Anonymous
03/13/2026 12:46
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
Nobody knows. It changes every year.
If colleges suddenly realize that high sat scores are a scarce commodity, they will start to select for that.
If international level oboe players are a scarce commodity, they will select for that.
I remember when all the schools started women's hockey teams but there weren't a lot of female hockey players and they were selecting for female hockey players.
It's not crazy to think there will be a run on high SAT scores with the return to test required.
It is ludicrous to think that. Any school with a 15% or less acceptance rate is already getting a plethora of high scores every admissions cycle and they are choosing the students that they want based on their entire application, not their test scores. There is no reason for this to change.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 11:29
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
Nobody knows. It changes every year.
If colleges suddenly realize that high sat scores are a scarce commodity, they will start to select for that.
If international level oboe players are a scarce commodity, they will select for that.
I remember when all the schools started women's hockey teams but there weren't a lot of female hockey players and they were selecting for female hockey players.
It's not crazy to think there will be a run on high SAT scores with the return to test required.
For some schools, you do know. Obviously not all. At least for the coming year, you can see what they are prioritizing by listening to as many in-person or virtual information sessions as you can. AOs say different things and focus on very different things at different schools.
After making the mistake once, I will never send my spouse to any of these, because they aren't focused on the details that matter for differentiation. Once you go to enough, you'll start to see it too.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 11:12
Subject: Re:Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's hard to know because some parents and kids lie about their SAT. I have heard so many parents at our school claim their kids got "1570/1580/1590 first try" but when you look at Naviance and our school's official senior class profile, the math just doesn't add up.
Who goes around saying what their kid's SAT score is? How does that even come up in conversation? My kid is one of these, but nobody knows that except for my husband and kid and the school college counselor.
+1. I'm not going around telling anyone that kiddo got a perfect score. That would be obnoxious behavior.
So is calling them kiddo.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 10:43
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This year JHU, Penn, and Cornell are test required.
Previously there are 3000 matriculates at these three schools who did not submit scores. That means this year the three schools combined need ADDITIONAL 3000 enrolled there to have scores. The average score for these ADDITIONAL 3000 need to be 1540.
So yes, I think it helps this year.
Needs to be 1540? I doubt it. They will accept A great score will help but there will be plenty of kids in the 25-50% score range accepted among those 3000 kids. They aren't going to give up their priorities to maximize test scores.
True. The point is when they take a low score they will correspondingly take a high score to correct the distribution. The more low scores they are taking, the more high scores to balance them out.
exactly, not 3000 1540 scores.
What does this mean? I'm losing track of this new math
This year three schools combined will need 750 kids with 1560+, 1500 kids with 1510-1560, and 750 kids below 1510 to show up on campus. Approximately.
Supply and demand. This year they need additional 750 kids with 1560+. Not a hook. But certainly we can see it's an advantage at least in the class shaping stage.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 10:21
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This year JHU, Penn, and Cornell are test required.
Previously there are 3000 matriculates at these three schools who did not submit scores. That means this year the three schools combined need ADDITIONAL 3000 enrolled there to have scores. The average score for these ADDITIONAL 3000 need to be 1540.
So yes, I think it helps this year.
Needs to be 1540? I doubt it. They will accept A great score will help but there will be plenty of kids in the 25-50% score range accepted among those 3000 kids. They aren't going to give up their priorities to maximize test scores.
True. The point is when they take a low score they will correspondingly take a high score to correct the distribution. The more low scores they are taking, the more high scores to balance them out.
exactly, not 3000 1540 scores.
What does this mean? I'm losing track of this new math
This year three schools combined will need 750 kids with 1560+, 1500 kids with 1510-1560, and 750 kids below 1510 to show up on campus. Approximately.
You mean to say Penn, JHU and Cornell will need this many more kids than last year with these scores? Good luck with that if all colleges that returned to test required also need this new batch of kids vs. last year. There are simply not enough kids scoring those scores if you trust what the college board reports. I know everyone claims to have a kid with 1570+, in reality, the CB shows there aren't.
when anyone talks ablot SAT scores, is it superscored or in one sitting? How do you know there are approximately 5000 kids with SAT score higher than 1560. If kids are reporting superscore then there is no way of knowing how many kids nationally have score 1560+
Anonymous
03/13/2026 10:18
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
+1
have kids at two T10.....
They should focus on what makes them different - and what they are truly interested in /passionate about....help them differentiate themselves. It does work.
Avoid CS/business/engineering.
This is hilarious. You don't even see the contradiction.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 10:18
Subject: Re:Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's hard to know because some parents and kids lie about their SAT. I have heard so many parents at our school claim their kids got "1570/1580/1590 first try" but when you look at Naviance and our school's official senior class profile, the math just doesn't add up.
Who goes around saying what their kid's SAT score is? How does that even come up in conversation? My kid is one of these, but nobody knows that except for my husband and kid and the school college counselor.
+1. I'm not going around telling anyone that kiddo got a perfect score. That would be obnoxious behavior.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 10:15
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
Nobody knows. It changes every year.
If colleges suddenly realize that high sat scores are a scarce commodity, they will start to select for that.
If international level oboe players are a scarce commodity, they will select for that.
I remember when all the schools started women's hockey teams but there weren't a lot of female hockey players and they were selecting for female hockey players.
It's not crazy to think there will be a run on high SAT scores with the return to test required.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 10:11
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:consider that there are probably more than 100,000 superscored 1580+ sat scorers applying to college every year, it isn't that impressive of a score.
No! 1580+ remains extremely difficult to get. Superscore doesn’t help in this range.
+1
Superscore 1580 means you need at least 800 or 790 in one subject. Kids who can do that typically have at least 750 on the other
There were several at our school who couldn’t cross that hurdle for the verbal. One was being recruited by MIT and JHU and fell off because of it.
How could you possibly know that?
DP
In our case, they just flat out told us what we needed on the SAT to get past the admissions committee. It was different school and the score requirement was a lot lower but they will tell you.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 09:57
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
+1
have kids at two T10.....
They should focus on what makes them different - and what they are truly interested in /passionate about....help them differentiate themselves. It does work.
Avoid CS/business/engineering.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 09:32
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
ooooooh the mystery....
Seriously tho, pray tell
Anonymous
03/13/2026 08:42
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
You guys are focused on the wrong thing.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 08:37
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Does a 1600 have an edge over 1590?
Anonymous
03/12/2026 23:01
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This year JHU, Penn, and Cornell are test required.
Previously there are 3000 matriculates at these three schools who did not submit scores. That means this year the three schools combined need ADDITIONAL 3000 enrolled there to have scores. The average score for these ADDITIONAL 3000 need to be 1540.
So yes, I think it helps this year.
Needs to be 1540? I doubt it. They will accept A great score will help but there will be plenty of kids in the 25-50% score range accepted among those 3000 kids. They aren't going to give up their priorities to maximize test scores.
True. The point is when they take a low score they will correspondingly take a high score to correct the distribution. The more low scores they are taking, the more high scores to balance them out.
exactly, not 3000 1540 scores.
What does this mean? I'm losing track of this new math
This year three schools combined will need 750 kids with 1560+, 1500 kids with 1510-1560, and 750 kids below 1510 to show up on campus. Approximately.
You mean to say Penn, JHU and Cornell will need this many more kids than last year with these scores? Good luck with that if all colleges that returned to test required also need this new batch of kids vs. last year. There are simply not enough kids scoring those scores if you trust what the college board reports. I know everyone claims to have a kid with 1570+, in reality, the CB shows there aren't.
Anonymous
03/12/2026 19:03
Subject: Does 1580+ help T20 admissions?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This year JHU, Penn, and Cornell are test required.
Previously there are 3000 matriculates at these three schools who did not submit scores. That means this year the three schools combined need ADDITIONAL 3000 enrolled there to have scores. The average score for these ADDITIONAL 3000 need to be 1540.
So yes, I think it helps this year.
Needs to be 1540? I doubt it. They will accept A great score will help but there will be plenty of kids in the 25-50% score range accepted among those 3000 kids. They aren't going to give up their priorities to maximize test scores.
True. The point is when they take a low score they will correspondingly take a high score to correct the distribution. The more low scores they are taking, the more high scores to balance them out.
exactly, not 3000 1540 scores.
What does this mean? I'm losing track of this new math
This year three schools combined will need 750 kids with 1560+, 1500 kids with 1510-1560, and 750 kids below 1510 to show up on campus. Approximately.