Which is better? High SAT low GPA OR High GPA low SAT?

Applying to College
1

<p>Which one do you believe has a higher chance to go to the same school (assuming everything else is the same)</p>

2

<p>There is no standard in GPA. One cannot easily compare two students with different GPA even from the same school. The adcom always wants students with high GPA and high test score. Certain school put more emphasis on GPA (e.g. UMich) than test score. Nevertheless, they would not simply look at the GPA at face value. They would look at the school profile, course rigor, and class rank at the same time. There is no conversion chart for compensating between GPA and test score. It will have to be reviewed case by case.</p>

3

<p>The high GPA low SAT student has more chances to remedy the situation by retaking the SAT and taking the ACT after additional preparation. The high SAT low GPA student has little possibility of making a significant improvement on the weaker part of his/her academic credentials when applying for frosh admission.</p>

4

<p>Well if I was an admission officer (which of course I’m not), I would pick the kid with the high GPA and low SAT. To me, if you have a low GPA and a high SAT, that tells me that you had the ability to get a much higher GPA but you must have slacked off for whatever reason over the course of 4 years in high school. (I’m assuming that we are talking about an actually low GPA, not one where a kid got mostly A’s but one C because of the mean Chemistry teacher.) Whereas the combination of high GPA, low SAT tells me that the student must have worked extra hard to achieve those results. Obviously in real life it’s much more complicated and the adcoms also look at the rigor of the school and its curriculum. But I think it’s a big mistake to think that high scores on SAT’s will cause adcoms to overlook 4 years of mediocre grades. My D has some really smart, capable classmates who were too busy partying their way through high school to get good grades, and are now crossing their fingers that good SAT’s and good EC’s will still get them into highly selective colleges. I guess we’ll find out in the Spring.</p>