Conflicted about whether to apply

MStocksl
Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Prepare for off topic posting

That “above 700 doesn’t matter” argument never made sense to me. Let’s see if I can explain it. If the point is just to decide if you are qualified pass/fail, there are obviously two answers. Yes or no. But if there are only two answers, then there must be an unofficial cutoff point, at least in each admissions officer’s mind. Here’s why.

If there weren’t a cut-off point, then each case would be evaluated on its own. For example “700, I guess that’s good enough. 690, I guess that’s good enough… 680, hmm…” Eventually you have to make a decision whether a certain score indicates that a student is academically qualified, or else you’d be evaluating each score on an individual basis. And if you’re evaluating each on an individual basis, then you’re not meeting your original goal of answering the yes/no “are they qualified” question. Compare this to someone who has a 780 or 790 - obviously not a whole lot of decision-making has to go in this, since most people would agree that these scores are above any arbitrary threshold. So a 790 does have an advantage over a 700, 690, or whatever bottom level you want to set.

Also, admissions officers are HUMAN. Of COURSE they’re going to be more impressed by the 2400 than the 2100, because it’s not like they can “unsee” the scores once they’ve determined “qualified.”

Or something like that. It made sense to me at least.