<p>There have been differing views to this question but it will be interesting to know how the CC parent and students feel about it.</p>
<p>My take on this is as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Such students do better in life irrespective of the college they graduate from.</li>
<li>Such Students do better on tests like GRE or GMAT.</li>
</ol>
<p>With a 40th high school reunion coming up, it seems that the Val and Sal did well, went on to grad school and academia, but the big surprise were many of the drop outs, or near drop outs, who have done very well for themselves as entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>^ Are you talking about me? 18 ACT, sending kids to private colleges on my own dimes :)</p>
<p>N o.</p>
<p>What do you consider to be “success in life.” To me, being successful in life means being ethical, compassionate, and having family, friends that one values and that value you. It also means making a positive difference in some way, and being able to support oneself. I don’t think that these things are related to SAT scores.</p>
<p>What are you defining as “success in life”? Are you defining it by money / professional accomplishments?</p>
<p>If you are defining it that way, then I wouldn’t understate the many, many entrepreneurs who don’t have “book smarts” but have vision, a hard work ethic and most importantly the ability to get along with people. As a sample of one, my father dropped out of high school (later earning a GED when in the Armed Forces). If you gave him a standardized test a la SAT’s, he’d probably be in the average range. He was never a good student. Yet, he was an incredibly hard worker, learned from a mentor he had, has the ability to sell ice to the Eskimos (coals to Newcastle, etc.) and became wildly successful (as in, president of a major company) and certainly “successful” by any financial measure. Not every big-money-earning job is based solely on analytical, SAT-type abilities. His people-smarts make him far more successful than any book-smarts ever would have. </p>
<p>In the business world I inhabit, it’s not just mere smarts that make someone successful. Ability to communicate and creative ability and problem-solving count, too. That’s not always measured by SAT-type tests.</p>
<p>What is “success in life”? Money, career, fame, power, family, happiness …?</p>
<p>POIH, what are the implications if indeed, someone’s SAT score is indicative of success?</p>
<p>Does that mean that if someone forces their kid to study and raise it from X to 1500+, that will make the kid more successful in life? Last time I checked, very little of life had to do with what’s measured on the SAT.</p>
<p>Don’t overstate it. Don’t make it out to be bigger than what it is. It’s a standardized test that is used for getting into colleges. It’s not a predictor of life success.</p>
<p>Don’t be surprised if that high school dropout turns out to have a Ph.D…and that really smart kid you knew in college turns out to be a murderer. That’s the great truth about people–you cannot fully predict what’s under the hood!</p>
<p>The two young women with the highest scores in my high school class both became stay-at-home Moms, one also homeschools. Not the traditional view of success, but they are both happy. Recentered my scores would be in your range - I’m a very unfamous architect. Dh is a tenured professor. </p>
<p>I don’t think the scores predict much, they just show that you are capable of doing almost anything. It’s the people with ambition and creativity who tend to go far. (For what it’s worth my GRE scores were quite similar to my SAT scores and every one I know who has taken MCATs or LSATs tends to score in about the same percentile bracket as they did in high school.)</p>
<p>I agree,you can’t really qualify the statement because then you’d have to qualify success. If success is simplified to “money” then there would not be a correlation since the amount of money one can earn in general is compartmentalized by what they choose to do in life e.g. the ministry, education etc. and if “money” is the qualifier then the corrrelation won’t work because entrepreneurs, business owners, etc. who might not have been bookish in high school would have to be “counted.” Our Val did well…is a PhD college prof somewhere in the NE but our Sal never had an income producing job (married and became a stay at home mom). The rest of us former top 10 are all over the spectrum in terms of career success although we’re all doing fine…none of us has been to jail, or gone bankrupt or are miserable with our lives, not all of us got graduate degrees…Life smarts and street smarts probably trump “tests well” smarts.</p>
<p>Just gotta ask POIH…why is this important for you to know?</p>
<p>SAT scores typically do pretty well predicting the first couple of years of undergrad work, that’s about it.</p>
<p>Absolutely not…</p>
<p>Often those who are the most successful in life have “street smarts” or “walking around smarts”… They have “people skills” and wisdom.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a correlation between scoring well on the SAT and scoring well on the GRE.</p>
<p>I think there is not much of a correlation between high SAT scores and success in a career in academia.</p>
<p>It’s been said that success in any given field is less than 20% technical skills and more than 80% soft or people skills. </p>
<p>Then there’s that age old question: “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?”</p>
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</p>
<p>Ted Bundy .</p>
<p>^^ The unibomber is another example of “hi stats” not correlating with “success”…</p>
<p>OP – Would you think the reverse is also true --an average score on a test taken on one fall morning when you are 17 “doom” you to a lifetime of “average?”</p>
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<p>Not just “average score.” The OP puts a demarcation at 1550/1600. Whereas a 1550 puts the world at your feet, woe to the substandard failure who pulls a 1540. And apparently the writing subtest doesn’t figure into lifetime success at all. Somebody better alert the CollegeBoard. They are the ultimate arbiters of achievement after all. I wonder how many 1550+ scorers work there?</p>