So, in my PSAT, i scored a 1200/1500, which in my opinion is pretty bad. I have started studying for the SAT, and want to know what score I should be aiming for if I want to go to Yale or Harvard? Thoughts?
A 1500 would be nice as well as a 3.9 UW GPA with your school’s most demanding courses, EC’s showing focus and leadership, great letters of rec, and an amazing essay will make Harvard a reach for you. As Harvard is for all highly qualified applicants.
A lot goes into being accepted to an Ivy League score. However, most will want above a 1500.
Please embrace the fact that there are >2400 other four year colleges in the US besides the 8 in that athletic conference.
^^^Agree. Expand your horizons past schools with only a 5 or 6 percent acceptance rate. There are many more qualified students applying to schools like Harvard and Yale than there are spots available so unless you have some kind of a hook (ex. recruited athlete, child of a huge donor) acceptance into these schools is a crapshoot. It can be is done, but don’t pin your hopes and dreams on gaining acceptance into one of these two (or any two) hyper-competitive schools.
Aim for 750+ in each section and 20+ on the essay (for schools that require/recommend/accept it).
Taken from a website, having the following below will have a high guarantee of acceptance into Harvard or Yale.
Academics and Character:
Top 1-2% of high school class
Most challenging courseload of AP courses
SAT/ACT and SAT II scores in the 99th percentile
Glowing letters of recommendation indicating that student is best out of applicants from past several years from his/her high school
Intense love of learning, as evidenced by academic research outside the classroom with a college professor leading to publication in a journal
Potential to be leader in academic field in future
Along with these extracurriculars/awards:
Published author
Intel STS Finalist (top 40 in country)
Olympic medalist
Soloist at Carnegie Hall
US Math Olympiad Qualifier (USAMO)
Awards at the national level
Patent pending (without parental involvement)
But again, it’s all a lottery even if you are extremely qualified. Definitely look into other schools and ignore the rankings or “brand name” schools for just a bit and you’ll find tens of other outstanding colleges and universities with strong academics just like the ivies.
How do you know? Unless the adcoms actually told you, you can’t know this. Maybe it helped but wasn’t enough?
The “average” new SAT score (converted from old) for Princeton is 1540, and ideally, you should be above that if you are unhooked. The 75th percentile is (unfortuntely) 1600, so I’d say aim for a 1540 or above to be competitive. For Cornell, the average is a 1480. I’m not sure if 1200/1500 means you scored a 1200 out of 1520 on the new SAT and converted or not…however, as long as you’re not a rising senior, you definitely have enough time to boost it!
However, I totally agree with the other posters…there’s soo many other amazing schools out there besides those 8…so many…