We have just done the 8 colleges in 4 days Spring Break tour, and it seemed all the schools emphasized the “most rigorous curriculum” rather than the SAT. Did it turn out that way for those of you who will be valedictorian or salutatorian in larger classes, say 300 or above and who took all the APs, etc available? If your SAT was 1250-1350, where did you get in?
<p>All I can say is that the valedictorian of my class couldn't break a 1250 SAT and her highest ambitions were URI. So that doesn't help much. The salutatorian, I dunno about her scores, were likely high, got rejected to Vassar but got in everywhere else, including Brandeis.</p>
<p>Going to an elite high school where about 20-25% of the school goes to Ivy's or Ivy-level schools and the mean SAT score is a 1430, I can't comment on that. (My school almost formed a mob and hopped a train to MA when our Val got rejected from MIT while like 6 weaker people made it).</p>
<p>BUT in my junior high school, our Val and Sal ended up at neighborhood high schools while people lower than them got accepted to elite schools. Unfortunately, tests do count a lot in the college admissions process although rigorous course of study and a lot of great EC's can offset that.</p>
<p>Where low test scores will hurt someone more is at the big schools (Ivy's, MIT and such) as those often go by points systems instead of looking at people as individuals. At LAC's, every applicant gets looked at carefully and a poor SAT score can be offset by other stats much more easily.</p>