<p>The OP’s question was inspired by his concern that a lackluster extracurricular record might present a problem, so he was wondering which top schools would give greater relative weight to very high standardized test scores.</p>
<p>MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc. have a surplus of very high scoring applicants (according to their own statements), so they can afford to emphasize “fit”, “building a class”, etc. without danger of lowering the stats of the admitted class. I think schools such as Vanderbilt, Rice, and other top-20 (USNWR) do not have so many extra top scorers waiting in the wings. While they also want to put together a class that complements the overall mission of the university, I thing they might make exceptions for students with SAT scores at or near 2400. </p>
<p>We always hear about how HYPMS regularly deny admission to very top SAT scorers, but we don’t hear that about the rest of the high-ranking schools.</p>
<p>^^^I must correct my post. The OP was not concerned about ecs, but about not doing research during high school. Also, change ‘thing’ to ‘think’.</p>
<p>That doesn’t change my opinion that SAT scores are weighted relatively more heavily at schools whose applicant pool displays a somewhat less stellar SAT profile.</p>
<p>I really do not understand how the various analyses being presented above can be done in the absence of data about applicants’ test scores.</p>
<p>I put hawkette’s numbers into Excel(only went to 35 and 15 though) and I found these schools to stand out, I used acceptance rate rather than USNWR rank to find outliers:</p>
<p>CalTech (duh!)
Harvey Mudd (duh x2)
Darmouth - somewhat
WashU
Pomona - surprising
Duke
Rice
UChicago - self selection?
Tufts
Northwestern
Carleton
Carnegie Mellon
Wellesley - Single sex limits pool boosting acc. rate I would guess
Emory
Vandy
Brandeis
Grinnell
URoch
Wake Forest
UMich
GaTech</p>
<p>That is a pretty big list, some schools had bigger boosts than others. Tech schools, unsurprisingly, showed up high. High scoring kids and a reduced applicant pool due to limited majors.</p>
<p>Surprises to me - Pomona, Duke, Carleton, and Grinnell. All are pretty big spikes.</p>
<p>Schools that were noticably below include - Stanford, Brown, Columbia, Williams, Claremont Mckenna, Middlebury, UCLA, and Berkeley.</p>
<p>The data posted above is taken directly from the most recent edition of USNWR (2008 issue published in 8/07) and the data drawn is from the Common Data Sets for each school for the entering class of Fall, 2006. Some colleges have begun publishing their most recent version of the CDS for the classes entering Fall, 2007, but colleges doing so are still few and far between. If one can provide more recent data that is going to provide an apples for apples comparison (same time period), then please do so.</p>
<p>General caveat: Be careful when using data posted directly on a college’s website. Sometimes colleges will post the student statistical data for a college’s ACCEPTED students rather than its ENROLLED students. Virtually all colleges are able to claim higher average scores for their admitted students. For comparisons of various colleges, enrolled data is the more accurate reflection of student quality.</p>
Duke’s position doesn’t surprise me. According to IPEDS, the colleges scoring higher on the Critical Reading SAT are Harvard, Princeton, and Olin. The colleges scoring higher on the Math SAT are Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Harvard, and Olin. Only Harvard scores higher on the Writing SAT.</p>
<p>warblersrule86,
You are correct about Duke’s Critical Reading scores being very high. From data taken from collegeboard.com, Duke’s average score of 730 tied it for 4th among national universities. Following is the data for Critical Reading and Math and Combined and ACT average for many national universities (data from collegeboard.com for enrolled students). If someone has the information for LACs, then please post. </p>
<pre><code> CR
</code></pre>
<p>1 Harvard 745
1 Yale 745
3 Princeton 740
4 Cal Tech 730
4 Duke 730
6 U Chicago 720
6 Dartmouth 720
8 Brown 715
9 Stanford 710
9 MIT 710
9 Columbia 710
9 Wash U StL 710
12 Rice 705
12 Tufts 705
14 U Penn 695
14 Northwestern 695
14 Georgetown 695
17 J Hopkins 680
17 Vanderbilt 680
17 Brandeis 680
17 W & M 680
21 Cornell 675
21 USC 675
23 Tulane 668
24 Emory 660
24 Notre Dame 660
24 Carnegie Mellon 660
27 U Virginia 655
27 Boston College 655
29 Wake Forest 650
29 NYU 650
29 U Rochester 650
29 Case Western 650
33 UC Berkeley 645
33 American U 645
35 U North Carolina 640
35 G. Washington 640
37 U Michigan 635
37 Georgia Tech 635
39 UCLA 630
39 Rensselaer 630
39 Boston Univ 630
42 Lehigh 625
42 U Miami FL 625
42 U Maryland 625
45 U Wisconsin 615
45 U Florida 615
45 Pepperdine 615
45 Worcester 615
49 Yeshiva 610
49 U Pittsburgh 610
49 U Georgia 610
49 BYU 610
49 Clark Univ 610
49 SUNY-Bing 610
55 U Illinois UC 605
55 U Minnesota 605
55 SMU 605
58 UC SD 600
58 Syracuse 600
58 Fordham 600
61 U Texas 595
61 Baylor 595
61 Stevens Inst 595
64 UC S Barbara 590
64 Miami U OH 590
64 U Delaware 590
64 Clemson 590
64 Marquette 590
69 Ohio State 585
69 Rutgers 585
69 U Iowa 585
69 St. Louis U 585
73 U Washington 580
73 U Connecticut 580
73 Va Tech 580
76 Texas A&M 575
76 Iowa State 575
76 U Colorado 575
79 UC Irvine 570
79 Penn State 570
79 NC State 570
82 Michigan St 565
82 UC S Cruz 565
84 UC Davis 555
85 Indiana U 550
86 Purdue 545</p>
<pre><code> M
</code></pre>
<p>1 Cal Tech 790
2 MIT 760
3 Harvard 745
4 Princeton 740
4 Yale 740
4 Wash U StL 740
7 Duke 735
7 Carnegie Mellon 735
9 Stanford 730
9 Dartmouth 730
9 Rice 730
12 U Penn 725
12 Brown 725
14 Northwestern 715
15 Columbia 710
15 Cornell 710
15 J Hopkins 710
18 U Chicago 705
18 Tufts 705
20 Georgetown 695
20 USC 695
22 Emory 690
22 Vanderbilt 690
22 Wake Forest 690
22 Rensselaer 690
26 Notre Dame 685
27 UC Berkeley 680
27 U Michigan 680
27 Brandeis 680
27 Lehigh 680
27 Boston College 680
27 Georgia Tech 680
27 Case Western 680
27 U Illinois UC 680
27 Worcester 680
36 U Rochester 675
37 U Virginia 670
37 W & M 670
39 UCLA 665
39 Stevens Inst 665
41 NYU 660
41 U Wisconsin 660
43 U North Carolina 655
43 Tulane 655
45 UC SD 650
45 SUNY-Bing 650
47 G. Washington 645
47 Boston Univ 645
47 U Miami FL 645
50 U Florida 635
50 U Minnesota 635
50 Clemson 635
53 U Texas 630
54 Yeshiva 625
54 Syracuse 625
54 Pepperdine 625
54 Rutgers 625
54 SMU 625
54 BYU 625
54 American U 625
61 UC Irvine 615
61 Ohio State 615
61 U Georgia 615
61 Miami U OH 615
61 Va Tech 615
61 Iowa State 615
67 U Washington 610
67 Penn State 610
67 U Pittsburgh 610
67 Texas A&M 610
67 U Connecticut 610
67 U Delaware 610
67 NC State 610
67 Baylor 610
75 U Maryland 605
75 U Iowa 605
75 St. Louis U 605
78 UC Davis 600
78 UC S Barbara 600
80 Fordham 595
80 U Colorado 595
82 Purdue 590
82 Clark Univ 590
82 Marquette 590
85 UC S Cruz 580
86 Indiana U 570
87 Michigan St 565</p>
<pre><code> Total
</code></pre>
<p>1 Cal Tech 1520
2 Harvard 1490
3 Yale 1485
4 Princeton 1480
5 MIT 1470
6 Duke 1465
7 Dartmouth 1450
7 Wash U StL 1450
9 Stanford 1440
9 Brown 1440
11 Rice 1435
12 U Chicago 1425
13 U Penn 1420
13 Columbia 1420
15 Northwestern 1410
15 Tufts 1410
17 Carnegie Mellon 1395
18 J Hopkins 1390
18 Georgetown 1390
20 Cornell 1385
21 Vanderbilt 1370
21 USC 1370
23 Brandeis 1360
24 Emory 1350
24 W & M 1350
26 Notre Dame 1345
27 Wake Forest 1340
28 Boston College 1335
29 Case Western 1330
30 UC Berkeley 1325
30 U Rochester 1325
30 U Virginia 1325
33 Tulane 1323
34 Rensselaer 1320
35 U Michigan 1315
35 Georgia Tech 1315
37 NYU 1310
38 Lehigh 1305
39 UCLA 1295
39 U North Carolina 1295
39 Worcester 1295
42 U Illinois UC 1285
42 G. Washington 1285
44 U Wisconsin 1275
44 Boston Univ 1275
46 U Miami FL 1270
46 American U 1270
48 SUNY-Bing 1260
48 Stevens Inst 1260
50 UCSD 1250
50 U Florida 1250
52 Pepperdine 1240
52 U Minnesota 1240
54 Yeshiva 1235
54 BYU 1235
56 U Maryland 1230
56 SMU 1230
58 U Texas 1225
58 Syracuse 1225
58 Clemson 1225
58 U Georgia 1225
62 U Pittsburgh 1220
63 Rutgers 1210
64 Miami U OH 1205
64 Baylor 1205
66 Ohio State 1200
66 U Delaware 1200
66 Clark Univ 1200
69 Va Tech 1195
69 Fordham 1195
69 U Washington 1190
69 UC S Barbara 1190
69 U Iowa 1190
69 U Connecticut 1190
69 St. Louis U 1190
69 Iowa State 1190
77 UC Irvine 1185
77 Texas A&M 1185
79 Penn State 1180
79 NC State 1180
79 Marquette 1180
82 U Colorado 1170
83 UC Davis 1155
84 UC S Cruz 1145
85 Purdue 1135
86 Michigan St 1130
87 Indiana U 1120</p>
<pre><code> ACT
</code></pre>
<p>1 Harvard 32.5
2 Princeton 32.0
2 MIT 32.0
2 Rice 32.0
5 Duke 31.5
5 Wash U StL 31.5
5 Notre Dame 31.5
8 U Penn 31.0
8 Dartmouth 31.0
8 Northwestern 31.0
11 Stanford 30.5
11 U Chicago 30.5
11 Columbia 30.5
11 Tufts 30.5
15 Cornell 30.0
15 Brown 30.0
15 J Hopkins 30.0
15 Vanderbilt 30.0
15 Carnegie Mellon 30.0
15 USC 30.0
21 Georgetown 29.5
21 Brandeis 29.5
21 W & M 29.5
24 Emory 29.0
24 U Michigan 29.0
24 NYU 29.0
24 Tulane 29.0
28 U Virginia 28.5
28 U Rochester 28.5
28 Case Western 28.5
28 U Miami FL 28.5
32 U Wisconsin 28.0
32 Georgia Tech 28.0
32 G. Washington 28.0
35 U North Carolina 27.5
35 U Illinois UC 27.5
35 Worcester 27.5
35 BYU 27.5
35 American U 27.5
40 UCLA 27.0
40 Rensselaer 27.0
40 SUNY-Bing 27.0
40 Boston Univ 27.0
44 U Florida 26.5
44 Syracuse 26.5
44 Pepperdine 26.5
44 Ohio State 26.5
44 U Georgia 26.5
44 Miami U OH 26.5
44 Clemson 26.5
44 SMU 26.5
44 St. Louis U 26.5
44 Marquette 26.5
54 UC SD 26.0
54 U Texas 26.0
54 Fordham 26.0
54 Clark Univ 26.0
58 U Washington 25.5
58 Texas A&M 25.5
58 U Delaware 25.5
58 U Minnesota 25.5
58 U Colorado 25.5
58 Baylor 25.5
64 UC S Barbara 25.0
64 Purdue 25.0
64 U Iowa 25.0
64 U Connecticut 25.0
64 UC S Cruz 25.0
69 Iowa State 24.5
69 Indiana U 24.5
69 Michigan St 24.5
72 NC State 23.5</p>
<pre><code>No ACT provided
Yale 0.0
Cal Tech 0.0
UC Berkeley 0.0
Wake Forest 0.0
Lehigh 0.0
Boston College 0.0
UC Irvine 0.0
Yeshiva 0.0
UC Davis 0.0
Penn State 0.0
U Maryland 0.0
U Pittsburgh 0.0
Rutgers 0.0
Stevens Inst 0.0
Va Tech 0.0
</code></pre>
<p>Not sure who you are lecturing here. USNews data comes from the colleges and is as up to date as can be(as while some schools have 07-08, not all do). </p>
<p>And on the accepted vs. enrolled - yes it has value, but it A. isn’t available universally; B. is easily manipulated(as it doesn’t have universal standards like the CDS); C. has nothing to do with the school in reality - and so on.</p>
<p>Fascinating to see Tufts,Rice,Georgetown,William & Mary,Brandies,Wake Forest students score so much higher relative to their US News overall rank. Just goes to show how irrelavent PA is. These schools have much less emphasis on grad schools and more on teaching undergrads. </p>
<p>Begs the questions, would you rather spend four years at a smaller school with smarter kids or a bigger school with better grad students? Which has more influence on your education/life experience if you were an 18 yr old freshman?</p>