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What are you are basing this on? Looking up the top-15 schools I was admitted to with a low verbal on Parchment shows I was far from the only non-URM acceptance with a 800 math + lower verbal. For example, the data below shows rate of acceptance among Parchment apps at MIT for non-URM, male (MIT gives a large boost for being female) apps with a 780+ on math SAT + >=3.8 UW GPA with the listed CR scores ranges:</p>
<p>550-590 : 2 out of 7 (too small sample size for accurate estimate)
600-640 : 11%
650-690 : 11%
700-740 : 15%
750-790 : 19%
800 : 20%</p>
<p>Sure, it’s possible that all of the low scoring acceptances had some kind of non-URM hook, although I’d expect filtering for a score on 780+ math to weed out the vast majority of hooks that have subpar academic merit. The trend suggests that a high CR score boosts your chances, such that a perfect 800 has nearly twice the acceptance rate of ~600 CR. However, the acceptance rate does not drop down to anywhere near 0 at lower CR scores.</p>
<p>Note that MIT looks at far more than GPA and test scores. In the CDS, they rank character & personal qualities higher than either category; and they rank course rigor, essays, LORs, ECs, talent, and interview equal to stats. This fits with the acceptance rate for apps with a perfect 4.0 UW GPA + perfect 800 math + perfect 800 verbal being only 21%. The vast majority of the perfect stat apps did not also excel in the non-stat criteria. I’m not saying that the OP can get into MIT, only that his CR score isn’t low enough to dismiss him from consideration. I’d make similar statements about many other top-15 colleges.</p>