Does anyone knows which elite colleges (public or private) weight higher on test scores on their admission?
Vanderbilt
Wash U, Northeastern, Tuane, CMU.
EDIT: to be fair, they all do
UChicago has historically liked high scores. My kid with a slightly soft GPA got in with very strong scores. She had good ECs and fit their intellectual type, though.
Most all competitive schools rely on ACT or SAT scores at the top of their list for non hooked students. It’s the only standardized and verifiable information they have to judge the student. Hooked students have leeway. Non hooked need to be above the range to have a reasonable chance of admittance.
Mosr competitive schools use the ED to manage their yield rates which sadly is what many people use to gauge as the quality of a school.
Necessary but not sufficient. That’s also true for the U of C now, where admission is much more difficult than 10-15 years ago.
Reed likes high SAT scores.
A super selective college generally wants to see high test scores. It also generally wants to see high achievement in a hard high school schedule, and additional other achievement that makes the applicant stand out among many others with high test scores and high school achievement.
Reed isn’t extremely selective but a top-notch school so that’s a good one.
Reed is a fairly competitive school.
They play the ED 1 and ED 2 game.
If your stats are within their range and you appply ED you have an excellent chance of admission. If you apply regular decision your stats need to be over their range to have a good chance of admission. Their class has been filled up over 50 percent after ED2.
They are not the only school operating like this. Most ED schools operate this way. The top 20 are just more brutal from non hooked applicants from the ED phase.
When it comes to elite colleges, the conventional wisdom is that, for an unhooked kid, a great ACT/SAT score won’t get you in, but a less than great score will keep you out. In this case, I think the conventional wisdom is correct. A 34 or higher ACT score or a 1550 or higher SAT score is just one piece to the puzzle.