<p>I currently have a 710 in CR, a 800 in M, and a 680 in Writing. I’m about to be a senior.</p>
<p>Also, the most selective schools I’ll be applying to are like JHU, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, maybe Columbia so I’m not like aiming for Harvard / Yale/ MIT.</p>
<p>I plan on retaking it in October simply to boost the Writing Score to around a 740 or so. However, I’m considering boosting my CR score a bit to like a 740, seeing that I’m an ORM (asian). Would it be worthwhile to bump my CR a little bit higher to like a 730-740? It won’t be very easy though, as I pretty much forgot a lot of CR strategies for the SAT, and I’ll have to work on CR as well to boost the score a little. </p>
<p>Simply put: Would it be worthwhile to boost my 710 CR to like a 740?</p>
<p>no, I’m sorry- wasting your time studying for SAT prep to boost your score as measly 30 points is pointless. You should spend more of your time on E.C’s and so on also- you risk doing worse on other sections. The question is are you willing to put time and energy for hours and weeks to raise your score 30 points and risk losng your 800 ?
Or would you leave your SAT score as is and spend time on your extracurriculars and essays. I know what my answer would be.</p>
<p>actually since the colleges only take the best scores …(your 800 is already through)
you won’t lose your 800. and yes just for a measely 30 you’ll have to work hard. don’t care much about the CR scores but do improve on the writing section.</p>
<p>Check to make sure the schools you’re applying to superscore. That way, it wouldn’t matter if your CR score goes down. Admissions officers will most likely not even see it as they have either computer systems or people pick out your best scores and send those to the admissions officers.</p>
<p>i would say you will be fine but you should concentrate more on writing. Unless you score like 2400, above 2200 will not give you any disadvantage in admission. I mean as you apply like ivy leagues and johns hopkins, the applicants who will likely get accepted to these schools will have generally over 2200.</p>
<p>So, my chances go WAY up simply by getting another 2 questions right out of 69 questions?.. By 'common" data sets, what do you mean? All I see are the 25th / 75th percentiles.</p>
<p>While you have not indicated specific interest in Brown, many of the schools you are looking at are at Brown’s selectivity level so use this website as a general reference. A 30 point increase might not necessarily hugely increase your chances, but it does hold a little weight; plus, keep in mind that many of the relatively low-scoring admits will have hooks, possibly inflating the acceptance rate of the lower score tiers. Additionally, it is also clearly advantageous to increase your writing score.</p>
<p>Google the college name and common data set. I believe there are links on this site. Perhaps someone who knows more can say where. Different colleges break out the info differently, here’s some stats from Brown:</p>
<p>25/75 also tells you a lot if you look at them the right way. 40% of the class at top colleges are hooked: recruited athletes, URMs, legacies, staff and development. These kids can have lower stats although of course not all do. Then there’s an edge for living in an underrepresented state, being low income and having an extreme talent. </p>
<p>All that means the typical accepted student who is white or Asian, middle class or above and from a well represented place will have stats at or above the 75th percentile. The unhooked candidate will have to beat odds not being at or above the 75th percentile in all categories.</p>
<p>People who believe a 710 is good enough at top colleges are naive.</p>
<p>Lol Monster–Brown is the first one I pulled up too, but many schools break it down further so you can say how skewed the numbers tend to be towards the top of each range. The bottom line is how small your chances are at 700 or 740.</p>
<p>Okay, perhaps I should rephrase. Would the difference between a 710 and a 740 on the CR Section of the SAT ever mean the difference between an acception / waitlist / rejection?</p>
<p>I just want a few more thoughts before I make a decision.</p>
<p>^that’s really hard to say. but if u spend that extra time writing a really fantastic essay it could certainly be to your benefit. same goes with working on your ECs & things.</p>
<p>^^ORM=over-represented minority, which i assume to be asians :P</p>
<p>I’ve made a conclusion: After retaking writing successfully, I’ll end up with a 2250-2260. A 2250 is already very decent. Bumping that up will most likely not do much, and I should not focus on a part of the app that’s already in such decent shape. While It’s possible that a 30 pt difference in ONE section of the SAT could mean the difference between a reject / accept / waitlist, it’s very very unlikely. So, I should focus on the other aspects of my application, and I should work on CR only if the other aspects of my application are very strong. </p>
<p>Totally disagree. Read the common data sets instead of listening to kids who don’t know, the facts are there. It’s very simple, being below median in CR or math is a major negative at any school. And being above the 75th percentile markedly improves your chances.</p>
<p>You can focus on doing a great app too, but it’s not as though you can suddenly create a unique EC. And frankly, until you have the stats they want, ECs don’t matter.</p>
<p>If you have the opportunity to improve - take it. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>But why are you only aiming for 740’s? Aim for 800 on all three sections. A 50 point bump would give you a little boost but a 100+ bump would have a huge impact on your application.</p>
<p>Jamesford, I heard from an MIT blog that when scores are in the 2250-2400 range, improving does very little. </p>
<p>@ Op: RELAX. A 710 is fine… it won’t dazzle anyone but they won’t infuriate anyone either. CR is only one section, and your score really aint bad! You’re already at the median / above the median for all the schools you mentioned (except Columbia). I highly doubt you’ll be rejected simply because your CR was only slightly above average rather than way above average while having superb math and writing scores.</p>
<p>Still, I don’t see why you shouldn’t improve. Just relax, and chill. Remind yourself that you already have a fair CR score, and definitely go for a better score if you can. If you feel that it’ll be an immense effort, then fine; you will not be screwed for college admissions at those schools if you can’t bump up a 2250.</p>