<p>A word about the SAT:</p>
<p>I hold the same view as hyeonjlee regarding standardized testing scores. While I don’t think it holds a tremendous amount of weight, I do think that anything above 2300 really gets your foot in the door, especially if you’re applying EA. Combine that with a good GPA (let’s say, 3.8 or higher), and you can actually afford to write one or two mediocre to decent essays and still be accepted in the EA round.</p>
<p>. . . I wrote mediocre essays. The most telling one would be the “optional” essay, which I wrote in thirty minutes flat and submitted the same day without rereading.</p>