<p>The best gauge, for me, is a combination of GPA and Standardized Test Scores. 50% GPA + 50% SATS/ACT.</p>
<p>SAT alone does not tell much. It can be cheated. And, it favors the well-moneyed students of America. For example, many British students wouldn’t score well on SATs, even those who are Cambridge or Oxford-bound students, who aren’t necessarily less inferior students to their American counterparts. And data have shown that a lot of high-scorer students on SATs dropout from college and do not graduate at all. This is a usual occurrence at schools like Caltech, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, CMU and such schools. </p>