When I look at statistics on average SSAT score for incoming students . . . . . how does this translate into what type of score a student “should” have to qualify for an individual school? Of course we know higher is better . . rather what I am looking for is . . . if you want to be a good candidate for school X all things being equal . . you should score at least . .
I know this isn’t science. Just looking for gut feelings or individual experience.
It’s a good question and certainly a hard one to answer. Off hand, I’d say it varies from case to case, depending on what else the applicant brings to the table. It also varies from school to school. Some very selective schools with admission rates in the mid-teens don’t necessarily have the highest median SSAT scores. And there’s always the question of whether a school will report scores honestly–though some here will insist that’s not an issue.
And when it comes to determining a score one “should” have, a median SSAT score for a school is not as useful as a middle 50% (25%-75%) range of scores, as it’s done in the Fiske college guide, for example. But even that will not tell the whole story.
I think you’re apt to get more responses to your question post-March 10. With results in hand, people may be better able to arrive at some insights. In the end, one’s own application provides the best answer.
Agree with @DonFefe with the added note that if you’re a FA applicant…it helps to be above the benchmark…in as many categories as possible, including SSAT scores. (AO’s have offered their own SSAT “benchmark” in interviews, which tends to be below what is on school record . Granted, we have a limited sampling but that’s been our experience.)
@mathmusicmadness we had the same experience with an AO telling us that their SSAT average was lower than what is reported on sites like boarding school review
The best answer is not a specific number. If you’re trying to figure out the likelihood of admission, the best answer is to have all components above average, not just the SSAT score. There are many examples of candidates with above-average scores who are not admitted to a given school, so clearly it’s not just about that number.
My opinion is that you should target schools where your scores are at or above those schools’ averages and then put all of your effort into presenting your best self in the rest of the application. Wanting someone to give you a particular number isn’t helpful because the schools don’t select candidates that way.
ChoatieMom that is really the essence . . I guess one way of thinking about it is that if you are above the average on most parameters–maybe that is a target school . . if you are below the averages. . maybe that is a reach and if you are above . .maybe that is a fair bet (of course no guarantee). I am speaking of a situation in which a child is not a legacy, not a recruited athlete. For my part, the issue is really how much to invest (time and $$) in test prep once a kid is solidly above the average for the schools on his list.
My answer for once a kid is solidly above average for the schools on his list = zero.
I believe it makes sense to buy a book and have kiddo take a few practice tests for familiarity but anything beyond that gets into chasing ephemeral scores and could possibly land him in a school where he struggles to keep up. Picking a school first and then fighting like mad for a competitive superscore is the tail wagging the dog.
SSAT scores are an important admission factor but they are not the ‘determining’ one.
We saw so many applicants who got mid-to-high 90% and still not accepted. Why this happens?
While the FA factor plays a significant role, boarding schools take the holistic approach when they assess the applicants, meaning that they look at the ‘whole’ person. There is ‘build-a-class’ factor as well as ‘hook’ or legacy factor. As such, a top SSAT score does not guarantee the acceptance.
Schools are schools and they inevitably put a heavier emphasis on academic competency evidenced by grades, RECs and scores, but they do look at others such as fit, personality and ECs. (ECs are very reliable barometer of who the person is and what he/she likes/dislikes, how the person interacts and what his/her values are)
I heard one Admission director (Thacher, I guess) say, “We can always fill the entire class with 99% SSAT scores/4.0 GPA, if we want but we don’t do that.” This is applicable to all the other selective boarding schools and is a true essence of their admission process.
That being said, it should be safer to say your SSAT scores are not likely to be a negative factor if you have above average numbers at the schools. Don’t be misguided when you look at some people who got accepted with a considerably lower-than-average scores. They must have had something special which more than offsets the numbers.
Further. The top schools tend to look skeptically at multiple retest takers. Sends several bad messages. Of course it’s. It necessarily bad it could also be a motivated kid trying to improve but we heard from a couple of sources that someone who takes the test more than twice can hurt themselves.
Although AppleKid had a strong overall percentile on the first test, AppleKid decided to take the test a second time to try to improve the score for one section which was a bit lower than the others. This ended up being a successful effort. AppleKid received positive feedback from some AOs and coaches for wanting to improve the score in the weaker area, and in one particular case was told that it showed admissions that AppleKid was very interested in gaining admission to the school. Unfortunately, on the second go around the scores in the other two areas were not as high as on the first test, probably because most of the prep was for the weak area. Despite that, the overall percentile stayed about the same and AppleKid decided NOT to take the test a third time. In hindsight it’s tough to tell if it was worth the bother to take the test a second time since the overall percentile stayed the same. But the fact that AppleKid independently decided to take the test again was, as the one school noted, an important signal to me and DH about how serious AppleKid was about getting accepted by the selected schools.
Here’s a scenario I’d like to recommend parents/kids to test out regarding tests. Ideally, in the summer before the application season, you are starting to look at different components of the application. You want to start doing a couple of practice tests to identify if there’s any areas of knowledge you need to make up (and that should be the focus of the test prep). Keep doing the practice tests available to you so you get a good sense on what you can expect to achieve in the real thing. Whether you should re-take should depend on how off the actual results are relative to what you got from the practice tests. If they are in line, there’s no point to stress yourself out for a marginal gain by repeating it. Otherwise you may consider re-taking it once. After that, if your score is 80% or above, usually for any school it is not the SSAT scores ONLY that would keep you out. In other words, if all other components of your application are strong, 80% is probably just as good as 90%. Hope it helps, but don’t ask me for the source of this info. It’s hearsay + speculation.