it is a phenomenon of very limited scope, applicable to a very thin layer of schools that (1) are generally very selective and competitive, and therefore in direct competition with the Ivies and top LACs, and attractive to a similar population, but (2) know from experience their market position is such that they will "lose" almost all head-to-head competitions with those schools, and (3) do not generally engage in trying to entice top students with merit scholarships. And not even all of the schools that might be eligible do it.</p>
<p>Of course, if the application looks like it was thrown together, and has the wrong name for the school, and says "I want to go to a 5,000 student research university in a major east-coast city," then maybe it will get dinged by a 2,500-student LAC in the South.</p>
<p>With Holy Cross, if you are really worried about this your kid has the option of not submitting his SAT scores at all. I'd like to see that! Find out whether they love him for himself, or for those gaudy scores!</p>