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[quote=Anonymous]My DD, who is interested in attending a SLAC, has mid-1400s SATs (higher in EBRW than math) and a 3.85ish UW GPA at a probably grade-inflated public. The 25th percentile at most top 10-20 LACs is in the high 1400s/low 1500s, so conventional wisdom would say that she should not submit at these schools. But without test scores, I don't think her academic profile looks strong enough. Therefore, I'm advising her to look more at 20-50 LACs. Even for those, in many cases her SAT doesn't look particularly competitive.

Here's the thing, though. Many of these LACs have far less than half the class submit scores. Pre-test optional, many had median SAT scores right around hers. In many, many cases, the 2024 25th percentile is 50+ points higher than the 2019 median. So if we were not in a test-optional world, she would probably apply. I get that they were still very competitive and she probably wouldn't have been admitted even then. But it seems like she'd have had a shot at them as reaches, whereas now they seem completely out of her league (unless she gets her score up, which she will work on).

Am I thinking about this correctly? It just seems like a weird impact on students with pretty good but not tippy-top SAT scores. For those students, it seems like it actually magnifies the importance of the test.

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