What did you (parent) score on SAT/ ACT? Your child?

[Anonymous]

Me: 1440
Spouse: 1500
Kid: 1570

[Anonymous]

I do not remember but I was a national merit scholar. Went to a mediocre public school and no tutoring or prep like today. Myself and 2 siblings all went to top 20 schools. Our parents didn’t help us with the applications at all.

[Anonymous]

99th %ile FGLI studied out of a book; went to T10 on tons of grants; now full pay physician/lawyer couple with kids who were 99th and 99.7th%ile minimal prep SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1300 SAT in 1986. Straight As. Went to Duke
Daughter got 690 V, 680 M - had two months of 1:1 tutoring last summer.

Elite/ivies had mid-50 score ranges (25th to 75th) of about 90th to 98th%ile in the early 90s. Now(pre-TO) have 98-99th %ile as the 25-75Th %ile. In other words, the general range of UVA these days is about the range of ivies back then. Why? There are more kids applying all over not just their region; US is bigger schools are not, and internationals. My kid went to a different elite than i did and they put up pre-test-optional data at parents weekend fall ‘22 showing us: 3/4 of the undergrads now are similar to the top 1/4 from the 90s.
There is a reason for the grade inflation: they are a brighter bunch at ivies now. Of course most should make B+ and above. And most should get into med and law, they do not need to “weed out” much. They said that. And they do have higher success rates with med and law, more than they did in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

me, 1988 - 1300
spouse, 1988 - 1450
dc1, 2021 - 1590
dc2, 2023 - 1550

[Anonymous]

Husband: 1590
Me: 1480

DC1: 1570
DC2: Too young to take

[Anonymous]

Me: 1310 in early 90s plus straight As- went to Ivy
DC1: 1420 and pretty good grades- mid-tier SLAC
DC2: Some LDs, will go TO but likely to top out at 1200 based on first try in the high 1100s. But like a PP said, 1600 in EQ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not remember but I was a national merit scholar. Went to a mediocre public school and no tutoring or prep like today. Myself and 2 siblings all went to top 20 schools. Our parents didn’t help us with the applications at all.

Did they pay for you too 20 schools?

[Anonymous]

I feel dumb reading this thread lol! I thought my 1300+ and my kid’s (2024) low 1500’s was pretty good for our respective times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised that I don’t remember either! It was important at the time. Early 90s. It was 1280 or 1310?!?! Hmmmm. Who knows. Admitted in state to UVA but didn’t go because of an awful tour and the stupid The University stickers lol. Now my kid goes there because thankfully it’s a lot different. (Sorry, sidebar)

So since uva still has stickers and was this school year that admin found tours bad enough to drop student tours, what is it that you are seeing different now?

[Anonymous]

I have no clue. I remember that I did well enough that I was inundated with mail from almost every school in the Midwest. Our daughter took the SAT once and achieved a 1540.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1300 SAT in 1986. Straight As. Went to Duke
Daughter got 690 V, 680 M - had two months of 1:1 tutoring last summer.

Elite/ivies had mid-50 score ranges (25th to 75th) of about 90th to 98th%ile in the early 90s. Now(pre-TO) have 98-99th %ile as the 25-75Th %ile. In other words, the general range of UVA these days is about the range of ivies back then. Why? There are more kids applying all over not just their region; US is bigger schools are not, and internationals. My kid went to a different elite than i did and they put up pre-test-optional data at parents weekend fall ‘22 showing us: 3/4 of the undergrads now are similar to the top 1/4 from the 90s.
There is a reason for the grade inflation: they are a brighter bunch at ivies now. Of course most should make B+ and above. And most should get into med and law, they do not need to “weed out” much. They said that. And they do have higher success rates with med and law, more than they did in the 90s.

You would have to use the percentile translation that applied at that time.

[Anonymous]

Do high scores translate to great jobs, $$?

[Anonymous]

In 1959 scored 714 and 740 - probably barely top 1% back then. Good enough for National Merit Finalist.
Had three children. Two were great testers - one a National Merit Finalist, other one did not do great on SAT but did OK on ACT. All three fine in college and doing great in their chosen professions.

[Anonymous]

Weirdly my DC1 and I scored the same on the SAT (1480), but my score got me into every college I applied to plus some full rides while his score was considered not great and maybe even have hurt him in his applications.
Mine were well-balanced 730V/750M in the late 80s while he took it last year at the time of the last paper test and scored 690V/790M.