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I’m sure people on the board are tired of hearing this, but my D (SATs: 580 M, 620 CR) was accepted to Barnard & U. of Chicago; is at Barnard taking about half her courses at Columbia, and is doing fine, with a GPA well above 3.8</p>
<p>Her biggest surprise? The realization, early on in her first semester, that she was probably somewhere in the top third in terms of ability – that is, she was having an easier time grasping concepts than most of her classmates. </p>
<p>I have to say that I agree with briansteffy about SAT scores – I think that they have very little value and reflect artificial test-taking skills more than anything else, and it has virtually nothing to do with the type of deep level thinking and analysis required at the college level. </p>
<p>If anything its probably an advantage for a student to go into college thinking that they have a challenge ahead – those students probably put in more effort from the start, and so they don’t make the mistakes that may over-confident students to stumble.</p>