Does retaking the SSAT hurt your chances?

kaibab3
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 17:08:10 +0000

I think those MIT blogs are full of generally useful information, but looking at MIT’s numbers, they certainly admit a higher percentage of students with very high scores. Perhaps that is merely accidental and those kids with 1600s have other qualities that kids with 1400s don’t and they are actually going after the other qualities, but the odds are stacked against those with scores in the bottom half of their 25-75 range. Based on the numbers, they are rejecting huge numbers of kids with perfect scores in at least subtests of the SAT, but they are still rejecting a bigger percentage of kids with lower numbers. For prep schools with average SSATs in the 90s, I’m guessing the admit rates are higher for those coming in at 99 or 97 than they are for 85 or 87. Still lots of 99s get rejected. Still very competitive, but you can’t fill a class with a mid 90s average SSAT without taking a lot of 99 scoring kids and far fewer 85 and lower scoring kids.

It may be that the time spent prepping for the test and repeating the SSAT could be time better spent on some other aspect of the application, but I think it’s inaccurate to say that 85 and 99 are the same to an AO, despite the claim. At least the equivalent claim at MIT is certainly inaccurate, despite the blogs. http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats