F.G.L.I Student: Need advice on whether to submit 1480 to [highly selective] colleges

Applying to College
1

Hi, I need some advice on what to do when it comes to my submitting my sat score. I am a fgli student who scored 780 on math and 700 on reading back in November. I was wondering which colleges below I should send this score to and which I should go test optional?

Colleges:
Harvey Mudd
Claremont Mckenna
NYU
Pamona
USC
Stanford
Georgia Tech
Yale (Not that i’m given a choice on whether to submit, but I believe it’s still under the 25 percentile)
Vassar
Boston College

Sidenote: I am fortunate enough to be around wonderful people who enabled me to take differential equations in 11th grade. I know a 780 is still an awesome math score, but when it comes to top schools, i’m a little worried not getting an 800 is going to seem a bit weird.

Also community college is my safety since transferring to a UC would be the cheapest option.

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First gen - all - in my opinion.

Good luck

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Alright, thank you for your help!

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I agree with @tsbna44. I would submit your SAT score to all of these schools.

For test optional schools, the advertised SAT scores are skewed upward since students with lower scores do not submit, while students with higher scores do submit. A math or statistics major would call the advertised test scores a biased statistic. I would therefore submit scores if your scores are at or above the 25th percentile, which they are for all schools on this list except Stanford. For Stanford you are very close to the 25th percentile. 1480 is also very good and is particularly very good for fgli applicants.

Also, 780 is a very good score on the math part of the SAT.

However, I do not see a safety on this list (assuming that USC is in California rather than South Carolina). You should also make sure that you are applying to schools for which admissions is far more likely.

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Agree. All. You’re doing awesome. Trust yourself. Good luck.

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OP did write:

Presumably, this implies being a California resident. To @Cloak, did you apply to UCs and/or CSUs that would include schools that are not as selective as the list in post #1? (Note to others: UCs and CSUs do not use SAT or ACT scores for admission.)

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Yes I did, though i’ve heard you can never be too sure about UC’s and cal state.
UC’s: Davis, Irvine, UCLA, UCSD
CSU: SJSU, SDSU, Cal poly slo

I plan to study electrical engineering if I go the CC route. I have already completed all the math courses (linear alg, discrete, multivar, and D.E) + i’m taking the AP physics C exams this year so I should be in good shape if I do go this route. I believe there is a guaranteed transfer program to Davis or Irvine if you get a 3.7+, which are both colleges I would be happy at.

Also thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their day to respond to my original post. This whole college admissions process has been pretty confusing to complete as a first gen. Having a form which gives out free advice has been incredibly helpful.

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Why Pomona, BC, and Vassar then? You can’t study EE at those.

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For UCs and CSUs, calculate your HS GPA as shown at https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ . (CSU uses the weighted-capped version; if you have taken college courses while in high school, recalculate with double counting of college course semesters and grades.)

For UCs, consider the admission rates and 25th-75th percentile HS GPA (weighted-capped) ranges found at Freshman admission by discipline | University of California

For SJSU, you can calculate your score at Impaction | Admissions . Threshold scores for fall 2025 entry are not posted yet ( Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions ), but those for fall 2024 entry are listed ( Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions ) to allow estimating chances.

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My apologies, I forgot to list my major at each college earlier.

Major:
EE: (Davis, Irvine, San Diego, USC, Georgia Tech, Boston college, slo, sdsu, sjsu)
Applied math/ Math (yale, stanford, vassar, pomona, NYU, Claremont Mckenna, Harvey mudd, UCLA)

11

Yes, you should submit your scores.

If the scores were reversed, then I would suggest retaking in order to raise your math score since you intend to major in a math heavy discipline.

You should do well.

12

If you want to be an engineer, not sure why applied math - but ok.

While there’s a few schools under the 25th percentile - yep, send em all.

Best of luck.

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I would look long and hard at the BC engineering major before committing to it. I frankly don’t understand what they’re trying to do with this program. Whatever that is, it doesn’t look like Electrical Engineering to me. The program is in its infancy and isn’t yet ABET approved. There are much more well established engineering programs than this one that I would look at first. Villanova, for example, is a similar school, also in an affluent suburb of a big East Coast city, but it’s school of engineering was established well over a century ago and it has a distinct major in EE.

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