Data regarding perfect ACT/SAT scorers?

silverturtle
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:03:03 +0000

I agree with JHS on the misguidedness of applying to different schools depending on whether you’ve achieved a perfect score or some other very high score. Gather your list of schools you may apply to based on where you’d like to attend and where you would be a competitive applicant. Scoring 36 rather than, say, 34 on the ACT may slightly improve your chances of being accepted to Harvard, but it certainly won’t render you a competitive applicant if you weren’t otherwise.

Spend a reasonable amount of time preparing (this will vary based on your other commitments but probably will not need to exceed several months of well-focused preparation) for the SAT and/or ACT so that you do as well as you can. Don’t get bogged down by minutiae like marginal acceptance rates as a function of scores or attempting to identify causality amid the confounding factors JHS mentioned. Your other achievements, academic and extracurricular, will more significantly affect to which colleges you are accepted. And what matters even more is how you take advantage of the college you ultimately attend rather than whether it’s Harvard or a school with less prestige.



Actually, efeens44 reminds me very much of sliverturtle who several years back was convinced that his 2400 would give him an edge at HYPS.



This is misleading, though I did write in support of the idea that, if there was a point beyond which score increases were entirely irrelevant in admissions, I believed the data suggested it was a very high threshold (one greater 2300 on the SAT). I was aware that, even with my objectively favorable numbers, HYPS admissions was challenging and unpredictable.