<p>Which is most important to colleges? Can a great GPA make up for
a poor SAT, and vice-versa? Oh, and I have a 1960 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA,
and a 4.5 W GPA, how do i look?</p>
<p>you look greatttt</p>
<p>thanks i guess ;)</p>
<p>i wish a sat score can make up for a low gpa.</p>
<p>GPA definitely is better than SAT, because it reflects 4 years instead of a few hours on a test. Plus, the SAT isn’t for everyone. Have you tried taking the ACT?</p>
<p>On the other hand it can easily be argued that SATs are more important due to “grade inflation” where practically everyone graduates with a 4.0 at some schools (which may not be the case everywhere but it’s common enough that it’s value is significantly diminished). It seems to be that entering a class a student expects to receive an A and the teacher expects to distribute that A by default. While it’s possible for work ethic or study habits or something to come between the student and their A, "A"s are thrown around enough that the vast majority of applicants at selective colleges have GPAs >3.5</p>
<p>So I guess the problem with GPA is that today you walk into a class with an A and can do poorly enough in the class that you’ll fall down to a B, C, etc. In the past you would walk in and have to work your way up to an A and hang onto it.</p>
<p>On the other hand the SAT is specifically designed so that a controlled amount of people will score high, majority of people will be about average, and a controlled amount will score low. It’s not a perfect bell curve, but it’s not as skewed as the distribution of GPAs at most schools.</p>
<p>Now all of that being said, there are many arguments against the validity of the SAT as well (among them being the idea that it’s a one-time, one-day, affair, while the GPA is indeed the culmination of four years of work… or 3.5 years by the time decisions are made). I have no idea what colleges care more about. I suppose it depends on the college.</p>