<p>After a lot of digging through this forum for information on what kind of scores Colleges are looking for I have found two very different viewpoints.</p>
<p>A.) The “Magic 2200” or top 1% Composite SAT Scores will get you into most non-ivies, and get you great merit packages at the lower-tier universities. An application with a top 2% SAT score will fare substantially worse at several universities than one with a top 1% SAT score.</p>
<p>B.) The SAT scores are not very important past ~2050 for the non-ivies, and the ACT is worth the same as the SAT anyway to them.</p>
<p>So first off, does the top 2% vs. top 1% distinction actually matter on the SAT, and second, do colleges weight the SAT and ACT (with conversion to SAT) equally?</p>
<p>SAT- ACT conversion: most colleges (who acknowledge the ACT test) say they weigh them equally officially on their websites and such. So yes, completely equally I would say. In fact, some colleges even prefer the ACT these days because it contains a science portion and weighs math+ science equally with English, which the SAT does not. </p>
<p>Also about the top 1%: yeah it does matter, to a degree. To get a perspective, out of the 1.6 million + kids who took the SAT, about ~16,000 score in the 1% range. People who get under a 2200 scored lower than 16,000 + other college bound students out there in the same grade. <a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat_percentile_ranks_composite_cr_m_w.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat_percentile_ranks_composite_cr_m_w.pdf</a> (3 years ago but similar percentages to today). For top colleges, who accept only so many students, being in the top 16,000 students can really differentiate a student from the rest of the pack.
The only thing is, like you have stated, after a certain degree, higher test scores become trivial. The difference between a perfect test score and a 2300 score can be a simple few more mistakes, or a bad test day. People say the 2200 is that benchmark- certain degree (like you mentioned).
But for lower tier colleges, I don’t know. I would say that non-privates in the top-25 rankings weigh the SAT very high, maybe even more so than ivies. At the ivies, applicants have such great test score, scoring high is almost a given. This may not be the case with schools that aren’t as cut-throat. A good SAT score may be to your advantage to distinguish yourself from the other applicants.</p>
<p>And PHEW done. Sorry for the long post. I would write more if I can but this summarizes my argument I think.</p>