How does SSAT score affect the admission process? For example, will a person with 99 percentile get more advantage than a person with 95%?
@Phoenix777 You raise a controversial question. I believe that yes, a 99% has a higher chance than a 95% but that assumes that all else is equivalent. Even then there are caveats. Keep in mind that only a few schools have average SSAT scores into the 90s. Most are 50 to 88%. Further, its pretty easy to get a really good score (65 to 85) with heavy preparation and attention to knowledge gaps in math. But its not so easy to get a 99% just from preppping. These are bright kids. I think that SSATs are far more important than most want to acknowledge. They gove the school a good idea of how that student will do on the SAT. They validate grades. (Most schools simply cannot be compared.) If a student has straight As from a good public school and gets a 90 and another student has straight As and has a 99% well then maybe the 99% will get the spot (not that its that simple of course). But what if one of those students plays soccer and swims? What if one is black or hispanic? And on and on. Further, if you have a 99% and great grades and and you are applying to say Andover and school XYZ, school XYZ may not accept you because they think you wont go there and Andover may have too many 99% applicants. Its complex for sure.
the ssat is meant to see if an applicant can handle the work. a 95 will have no advantage over the 99 because each applicant has so many different niches and ec’s and the such. for an asian applicant, a perfect score may look very robotic, but for an urm, it may be a completely different story. anything over a 90 or in that region tells that you can do the work. then, your grades, recs, ecs become more important.
and all this assumes that the scores are somewhat equivalent from section to section. @blender420 that is not entirely true that the SSAT is meant to see if an applicant can do the work. A 4.0 should make that clear no? Your own comments reveal the nuances of how it is utilized. To say a 99% looks robotic for an Asian assumes all Asians get 99s and that it is an exception for an URM. Dangerous territory…
@Center I appreciate your answer. I guess I was really asking if being good at academics can be a hook for schools like PA and PEA. And please, no rude comments in this warm and helpful community.
@Phoenix777 Being good at academics is not a hook. Most applicants to PA and PEA are very good students. That is kind of the baseline for these and other schools.
I largely agree with @Center, except that I’m not convinced that a 4.0 in middle school necessarily indicates that a person can handle a rigorous BS. At some schools, a 4.0 requires very little effort.
@CaliPops yes --note my question mark after the 4.0. I agree with you completely.
I’m not sure exactly how schools use and view scores but I think it’s worthwhile to remember that these scores are not points on a ratio or interval scale. So, a 99% is not “4% higher” than a 95% . Rather, one should look at it as “one out of a hundred” (top 1%) score that well versus “one out of twenty-five” (top 5%).
Similarly, a “perfect” score (2400) represents roughly one out of a thousand (99.9%), even though it is within “1%” of every other 99% score, so there can be huge differences even within the top percentile.
Of course, there are all sorts of questions whether the SSAT is accurately measuring some relevant combination of intelligence of preparedness/achievement, but that is a different discussion. Assuming arguendo that the SSAT does what it purports to do, one can see that there can be very large differences in ability even within the top 5%.
^Oops, I just reread my above post and noticed that a 95% (or above) represents a score achieved by one out of twenty students, not one out of twenty-five. It’s a good thing my test taking days are long over, lol.
Just a reminder that most schools are looking to build a multifaceted community of engaged learners. Admissions teams aren’t just looking for intellectually-gifted, academic powerhouses with the very highest test scores. Your SSAT scores tell them something about your academic ability… but these schools are about a lot more than academics.
Even with strong scores and ECs, admissions is a crap shoot, especially if you need financial aid.
I keep reminding my kid that we know respected CEOs who went to crappy high schools and that one of our most admired and successful friends went to a mediocre state school for college.
What you do with your education will always matter more than where you got it.
Or so I keep telling my kid in preparation for disappointment on M10.
“I keep reminding my kid that we know respected CEOs who went to crappy high schools and that one of our most admired and successful friends went to a mediocre state school for college.
What you do with your education will always matter more than where you got it.”
Literally just finished the same conversation with my son. I’m a HADES school and SYA alumna, the majority of my friends from my teen years went to boarding schools, and the three most successful people I know (who have achieved the rare feat of creating a path for themselves that is both personally fulfilling and extremely well-compensated) went to public schools (one of them being a fairly lousy rural school in what she described as an “educational dead-end state.”). What they have in common is an incredible work ethic.
Getting into a school means you got into a school - it does not mean you will be a successful adult. It is so important to remember that no matter what happens on M10, you have years ahead of you to gain knowledge and skills, pursue passions and engage with the world. Not getting into your dream boarding school means that ONE option is closed, but there are so many more paths available.