SAT scores Dilemma

NiceUnparticularMan
Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:04:40 +0000

Ihopethebest:

Internationals are like cherry-picked, so does it imply here?

Absent direct data, I would think the best bet is Internationals more often fall into that category where colleges like Dartmouth are not quite as confident relying on their transcripts, recommendations, and so on as they might be for at least a lot of their domestic US admits. In cases like that, a good US-style standardized test score, even one below their observed 25th, could serve as a helpful data point. This concept has also sometimes been suggested by various AOs and others actually knowledgable about International admissions, and I think the fact it is consistent with this data makes that a good bet, even if the data was not adequate to completely prove it.

Of course the greater context is these charts show most applicants to Dartmouth with 1470s were rejected even if they submitted. In fact most applicants with 1570s were rejected. The vast majority of applicants to Dartmouth are not going to be admitted for reasons unrelated to their test scores, even when they have very high test scores, and that is undoubtedly even more true of Internationals applying to Dartmouth.

But again, absent direct data, I think the best bet is still that 1470s are more likely to help than hurt Internationals. By far, most likely of all is it will not matter. But in the fraction of cases it does matter, I would bet more often it helped.