Hi! So I hear that GPA and standardized tests are a “threshold”, but how important are these factors actually in college admissions? Especially standardized tests; how can they not be highly important since they are uniform throughout the country, unlike GPA? Do colleges actually mean they barely look at tests or are they lying?
To which college(s) are you referring?
Like everything else, they need to be judged in context. Not everyone has the same opportunities when it comes to preparing for standardized tests.
I would recommend looking at each school’s common data set (just Google “[name of school] common data set”). Most colleges say that tests are very important.
There are many excellent schools that are “test optional”-- http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional
Three schools have alternate application processes that don’t include grades or tests–
Bard Examination – http://www.bard.edu/bardexam/
Goucher video application – http://www.goucher.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/video-app
Bennington “Dimensional” application – http://www.bennington.edu/admissions-aid/apply/dimensional-application
Three schools (maybe more) have attempted in the past in varying ways to ignore tests and/or to buck USN&WR reporting on GPA and test scores, and other factors, and have been punished by USN&WR. (The magazine ranks them way down the list as punishment and one of the criticisms of the USN&WR ranking system is that it relies too heavily on inputs rather than results; in other words it relies for example on the scores of the students entering and the number of students applying rather than the education the school gives them. the USN&WR ranking system is one reason why tuition is so high and entrance to the top schools is so competitive. Tuition is high partly because schools are ranked on USN&WR by facilities and so the school spends money building new fancy buildings, driving up tuition. Entrance to top schools is high partly because USN&WR ranks schools on how many applications they receive, and so schools, such as U Chicago, Vanderbilt, Case Western embark on these marketing programs to get you and your siblings and every one else to apply, whether they can read or not. The common app makes it easy for people to apply as a lottery shot. Elsewhere in this forum you can find people remarking at how slick Northeastern’s campus tours are. . . . . http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/)
Reed
Hampshire
Sarah Lawrence
As for state schools, my understanding, from reading CC, is that they look at the scores to determine whether a student can handle the work and have minimum scores. But I have no articles to back up this impression.
Private competitive schools do not tend to have minimums for their GPAs and test scores, but there is a minimum by default. The reasoning is that for the top say 20-40 schools there are so many applicants that the school can fill its class with students all scoring above X level. In other words, your competition is setting the height of the bar, but the school can occasionally dip lower than that bar for a hook of some sort–an athlete, kid of a prominent alumni donor or celebrity, a hard working first-gen student who is scrappy and got that far on his or her own, etc.
Private less competitive schools often don’t fill and on May 1 you can see the list of schools that haven’t filled here on CC. For those schools you probably could toss them a late application with their score minimum that indicates that you can handle the work and would be happy there, and would get in. Financial aid? Another story entirely.
^ As a general rule the SAT scores become relatively less important the higher ranked the school is. This is because the majority of kids applying to top 30ish schools have SAT/ACT scores above the 95% percentile, so the tiebreakers on who gets in and who doesn’t will be primarily grades, course rigour, essays, recommendations and ECs.
In addition, many schools may deemphasise the test scores further this year due to three exam options (Old SAT, New SAT and ACT) as there is no true comparison tool to compare across all three exams. I hope that helps.
The opportunities for secondary school students to learn and study for the standardized tests aren’t uniform. Colleges know this, so test results are looked at in context.
Your other threads indicate that you have a ~34 ACT. I think that will make you competitive for the top 30 schools you want, but the score itself won’t get you in. Your GPA and the rest of your app have to be competitive too. Even then, there are more kids who are academically qualified for the top schools than there are seats. It’s important to craft a list that includes safeties. Make sure you have a couple schools you’re sure to be accepted to, can afford, and would be happy to attend. Then apply to the top 30 schools and see what happens.
Thanks for the help everyone!
“SAT scores become relatively less important the higher ranked the school is”
Not really. As a high stats kid, your scores may not distinguish you among so many other high stats kids, work any special magic. But scores can still be a sort of benchmark. Harvard isn’t giving a pass to a lower scoring kid, just because they have so many high stats applicants.
Nor are they de-emphasizing scores because they come in 3 varieties. Each tippy top knows how to view the New SAT in relation to the old. I presume the same goes for other tiers.
OP, as others say, the std tests may be the same, across the country, but results need to be interpreted in the high school and individual context.
^ I think that the top schools are using SATs more as a first cut rather than base their final decision on SATs
@perspectivestude generally speaking, grades are most important. However, you can look at the Common Data Sets for the colleges you are interested in to see how important each factor is to them.
For example, here is the Common Data Set for Washington U:
https://wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/wustl-cds-2015-2016.pdf
If you scroll down to page 7, you can find the answers you are looking for.
@londondad kids make it past first cut for many reasons. During later reviews, score strength or relative weakness can still matter, as part of the whole, in the winnowing. A kid who has all the “its,” save for score strength, might make it through to an admit. But other kids, also with all the “its,” but better stats, might take the lead. It depends on a lot of factors, including geo diversity and the possible major.