Threshold Theory for SAT/ACT scores...

kjake2000
Tue, 27 Mar 2018 00:29:19 +0000

I know across CC everyone says once your SAT/ACT score is 1540/34 ish you are past the ‘threshold’ for ‘elite’ schools. While I agree with this to some extent, I don’t know how entirely true this is.

The most ‘elite’ schools in the country, HYPSMC + U Chicago, all have the highest average SAT score. By a pretty solid margin. I know the following link is for 75th percentile, but a similar conclusion can be reached with this data: http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/sat_75pctl_rank.html

HYPSMC + Chicago had a higher 75th percentile SAT score by around 20-40 points compared to other ‘holistic’ and ‘elite’ schools such as WashU, Duke, Penn etc.

My point is that HYPSMC + Chicago go out of their way to admit these top scorers (1580+) and their average/75th percentile SAT scores reflect this.

So the idea of a ‘threshold’ is not correct. Scoring a 1600 vs a 1560 does make a difference. HYPSMC + Chicago have their pick of 1600s and therefore they admit them. It won’t be the difference between an admit and reject, but it is an advantage.

Last point, if the idea of a threshold truly was correct, then all the top 10-20 schools would all have similar average SAT scores and similar 75th percentiles (all within 10-20 points of each other). A threshold would cause adcoms to weigh a 1540 and a 1600 the same, dragging the schools averages down.

Thoughts? I’m interested in hearing if my reasoning is flawed.