Data regarding perfect ACT/SAT scorers?

JHS
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:37:49 +0000

What the OP said above makes absolutely no sense. Why would he or she only apply to Harvard with a 35 ACT, while applying to all of HYPS with a 36? If anything, I would think Harvard was the first college to drop, not the last, if you were worried about your test scores. But the probability of admission difference between a 35 and a 36 is not likely to be enough to change one’s plans in any direction. I’m sure the data would show that people who scored 36 are more likely to be admitted than people who scored 35, but both groups get admitted to these colleges in decent numbers (relative to other groups, not absolutely), and members of both groups are still probably more likely to be rejected than accepted.

I doubt, by the way, that the test score itself makes any difference at all near the top of the scale. If it looks like 36ers have a somewhat better chance of admission than 35ers, it’s probably because high ACT scores correlate somewhat with a host of other qualities that Harvard looks for. If Harvard is looking for applicants who are great writers and whose teachers see them as once-in-a-career students, there will be a few more of those students in the 36 group than the 35 group. But simply scoring a 36 does not meaningfully indicate that you are that kind of student, and most 36ers won’t be, just as most 35ers also won’t be.