<p>Hi guys,
I'm a senior high school student from Ethiopia. I'm applying to US colleges this year, and I've just finished taking standardized tests - the TOEFL and the SAT. I haven't received my score reports yet, but here's the deal: I prepared for the SAT really well. I finished Gruber's Complete SAT Guide and I was definitely ready before I took the test, so let's just assume I got a 2000+. As for the TOEFL, I basically took for granted the notion that I was gonna kill it just because I thought I did good on the SAT, so I didn't really prep for that as I should have; I didn't even take any practice tests. Ergo now I've having doubts... I mean it wasn't bad, but I could have definitely done better. I'm anticipating a score from 90 to 100. Anyway, I wanted to know how this would affect my admission to the colleges I'm considering: Berea College (my first choice), ASU, MSU, University of Richmond, Ginnell College, and Colby College.
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>The SAT is more important. TOEFL’s sole point is to determine whether you can function in English at a college. Once you’ve reached the required threshold, they don’t care much and move on to your SAT. Furthermore, SAT scores can bring in scholarship money, whereas TOEFL scores can’t. You made a wise choice by focusing on the SAT.
Are you sure ASU and MSU offer financial aid, though?</p>
<p>MYOS1634, Thanks to the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program, yes! Only students from Sub-Saharan Africa are eligible, and I’m form Ethiopia. BTW, I got my TOEFL scores yesterday: 104, which is well above the threshold of all of the colleges I’m applying to. Thanks!</p>
<p>Definitely the SAT. Once you cross the 100+ line on the TOEFL, colleges don’t care what your score was.</p>
<p>Pls,i just want to ask that what is the total score for toefl and why don’t colleges care about students score after scoring 100+?</p>
<p>The TOEFL has one purpose only: prove your level of “academic” English = can you survive as a first year college student at a specific institution, can you keep up with the others, interact with them?
Scores will prove that you can understand a professor’s lecture, a classmate who talks to you, a textbook; that you can write a paper, or respond properly to common questions you may encounter in class or in your social life. Once you’ve proved that you can do that, you’ve proved it. Either you can or you can’t. Each colleges decides how fluent you need to be to keep up with their pace. There’s no ranking, it’s like a pass/fail. Some colleges want 61, other 80, others 90, others 100. Once you have reached the level they want, they move on to the actual academic criteria, whereby they rank you against other candidates.
The only case in which the TOEFL is used as a “ranking” element is at these smaller/lower-level schools that do not require the SAT or ACT and admit you solely on the basis of the TOEFL score. These schools rarely give financial aid without SAT/ACT scores anyway.
The TOEFL also provides “context” for your CR score on the SAT or your English &Reading scores on the ACT</p>