<p>Why are the ranges so low? Now, I regret not applying to the upper Ivies, HYP</p>
<p>I don’t know where you got your numbers. Harvard goes from 31-35. Yale from 30-34. Princeton from 31-35. And you realize the admission rate is ~10% at those schools and that they accept students using a whole person concept?</p>
<p>Because test scores only mean so much…</p>
<p>Where are you getting those ranges?</p>
<p>BTW…don’t assume that just because someone may have gotten in with a lowish SAT, that you could have, too. Sometimes those students are special admits…children of super major donors, athletes, URMs, kids with some special talents/achievements, etc.</p>
<p>I agree with the OP, Getting into HYP is too easy. Accepted applicants should go through an obstacle course of death.</p>
<p>College apps season is basically brutal psychological torture, so adding a obstacle course of death probably wouldn’t be too punishing. But the course should be designed to weed out those who score 34’s and lower on the ACT since they’re just dead weight.</p>
<p>Excuse me, I was talking about the lower Ivies: Cornell, UPenn, Columbia…</p>
<p>I meant that since the LOWER Ivies are quite easy to get in (according to the score ranges at least), I regret not applying to the upper Ivies, HYP.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that scoring in the 95th percentile (29) was so easy. A 29-33 is in the 95th-99th percentile range. If we convert to SAT scores, to put it in perspective for some people, a 29-33 range is about a 1980-2200 median range. This is not easy.</p>
<p>The lower ivies are not “quite easy to get in.” </p>
<p>And where are you getting those ACT ranges?</p>
<p>Columbia mid 50s</p>
<p>SAT Critical Reading: 680 - 770 96%
SAT Math: 690 - 780 96%
SAT Writing: 680 - 770 96%
ACT Composite: 31 - 34 28%</p>
<p>And these numbers don’t suggest that if you’re in that range or well above this range that you have a good chance to get in.</p>
<p>I don’t know that these ACT scores are all that low. A 32 on the ACT is 99th percentile. In general, though, colleges’ reported 25th/75th percentiles for the SAT tend to be higher than their reported 25th/75th percentiles for the ACT for a couple of reasons. First, many colleges superscore the SAT, and count each enrolled freshman’s SAT superscore toward their 25th and 75th percentile calculations. Very few colleges superscore the ACT; they just report each freshman’s highest single-sitting ACT composite. That tends to inflate reported SAT 25th/75th percentiles relative to the ACT 25th/75th percentiles.</p>
<p>Second, the reported SAT 25th/75th percentiles aren’t the actual 25th/75th percentiles of all enrolled freshmen. The reported SAT 75th percentile SAT CR+M is constructed by taking the school’s 75th percentile CR, and adding that to the school’s 75th percentile M. But that doesn’t mean that 25% of the enrolled freshman actually had CR + M scores above that reported CR + M level. Here’s a concrete example. Suppose Penn has a reported SAT CR + M middle 50% range of 1330-1520 (as it does in the latest figures on US News). The way US News gets those numbers is by adding Penn’s CR 25th/75th percentiles of 650-740 to its M 25th/75th percentiles of 680-780; so at the 25th percentile, 650 + 680 = 1330, and at the 75th percentile 740 + 780 = 1520. But even assuming the CR 25th/75th percentile and the M 25th/75th percentile are accurate, you can’t assume that everyone who was above the 75th percentile in CR was also above the 75th percentile in M. Lots of the very high CR scorers may be significantly weaker in M, and vice versa. Indeed, other things equal, you’d assume that someone admitted with a sub-25th percentile CR score is much more likely to be admitted if they’re very strong in math; and vice versa. And at the other end of the scale, you’d assume that someone with a super-high CR score may have a pretty good chance of admission even if they’re considerably weaker in math, and vice versa. In short, the reported 25th/75th CR + M composite score for the school is just an artificial made-up number, that probably overstates the actual 75th percentile, and probably understates the actual 25th percentile. More students are probably bunched more twoard the middle of that range once you add their actual CR and M scores together. You don’t get this effect with the ACT because the schools are working essentially with one number, the highest single-sitting ACT composite, so you there’s not artificial number created by adding 2 (or more) subscore 25th/75th percentiles. This effect will also tend to make it look like the admitted students submitting SATs have higher scores (at least at the top end) than those submitting the ACT, when it’s in fact largely just an artifact of how the scores are reported.</p>
<p>Lower ivies are quite easy to get in?</p>
<p>You sound way too overconfident.</p>
<p>I understand it’s extremely difficult to get in. But based on the ACT score range provided by ■■■■■■■■■■. It SEEMS quite easy to get in, but that’s not the truth.
Perhaps the ranges are outdated?</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn’t realize that I sounded like an arrogant jerk.</p>
<p>Remember…being within a stated range does not mean that those in those ranges get accepted at a high %.</p>
<p>blade: just because the range of those schools is within the grasp of a larger population doesn’t equate their being “easy” to be accepted. There’s probably triple to quadruple the number of acceptees with test scores in that range that get rejected.</p>
<p>Acceptance rates are very low because the schools you mention are so popular with HS Seniors – your analysis of one metric w/o context doesn’t change that fact. Frankly, it just means more people are statistically viable – all the more to argue that it’s really a crapshoot. Sorry but best of luck to you anyway.</p>
<p>Okay i get. So one’s test score is just a minor factor.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Probably very much so…especially at those lower test score ranges. Those students are likely to have some hook of sorts…from an unusual area of the country, from another country, English isn’t their first language, from a very poor environment, odd, but significant accomplishment, URM (especially male), athlete, unusual major, etc.</p>
<p>You cannot really assume the ACT scores are “lower” than SAT. The ACT should generally appear somewhat “lower” because when they report those mid-ranges they are reporting SATs based on “superscoring,” using highest subscores from multiple tests which they do for admission with SAT scores, but ACTs based on test with highest composite since they do not superscore ACTs. Doing so should lead to SAT scores appearing somewhat higher.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Very good point about the superscoring aspect. Maybe ACT should change scoring from a “composite” to a total, so it could be more quickly and easily superscored. But, it won’t likely happen. LOL</p>
<p>I doubt that test scores are minor factors. If they were there wouldn’t be so many kids with sky high numbers at HYP et al. The 75th percentile at one of the “upper” Ivys is 800. That’s no coincidence. The vast majority of unhooked applicants need very big numbers, including GPAs, then the other factors, recs, essays, ECs, come into play. IMO.</p>