I realize that there are many factors in your college applications other than the sat, like gpa, ECs, essays, etc.
I just want to know, what good schools could I POTENTIALLY get into with a 1500 on the SAT? I’m looking to just take the act after this and not another sat.
thanks in advance. I’m trying to go somewhere like cornell or johns Hopkins, or somewhere else in that range or better.
1500 by itself won’t get you into any elite schools, and as my kid found out, it won’t even get you into many second-tier schools either, at least for this year.
For a rough idea, look at schools’ Common Data Set to see the SAT range of the last entering freshman class.
In terms of a technical reply, a 1500 would place you, by this factor only, at about the 75th percentile for about the 40th school below:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9
Note that, while the above orderings would roughly carry over to future years, the actual reported scores are for the former version of the SAT.
“I realize that there are many factors in your college applications other than the sat, like gpa, ECs, essays, etc.”
[/QUOTE]
Seconding the recommendation to look at the CDS’s for schools that you’re interested in. Many schools have the 2017-2018 CDS posted, which are the stats for the current freshman class. Those use the new SAT. Some schools’ latest CDS is for the current sophomores and use the old SAT. This matters because the scoring changed within each section and old SAT scores aren’t perfectly equivalent to new ones. You can google for concordance tables.
Broadly speaking, a 1500 probably makes you a perfectly plausible candidate for just about any school in the country, although, of course a reach for everyone is still a reach. But it’s important to note that the breakdown of that score matters. A 750/750 is probably a very different thing from a 700/800. The 750/750 places you in the middle of the 50% range on both scores for most top schools. The 800 may be in the top 25% at most schools, but the 700 is in the lower part of the mid-50% range or possibly in the lower 25% at many of the top schools.
A 1500 is above the “threshold” for JHU or Cornell. It’ll get you in the door, but you’ll have to do a lot of selling yourself on the other factors. But above a 1500 I don’t think improvements to your score are so significant that they outweigh essays, hooks, ECs.
In summary, a 1500 is a good score that can get you into lots of colleges, but won’t guarantee you anything, especially for the schools you listed. Definetly strive for a 1500 or above, as it helps your chances, but keep in mind the other factors that admission counselors consider.
One caveat on the 2017-18 CDS: it reports New SAT scores, but also requires Old scores to be concorded to new before being mixed in. Some schools had higher proportions of Old than others in the Class of 2021, sometimes a third or half the class, and the use of the concordance may artificially inflate the scores reported in the CDS. The 2018-19 CDS will be virtually all new scores, but will not be published in time for early apps this fall and probably not in time for RD apps either at most schools.
That said, my guess is that a 1500 will not be the reason a student is rejected from a highly selective college.