Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 15:17     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Colleges evaluate students in the context of high school. Not in the context of tens of thousands of applicants.

Test required vs test optional is extremely meaningful for top students in a SINGLE high school.

UPenn for example admits five students from one high school each year. When it’s test optional, 4 out of five admits are dei admits with scores as low as 1300. When it’s test required, low scorers don’t even apply to UPenn, students with 1550 score applied.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 14:57     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:Next year five more colleges return to test required.

CMU, JHU, Stanford, UPenn, and Cornell.

Rice is still technically TO, but is test recommended.


Great.

T25

Most applicants will get rejected from those schools - even with required test scores.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 14:36     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
My son got a 1350 on the SAT (single setting). Didn't have more time to prep/improve due to other conflicts so he applied test optional and had a great freshman year at Duke!
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 14:18     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:Next year five more colleges return to test required.

CMU, JHU, Stanford, UPenn, and Cornell.

Rice is still technically TO, but is test recommended.


What are CMU and JHU?
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 13:57     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Next year five more colleges return to test required.

CMU, JHU, Stanford, UPenn, and Cornell.

Rice is still technically TO, but is test recommended.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 13:13     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The SAT doesn’t really relate to performance in class. Colleges exams aren’t like the SAT.


There is no better predicter of college grades than standardized test scores.


That was shown at Dartmouth and maybe some other Ivies, where presumably nearly all their students had near perfect grades in high school. I don’t think you can extrapolate to such a blanket statement, unless you have study?


UMiami AO said on a recent webinar for our HS that they are reinstating mandatory testing for 2026 because their data shows those who submitted test scores consistently performed higher than those who did not.


Adding Boston College AO said they are technically TO, but 75% of the recent admits submitted test scores so they are really more “test preferred”.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 12:43     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:SAT<1200 is really not a college material. Real college , that is.


bullsh!t!
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 12:32     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
UChicago over Princeton
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 12:31     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:

The latest study reached three main conclusions. First, students with higher SAT and ACT scores also tend to achieve higher college GPAs. Second, high school GPAs are poor predictors of college GPAs. Lastly, students with similar standardized test scores also have similar college GPAs, even if they come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.


What GPA is necessary to graduate college?

Once you're accepted to a highly selective college, based on established graduation rates, the chances of graduating college is high. Employers rarely look a GPAs post college graduation. Good grad schools will take 3.0 and higher GPAs.

The mandatory SAT/ACT purists want to use the tests as a gatekeeper at the college admissions level. There are too many institutional priorities for that to happen. And for all of the faux wrangling over academic performance IN college, no one cares after the college acceptance letter comes in. This DCUM forum is geared towards admissions - not post admissions matriculation.

This aside, there are enough 1500+/34+ scorers to meet the arbitrary threshold for T50 or so schools. And TO isn't going away.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 12:29     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The SAT doesn’t really relate to performance in class. Colleges exams aren’t like the SAT.


There is no better predicter of college grades than standardized test scores.


That was shown at Dartmouth and maybe some other Ivies, where presumably nearly all their students had near perfect grades in high school. I don’t think you can extrapolate to such a blanket statement, unless you have study?


UMiami AO said on a recent webinar for our HS that they are reinstating mandatory testing for 2026 because their data shows those who submitted test scores consistently performed higher than those who did not.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 12:20     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:

The latest study reached three main conclusions. First, students with higher SAT and ACT scores also tend to achieve higher college GPAs. Second, high school GPAs are poor predictors of college GPAs. Lastly, students with similar standardized test scores also have similar college GPAs, even if they come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.


https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2024/01/sat-act-scores-more-predictive-of-academic-success-at-ivy-plus-schools-than-high-school-grades-new-study-suggests" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2024/01/sat-act-scores-more-predictive-of-academic-success-at-ivy-plus-schools-than-high-school-grades-new-study-suggests
Researchers also found that students who did not submit test scores had “relatively lower college GPAs” compared to those who did submit test scores.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 12:18     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?


The latest study reached three main conclusions. First, students with higher SAT and ACT scores also tend to achieve higher college GPAs. Second, high school GPAs are poor predictors of college GPAs. Lastly, students with similar standardized test scores also have similar college GPAs, even if they come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 11:22     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The SAT doesn’t really relate to performance in class. Colleges exams aren’t like the SAT.


There is no better predicter of college grades than standardized test scores.


Wrong.

At a minimum, it might predict first year success. As you know, it takes four years to graduate. 🙂

Four years of high school GPA is a better indicator per studies. AOs know this too.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 11:19     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The SAT doesn’t really relate to performance in class. Colleges exams aren’t like the SAT.


There is no better predicter of college grades than standardized test scores.


That was shown at Dartmouth and maybe some other Ivies, where presumably nearly all their students had near perfect grades in high school. I don’t think you can extrapolate to such a blanket statement, unless you have study?
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2025 11:16     Subject: If your child was TO or below 1400 on the SAT, how are they doing in college?
Anonymous wrote:The SAT doesn’t really relate to performance in class. Colleges exams aren’t like the SAT.


There is no better predicter of college grades than standardized test scores.