<p>Having higher SAT scores does not always increase your chances of admission to a top college. Much depends on other factors, such as what your teachers write about you in their recommendation letters, your guidance counselor’s SSR report and your essays. See: [A</a> Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them - New York Times](<a href=“A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them - The New York Times”>A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them - The New York Times)</p>
<p>“Harvard turned down 1,100 student applicants with perfect 800 scores on the SAT math exam. Yale rejected several applicants with perfect 2400 scores on the three-part SAT, and Princeton turned away thousands of high school applicants with 4.0 grade point averages. Needless to say, high school valedictorians were a dime a dozen.”</p>
<p>. . . And that was 5 years ago, in 2007!</p>
<p>BTW: I think you need to do your due-diligence and narrow down your list of schools. To wit: Columbia and Brown are complete polar opposites, even though both play in the same athletic conference. A student who feels at home at one, may not be happy at the other.</p>
<p>Columbia, for example, prides itself on its Core Curriculum, where every student, regardless of major, is required to take the same basic set of courses: Masterpieces of Western Literature, University Writing, Frontiers of Science, Contemporary Civilization, Music Humanities and Art Humanities. All first and second year students must take these specific courses – the theory being that it gives all Columbia graduates a shared commonality and conversation. The core is not for everyone – students either love it or hate it. </p>
<p>Brown, on the other hand, has a complete open curriculum; students can take whatever classes they want, with no core requirements. Once you declare a major though, you must fulfill those classes to get a degree.</p>