<p>I don’t have completely scientific data to back up what I am saying, but my opinion is scores matter and matter big time. Have you checked the EA threads of MIT and Chicago? I did thoroughly. I came away with a clear sense that between MIT and Chicago, it’s Chicago that puts more emphasis on the scores than MIT. There was a sizable body of applicants to both schools. Interestingly, those who got EA from Chicago but deferred by MIT were the ones with top scores but a little thinner in the soft stuff like ECs, etc. Conversely, the one who got EA from MIT and was deferred from Chicago were the ones with weaker scores and better soft stuff. Of course, across the board, URMs do better. It’s also notable that there is a thread going on in the MIT board that MIT’s admission policies seem recently to reward less the intellectual potential of the candidates, and value more of the “soft stuff”.</p>
<p>Chicago puts tremendous emphasis on intellectual rigor of their program. Whether you like it or not, scores form, not infallible, but good data points to gauge the applicants’ ability to handle a rigorous program. </p>
<p>The fact that Chicago adcoms say they don’t consider scores to be very important is besides the point. I am not saying they are lying per se. They may “believe” that they do not see scores as a monolithic yard stick. But, they are only humans after all, the whole atmosphere and preference may be such that they may just be “naturally” inclined to look at the high scores and have them influence their decision, NOT as an official policies, but almost on a subconscious level. </p>
<p>After all, no college will ever admit that they consider scores to be their top priority: it’s simply NOT politically correct. They will ALWAYS say that scores are not that important: that sounds far more enlightened, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>Yes, we all hear anecdotal reports of so and so with SAT below 1900 or ACT below 30 getting into the top schools, but they are just that, anecdotal reports: AND I bet these candidates had some other amazing/unusual things going. Should people plan for their retirement based on the anecdotal reports of people winning $50M lottery? Only one in six (?) chance of getting killed by playing Russian Roulette: so, should you play that game?</p>