Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I applied for Fall 1991

IB School
B average
Extra curriculars:Theater, sports

Applied:
U Maine- Accepted
UVM- Accepted
Vanderbilt- Denied
Georgetown- Denied
Boston College- Accepted
Tulane- Denied
U Washington- Denied
U Arizona- Denied

Any data more than 5 or 6 years old is irrelevant. Things have changed so much. I got in to the U. Washington with a 2.6

ALL the data more than 5 or 6 years old is relevant to the topic of this thread, which is precisely about OLD DATA. Geez.

O.K. - that was me who said that, I was just pointing out (inarticulately) how much things have changed. So what difference does it make what stats you got in with under such different criteria as was in effect then. YThose days are long gone and we all know it. Seriously, what difference does it make?

Don’t be such a party pooper

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I applied for Fall 1991

IB School
B average
Extra curriculars:Theater, sports

Applied:
U Maine- Accepted
UVM- Accepted
Vanderbilt- Denied
Georgetown- Denied
Boston College- Accepted
Tulane- Denied
U Washington- Denied
U Arizona- Denied

Any data more than 5 or 6 years old is irrelevant. Things have changed so much. I got in to the U. Washington with a 2.6

ALL the data more than 5 or 6 years old is relevant to the topic of this thread, which is precisely about OLD DATA. Geez.

O.K. - that was me who said that, I was just pointing out (inarticulately) how much things have changed. So what difference does it make what stats you got in with under such different criteria as was in effect then. YThose days are long gone and we all know it. Seriously, what difference does it make?

1988

4.05
SAT 1470

Totally clueless about college admissions process-no parent or counselor help. Applied to some of the schools my friends were applying to.

Brown, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley. Accepted.
Harvard- WL.

My SAT prep was a half-day summer class with my best friend at UMBC. I remember the teacher telling us that People magazine had great SAT vocab words. We went through the magazines she brought in and picked out vocab that we didn't know and tried to figure it out from the context. It made it more fun. Also, we did analogies which I enjoyed. I guess they got rid of the analogies section.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I applied for Fall 1991

IB School
B average
Extra curriculars:Theater, sports

Applied:
U Maine- Accepted
UVM- Accepted
Vanderbilt- Denied
Georgetown- Denied
Boston College- Accepted
Tulane- Denied
U Washington- Denied
U Arizona- Denied

Any data more than 5 or 6 years old is irrelevant. Things have changed so much. I got in to the U. Washington with a 2.6

Which is what this thread is about PP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I applied for Fall 1991

IB School
B average
Extra curriculars:Theater, sports

Applied:
U Maine- Accepted
UVM- Accepted
Vanderbilt- Denied
Georgetown- Denied
Boston College- Accepted
Tulane- Denied
U Washington- Denied
U Arizona- Denied

Any data more than 5 or 6 years old is irrelevant. Things have changed so much. I got in to the U. Washington with a 2.6

ALL the data more than 5 or 6 years old is relevant to the topic of this thread, which is precisely about OLD DATA. Geez.

Anonymous wrote:I applied for Fall 1991

IB School
B average
Extra curriculars:Theater, sports

Applied:
U Maine- Accepted
UVM- Accepted
Vanderbilt- Denied
Georgetown- Denied
Boston College- Accepted
Tulane- Denied
U Washington- Denied
U Arizona- Denied

Any data more than 5 or 6 years old is irrelevant. Things have changed so much. I got in to the U. Washington with a 2.6

Applied for Fall of 1996.

Honors & AP classes, passed 3 AP exams
Good GPA (3.8ish? I graduated 13th in class)
Decent but not amazing SAT scores (1200ish? I didn't study for them and only took once)
Extracurriculars: Marching Band (section leader / 1st chair), Varsity Cheerleading, a couple clubs

My mom said I could apply to and go to any state U except VCU (which is funny because I ended up teaching at VCU much later and now live in RVA).

I applied to JMU and Mary Wash. I thought about applying to UVa, but historically, only one kid from each of our high school graduating classes got in, and it was always the valedictorian. Plus applications were expensive and time-consuming at the time.

I got into JMU but not Mary Wash.
A classmate with very similar stats got into Mary Wash but not JMU.

Anonymous wrote:It wasn’t a full day - just a Saturday morning.

I took the SAT while hungover.

The other important point from this thread is that the SAT has been re-normed at least twice. When I took it in the mid 80s the average score was around 800. A 1400 from the 80s would be similar to a high 1550+ now.

Anonymous wrote:1985
3.7
1210
Harvard Rejected
Brown Rejected
Stanford Accepted Attended
Tufts Accepted
Wesleyan Waitlisted
Northwestern Accepted
Boston University Accepted

1984
3.0 (barely top 50%)
1410/33 ACT
Virginia Tech - Rejected
Penn State - Rejected
WVU - Accepted and attended.
Played a sport and was also in orchestra.

My sister with significantly lower SATs (1200s) but much higher grades got into schools like Duke.

I sometimes wish I’d actually attended HS regularly and prepared for the SAT and ACT. Got my academic life together and went to an excellent grad school at least.

Early 90s grad -- 1460 on the SATs, I think I had a prep book but no one I knew did test prep classes or took the test more than once. 3.8ish GPA with some APs, I don't think weighting existed. Prob top 5 percent of class at a test-in public. Was in some clubs but nothing special on the extracurricular front. Waitlisted at Brown, in at University of Chicago (national merit $), University of Michigan (partial scholarship), Oberlin, George Washington (full scholarship). No outright rejections. I thought of University of Michigan as my safety, applying from out of state. So different now!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did you guys score so low on your SATs compared to what kids score today? Didn’t prep?

Prep? I took it in the 80s. No one "prepped". I can't even recall taking it more than once. We showed up on a Saturday morning, took the test, and that was that.

I took it in 1983 and 1984 - never prepped. Maybe the English teacher gave us a new vocabulary list but no prep. Football game Friday night, SAT in the morning.

In the late 90s, I "test prepped" by coming home immediately after the football game on Friday night to try to get a good night's sleep for the test.

YES!!!

1985- No "prepping" for SAT unless you count the plan to meet at the diner after the test and eat breakfast and lunch in one sitting. I don't remember my score (around 1300 maybe?) but I do remember EXACTLY what I ordered that day! (Eggs Benedict, short stack of pancakes, BLT and fries with gravy, and the 4 of us split a Napoleon pastry for dessert. I weighed 98 pounds back then! those were the days.

3.5 student from good public High School in Westchester County NY
Skidmore-accepted
Penn State- accepted
Hobart William Smith-accepted
Georgetown-never heard back-might have forgotten to send the application fee-or some part of application

It wasn’t a full day - just a Saturday morning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did you guys score so low on your SATs compared to what kids score today? Didn’t prep?

Prep? I took it in the 80s. No one "prepped". I can't even recall taking it more than once. We showed up on a Saturday morning, took the test, and that was that.

I took it in 1983 and 1984 - never prepped. Maybe the English teacher gave us a new vocabulary list but no prep. Football game Friday night, SAT in the morning.

Lol. This is so true. I was a good student from a top suburban high school. The SAT was not something we worried about much, back in 1992.
It was viewed similar to an achievement test (what you knew is what you knew). You showed up and took it. Maybe you went out with your friends the night before, maybe you didn't.
It was no big deal.

Our public HS (wealthy part of NE) had a one-day prep session where you learned about what test looked like. Maybe did a few practice questions of each time. Learned how to fill in the oval properly.

So we “prepped” for the test format not the content.