what are my chances?

interesteddad
Sat, 03 Dec 2005 00:32:43 +0000

Would you guys say SATs are less important than essays? Like would Swat rather have outstanding essay ~1950 SAT than a ~2400 SAT avg essay?



I wish it were that simple, but it’s not. They evaluate the whole package. SATs, for example, will be viewed in the context of the applicant with different expectations based on type of high school, socio-economic factors, etc. For example, if they know a kid had the opportunity for $$$ test prep, they’ll expect higher scores than a first generation Mexican-American from Laredo, Texas.

There are very few “perfect” applicants. Most everybody has a little something in their package that could be a little better. That’s not the end of the world. For example, my daughter’s “less than perfect” was her SAT scores, which were only mid-pack for Swarthmore (she only took them once, as a junior, thanks to getting snowed out of TWO cancelled test dates that she couldn’t make up). Fortunately, she had enough other “stuff” that it didn’t blow her out of the water. There are schools where it probably would have.

I think the most important thing is to communicate something that really stands out and to articulate a genuine, well-researched interest in the school. For example, you stand out by being a varsity baseball player and by your AIME math stuff. Those will count for more than SAT scores (although yours certainly won’t hurt). By doing an overnight, visiting classes, meeting the coaches, applying ED, etc., you aced the “genuine interest” part.

The element that I can’t help much with is class rank. It’s important, but it is so inter-twined with the particular high school that it is impossible to judge without knowing what class rank is good enough at that school. At my daughter’s run-of-the-mill public high school, you’d have to be top 2 or 3 to have a shot. There are other schools where being in the top half of the class might do the trick.