<p>"More than 75% freshmen were in top 10% of their high school class and scored over 1310 on SAT I or over 29 on ACT; about 30% or fewer of all applicants accepted." </p>
<p>Interpret the data as you will. Harvard is a school for students and not for gods. END THE CC SCORES MADNESS!!!:)</p>
<p>Well theres many roads to Harvard. The grades and test scores route is probably the hardest as so many people have exceptional grades and test scores. If you have a hook elsewhere, you probably don't need to worry about getting a 1550+ as much.</p>
<p>FIrst of all, there's no such thing as a "hook". Also, once you corss a certain threshold, your SCORES ARE VIEWED EQUALLY. A 33 is viewed the same as a 36 and a 2200 is viewed the same as a 2400. Even if an applicant is penalized for having somewhat lower scores, he can MORE than make up for it by writing a stellar essay.</p>
<p>There's still a wow factor about a 2400 and a 36. Granted you'd still need something else. But every bit counts. The way I see it, everyone's grades and scores are high enough to provide little differentiation. That is why essays, interviews, and ECs have so much impact. Sure essays are probably worth 10-15%, but if thats the only thing separating one applicant from another, thats the 10% that will count. If the range of applicant scores were all over the board, the other factors would have little impact.</p>
<p>Thats not true, everything is looked in context with the rest of the app. There is no such thing as a threshold.</p>
<p>You are misinterpreting the data. The fact that "More than 75% freshmen were in top 10% of their high school class and scored over 1310 on SAT I or over 29 on ACT; about 30% or fewer of all applicants accepted" is a prerequisite for the "most difficult" acceptance category.</p>
<p>^ Exactly what I was going to say.</p>
<p>A 2200 and 2400 are in no way the same in the eyes of an adcom. Just look at the percentage of 2200s that get in versus the percentage of 2400s that get in.</p>
<p>How on earth would you know the percentages yet?</p>
<p>These percentages are obviously not from the class of 2010 (though it's pretty safe to assume it will also apply to this year's acceptees), but</p>
<p>this is certainly not new news. nobody thought harvard was just letting everybody in. at the same token, it's pretty common knowledge that great SAT scores will just get ur foot in the door. I think the applicants who focus less on SATs and go out and do something productive have much better shots at admissions.</p>
<p>Just my 2c.</p>
<p>I agree. No one gets in on SATs alone. No one gets in on any one thing alone</p>
<p>Not necessarily, a good essay is hard to overlook.:)</p>
<p>but of course, even the greatest essay won't make up for bad grades, ECs, and scores.</p>
<p>I don't know what's up with the incessant arguments are scores...are we too obsessed, too impatient? I'm not impatient.</p>
<p>Noooooo, not impatient at all :)</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I don't know what's up with the incessant arguments are scores...<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>The arguments never stop because everyone hopes that their own strengths are the factors that the adcoms weigh heavily and their own weaknesses are the factors that don't matter so much. But the truth is that however convincingly one side or the other argues on CC is completely irrelevant, because it's all going to get decided by the Harvard Admissions Committee and not the hopefuls here on this discussion board.</p>
<p>Sit tight for another month and half and it will all become quite clear whether any individual's combination of scores, essays, hooks, etc. were good enough.</p>
<p>I am an Ivy interviewer and I have friends in admissions at an ivy. 30 pts isn't a big deal, but 200 points really matters. Don't kid yourself.</p>
<p>The point is that 2200-2400 matters somewhat, but it will not get the student in automatically. H would be much more likely to accept the 2200 w/ a really interesting hook than your run of the mill 2400. </p>
<p>"A 2200 and 2400 are in no way the same in the eyes of an adcom. Just look at the percentage of 2200s that get in versus the percentage of 2400s that get in"</p>
<p>Well, that could be due to a number of factors. Students w/ a 2400 are also more likely to suceed in school (GPA, rank etc.) and are more likely to be intelectually capable enough to do a really great hook (e.g. high-level scientific research). These statistics do not tell anything about 'interesting' 2200 students and 'normal' 2400 students w/ similar ranks, grades etc.</p>
<p>I love how you say that a 1450 and a 1600 are the same thing. They are not. Yes, it is true that, after a certain threshold, scores count less and less. But look at the percentage of 1450s that get in (about 10%) vs the amount of 1600s (50%).</p>
<p>"A 2200 and 2400 are in no way the same in the eyes of an adcom. Just look at the percentage of 2200s that get in versus the percentage of 2400s that get in"</p>
<p>I've said it before and I'll say it again. 2200 and 2400 are hardly significant differences, and it would be a sign of not understanding the test to have any other view. As the College Board explains, the SAT numbers should be read in terms of ranges not exact numbers. I quote below from their website: "Most of the time, your score would fall in a range about 30 to 40 points above or below your true ability. Colleges know this and they receive the score ranges along with your scores."
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/scores/understanding/scorerange.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/scores/understanding/scorerange.html</a></p>
<p>By the way, this range applies to each test (out of total of 200-800). So the error range gets multiplied.</p>
<p>Okay, do the math. I'm going to do this with the higher range of 40 just to give students the advantage.</p>
<p>So, if you had gotten 2200, you would have a range of 2080-2320. And I don't think many people would claim much difference between 2320 and 2400.</p>
<p>We do hope of course that adcoms think this way but I would like to see better proof about this. Otherwise I'm afraid we have a problem, Houston.</p>
<p>"I am an Ivy interviewer and I have friends in admissions at an ivy. 30 pts isn't a big deal, but 200 points really matters. Don't kid yourself." Uh oh.</p>