Every year about 75K kids score 1500 or better on the SAT and 35 or better on the ACT. As long as the school’s they are applying to accept scores they will submit them.

Those are the kids your kids are competing against for admission. They will also have the same inflated 4.4 or higher GPA and 4s and 5s on their AP exams.

Some will also have really compelling stories and express them well, others will not. This is why college admissions at highly selective colleges has become a crap shoot without a ADLC or URM hook.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think any AO differentiates between applicants with scores >1550 - they are get a ✓++ on that... Then all 1500-1550 are ✓+, 1400-1500 are ✓, etc...

AP scores, GPAs, recognitions, etc.. are what differentiates those 1550-1600 kids.

The statements that start "I don't think" are the ones that give me pause here...
Have AOs discussed this openly?
I do agree that most of the differentiation occurs beyond the test scores, especially at and above the 75th percentile for a school.

Agree. The differentiation (a 36 or 35 ACT, for example, or a 1580 or 1600) is important to colleges because statistically, it is a fact reportable to most ranking services and one of those factors reported to alumni every year ("once again, X college had a record number of applications and our selectivity rate has gone down even more" (OK that result was actually due to marketing but a lot of alums don't understand that) "We have a record no. of 16 students with perfect SAT scores", etc.). The top scores are so important, in fact, that many second-tier SLACs have scholarships just to nab those students. My DC was offered large scholarships at three of these. When DC scored a 34 the amount offered went up from that offered at 32, and then went up again when DC hit 36. So it does matter.

Also, these are the enrolled students scores not the ones that were admited.

You could imagine they admitted students with scores averaging 1550, for example. The students with the higher scores had more options and may have chosen not to attend. The actual students that were admitted had scores with an average a little bit lower, for example 1530.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you are. These schools that you’re looking at are also test optional. That means that the numbers you’re looking at are only from those who chose to submit, NOT from the entire class. There are kids who are admitted that scored lower. But their scores were never figured in the data you’re looking at which means it will appear higher than expected.

My friend’s got into Yale without submitting scores. Scored in the 1400s, which is really good. But kids who are getting into Yale are submitting 1550 and higher.

This!
On paper, the SAT reported scores are going to continue to increase every year. Students are seeing these ranges will only submit scores if they are within the range. So all of the test optional schools are going to have scores in the high 1500s.

Eventually only the highest scores will be submitted, so the range will be 1580-1600.

Were wondering the same last year and decided to focus on other parts of the application instead. It paid off.
Would focus on essays instead…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP- OP you are wasting time to get a perfect score. Once you hit 750 on each part you are good to go. BTW. My 2020 hs graduate got a 1580 first time sitting but did not get into every school. High test scores are not everything in college admissions.

I disagree. A 1500 does not make you "good to go". Example: last year's incoming UVA class had a 1520 at the 75th percentile. That means 25% had higher.

Of the kids that actually submitted scores. Which is not 75 percent of the class.

And you have better data to share? And I didn't say "75 percent of the class"

Anonymous wrote:I don't think any AO differentiates between applicants with scores >1550 - they are get a ✓++ on that... Then all 1500-1550 are ✓+, 1400-1500 are ✓, etc...

AP scores, GPAs, recognitions, etc.. are what differentiates those 1550-1600 kids.

Agree with this. Also test scores matter increasing little, so I wouldn’t waste more time there, and would instead work on other aspects of the application.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP- OP you are wasting time to get a perfect score. Once you hit 750 on each part you are good to go. BTW. My 2020 hs graduate got a 1580 first time sitting but did not get into every school. High test scores are not everything in college admissions.

I disagree. A 1500 does not make you "good to go". Example: last year's incoming UVA class had a 1520 at the 75th percentile. That means 25% had higher.

Of the kids that actually submitted scores. Which is not 75 percent of the class.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think any AO differentiates between applicants with scores >1550 - they are get a ✓++ on that... Then all 1500-1550 are ✓+, 1400-1500 are ✓, etc...

AP scores, GPAs, recognitions, etc.. are what differentiates those 1550-1600 kids.

The statements that start "I don't think" are the ones that give me pause here...
Have AOs discussed this openly?
I do agree that most of the differentiation occurs beyond the test scores, especially at and above the 75th percentile for a school.

I don't think any AO differentiates between applicants with scores >1550 - they are get a ✓++ on that... Then all 1500-1550 are ✓+, 1400-1500 are ✓, etc...

AP scores, GPAs, recognitions, etc.. are what differentiates those 1550-1600 kids.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve described my kid, but he’ll take the test in October. He sometimes gets a 1600 in practice and sometimes doesn’t. We’re of course hoping for a 1600, but if it’s 1550 or above I doubt he’ll bother taking it again. I don’t think it matters much at that level. He certainly won’t study or pay for tutoring. He might take it again just because it’s not stressful to him to do so.

This is first really high stakes test for a lot of kids too. Sometimes they just are not "gamers" and struggle with the pressure on testing day. Unfortunately, I'm sure your kids will see this within their bright friend groups.
OP, there isn't any real stress left for your kid with that great first result, which is why I think there is no downside to going for it with a little more work. If your kid gets really anxious or isn't going to put any work in, just testing again isn't worth it at 1580. The upside is limited (but there) but you don't want to take much time away from other things or affect mental health.

It is never a bad thing to improve the score if you think it would be fairly easy. The challenge of a 1600 could make your kid interested anyway. It won't make any big difference but 1590 is greater than 1580 any way you put it. Schools are aware of what those %s are in their classes.

OP, you’ve described my kid, but he’ll take the test in October. He sometimes gets a 1600 in practice and sometimes doesn’t. We’re of course hoping for a 1600, but if it’s 1550 or above I doubt he’ll bother taking it again. I don’t think it matters much at that level. He certainly won’t study or pay for tutoring. He might take it again just because it’s not stressful to him to do so.

Anonymous wrote:NP- OP you are wasting time to get a perfect score. Once you hit 750 on each part you are good to go. BTW. My 2020 hs graduate got a 1580 first time sitting but did not get into every school. High test scores are not everything in college admissions.

I disagree. A 1500 does not make you "good to go". Example: last year's incoming UVA class had a 1520 at the 75th percentile. That means 25% had higher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you are. These schools that you’re looking at are also test optional. That means that the numbers you’re looking at are only from those who chose to submit, NOT from the entire class. There are kids who are admitted that scored lower. But their scores were never figured in the data you’re looking at which means it will appear higher than expected.

My friend’s got into Yale without submitting scores. Scored in the 1400s, which is really good. But kids who are getting into Yale are submitting 1550 and higher.

This makes the most sense. It would be interesting to know what percentage of kids are admitted without test scores. I would think it would be a small percentage, maybe less than 20%. If that is the case, the data still should not be so skewed.

You can look this up on the common data set for most colleges.

...and remember test optional and test blind are different things. Test blind will not judge you for not submitting. Test optional does not mean that. Most schools are test optional. You better have some great hooks without scores.