What do colleges prefer a high SAT / ACT scores and low GPA and Class rank or.....?

Test Preparation
1

<p>How do colleges feel about a student with high SAT / ACT scores and low GPA and Class rank vs. low SAT / ACT scores and high GPA and class rank?</p>

<p>I mean on one hand having a high SAT / ACT scores and low GPA and Class rank means you are smart but lazy. Which means you have potential but you could go out and party and eventually flunk out college.</p>

<p>On the other having a low SAT / ACT scores and high GPA and class rank represents that you are not that smart but you are hard working, but you could still fail college if you don't apply yourself.</p>

<p>I am curious about this because the valectdictorian score a 1050 on the SAT, while everyone else at my school scored in the 1200s. I mean he is a really hard working guy and understands everything in every class, but for some reason he just can't score very high on the SAT.</p>

2

<p>Some colleges may also view the first scenario as a super competitive school with grade deflation. They may view the second scenario as a fairly easy school with grade inflation. The first one seems to be the better option, although being the best in both would be favorable.</p>

3

<p>what if your school doesnt do class rank?</p>

4

<p>They may not say it, but I think colleges give much greater weight to SAT/ACT than GPA. If you look at threads were posters list their GPA, especially the weighted GPA it is all over the place (I saw one that was something like 3.8 UW and 6.3 wighted ffs) . It is really hard to compare apples to apples as to GPA b/c so much is school specific. However, the ACT and SAT are the same for everyone so it is a much better comparison tool.</p>

<p>Further, I think it is the very rare exception where a student gets a 34+ ACT or 2300+ SAT and has below a 3.5 UW GPA. Conversely, although rare, it would be much more likely to have a 3.9 GPA and get a 25 ACT.</p>

5

<p>on naviance colleges seem to do GPA more than SAT/ACT</p>

6

<p>The OP asked this in March so I’m not sure s/he’s still reading, but the best way to see what carries more weight is to look at the Common Data Set for each school. Most schools weight GPA and course rigor more, but not all. For instance Univ of Nebraska rated scores as very important but GPA only considered (class rank was also very important…)</p>

7

<p>It varies from school to school.</p>

8

<p>I know this was back in march, but a I know a friend of mine got into Cornell with a 3.42 and a 2300 SAT and a 34 ACT.</p>

<p>Then again, I know a friend who got into Temple with a 3.8 something and a 1240 SAT (third try)…</p>

<p>It honestly does depends.</p>