No AP: no chance?

paying3tuitions
Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:19:40 +0000

your paragraph 2 above, YES. That’s exactly the idea; say you took 5 classes when the norm was 3 or 4. If your guidance counselor (or anyone from the school) can say that also, very good information. Either way.

Your paragraph 3: there are a lot of hyper-overly-competitive students obsessing about scores on these threads. It can make someone feel terrible and discourage them. In fact, there is a VERY wide range of colleges and universities in America. I understand that the “average” SAT score (for ALL colleges/unis, not Ivies) is around 500. To find out what EACH school wants, look it up by name on the Princeton Review website and focus on their median range of acccepted students. Some schools will show between 25-75% come in with combined scores of l840 ( this is so at my youngest one’s university) while others put their midrange higher at around 2000 (my older 2 kids) meaning the combined 3 scores from SAT-I.

My parents were professors at a humble college where 500 was around the norm. I guess that was Tier III.

My D went to a Liberal Arts College around #25 on the list by USNewsWorldReports and she had 570 in Math (bad for them) but 750 in Critical Reading and 720 in WRiting (just fine there, even a bit high-ish, so balanced that 570 in Math. They understood her as a “gappy” applicant but took her anyway. Gappy means the maths and languages are very different; that happens sometimes, or you get a math strength that can’t write or analyze reading very well.

Others around her had 620’s but some up to the 750’s. Her schools was around #26 on the USNEws list of Liberal Arts Colleges. Most often she met people with 600-700 there, but others like her kept it quiet they had something in the high 500’s. Then she’d bump into someone with 750 or even 800 on a score.

There are plenty of options here for schools where something like scores in the high 500’s or low 600’s are perfectly fine, and they are worthy schools. You’ll see this by reading Princeton Review and their inidividual websites.

If your scores are very much lower than 450, I don’t know how to advise you.

Remember that midrange means they ALSO take some who are lower, some higher than their midrange, so you shouldn’t look at these as “cut-offs” but just an estimate.

Looking at this data is a good way to develop a list of “safety, match, and reach” schools. If your scores fall in their midrange you’re obviously a match on THAT statistic, anywyay, although essays, grades, letters, Extracurricular activities all play a role, too, with a different rubric by each college.

Be aware that there are candidates with 3 800’s who nonetheless get turned down because something in their application sounded unpleasant, or the schools just had too many people from their geographic area and want some diversity.

I could get shot down for writing this, but to me, it seems sensible to say:
if your scores average at 500’s, aim for the Tier 3 or Tier 4 schools. If you get
something like 620-680 (very roughly), start looking up into Tier 2 or even Tier 1, especially if you have some other great nion-academic strengths to describe in your essay like sports, well-developed musical instrument to play in tehir orchestra, or speak many languages, have some great community expereicne the other students wouldn’t have but you could be part of the diverse global community to share your background and perceptions.
If you find yourself with numbers over 700’s, start looking at the top Ivy League and top Liberal Arts Colleges,but REMEMBER: nobody is guaranteed into those schools even if they boast 3 near-800’s, simply because they are famous and have many more applications than spots to offer.

Many American kids put in around 6-8 applications with safety, match and reach schools.

It is VERY foolish to only apply to all-Ivy’s even with great statistics, simply because if they have too many from your geographic area, or too many tuba players in the orchestra, they’ll say you’re qualified but we just don’t have a spot for 6 tubas this year with all 800’s.

For a BRILLIANT website, read AdmissionsAdvice.com by CC’s counselor named Carolyn. I especially like her "Building a List from the Bottom UP’ essay but it’s a great primer for understanding many basic questions.

The CC and chances posts are enough to make grown men cry, and you’re not even grown up yet. These are NOT representative students, they are in general very competitive and driven students.

I hope this helps. It is hard enough from here, I can only imagine from overseas.
Good luck.

EDIT: If your native language is other than English, I would think/hope they’d consider that regarding your Critical Reading and WRtiing sections of the SAT-I’s. I can’t quantify how much they excuse “English as a Second Language” but it would obviously be recognized in some way that I can’t quantify. I’ve heard it mentioned often here; it’s a “consideration” not a complete excuse. You have to read and write in the courses using English, but I think they could accept if you’re from another country that the WRiting score is 580, while it might be more like 680 in your own language.

The thing about Ivy League is, most people aiming there have something in the 700’s and even one or two 800’s to talk about! But that’s not the majority of students in Americna colleges and universities, by any means. Don’t let the Ivy discussion on CC impact you if you are aiming for other universities and colleges. The real fact is, if someone applied with 750’s to a Tier 2 or Tier 3 school (see USNEws and World Reports for these Tiers…) then they might not even get an acceptance because the school would assume they’d decoline and go to a better school!

So look where you feel the “right fit” re: median range of SAT scores, and also apply a bit above and below those places, too. Everyone needs some safety, match and reach schools to make a balanced list and ensure at least ONE yes. You can only go to one place, anyway :)