<p>I’m a 3.06 UW, 35/2220 cold/single-sitting kid. I seem to be a true anomaly, which could either bode really well or really terribly for me. Guess I’ll see in April…</p>
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<p>The SAT was recentered in 1995. The recentering inflated post-1995 SAT scores relative to previous SAT scores: [SAT</a> I Individual Score Equivalents](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/equivalence-tables/sat-score]SAT”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board) .</p>
<p>I really hope they value GPA more than SAT… I have a 4.0 but a 2010 SAT. Problem is that I AM a bad test taker in the sense that I wasn’t used to the time limit. Couldn’t get my hands on the BB in this country and I couldn’t order it either cause at the time I didn’t have a credit card. My Subject tests are also sub par at 650 on Biology and Literature, but I couldn’t study those either, so I relied on the internet for practice. Not really the same thing, though… Well, yeah, I do study Biology in highschool, but we do anatomy here, not the kind I saw on the test and damn nearly died thinking I’d get 200. </p>
<p>I think when considering GPA and SAt, admissions officers should also look at the background of the applicant. Because not everyone has the chance to do extensive practice before hand, and some kids can even do preparatory courses. I’m not excusing myself, though, because I think I did pretty decent. It’ll be for the colleges to decide if it was enough or not</p>
<p>I don’t think a 2010 would be considered “low,” especially since schools in your country probably teach much differently than schools in the US. Plus, you don’t have access to as many resources as most students in the US. </p>
<p>IMO a GPA/SAT combo that really gets ridiculous is more like a 4.0 UW with a 1900 or below.</p>
<p>Whenever we do this discussion you guys always seem to forget that people can change in their habits and work ethic over the four years of high school. I have a high SAT (2150) and low gpa (3.4) not because I’m lazy, but because I had a lot going on in my life my sophomore year and had a horrible (2.4) gpa for that year. I have a 3.9 UW for my last two years.</p>
<p>Not everyone thats smart comes from a traditional suburban home in which all they have to worry about is doing well in school. People that want to succeed can easily be prevented from doing so by life circumstances.</p>
<p>Also, for the SAT, a lot of the suburban type kids have tutors and prep courses. People like me have to make due with a desk and a blue book.</p>
<p>@Billybeejr, I haven’t looked at your previous posts, but I suspect you will do very well with your applications if you conveyed your circumstances in your essays. Since high GPA is so much more common than high SAT, the colleges have incentive to admit high scoring kids without sacrificing much in their ratings if the acceptance is tied to a lower GPA. Good luck to you, you have earned it.</p>
<p>Thank you Owlsnest.</p>
<p>As someone that attends a highly respected high school, I can say that getting good grades in high school is too easy.</p>
<p>Adcoms have told former classmates of mine that grades are perceived to be hard to earn at my school. This is simply not the case. I know a lot of girls with amazing GPAs in the IB program that can’t break 2000 on the SAT. I’m sure there are a lot of places like this.</p>
<p>I am a perfect case of Low-SAT and High GPA, 1270/1820 and 4.0 UW/ 4.53 W, just never got the hang of the test structure. Other kid at my school has 3.7 - 3.8 W GPA (we took very similar classes) but got 1410 out of 1600 first try. He prepped a lot before taking the test though.</p>
<p>I think cc should agree to call scores like runes’ 1270/1600 average, meh, or relatively low (relative to whats needed to go to top schools) rather than low. Those scores are not actually low. Some kids would be psyched to get them, and you risk stressing other people out by calling them that.</p>
<p>Well, thank you for at least giving me moral support. I don’t consider them low myself, but per CC standards, they are low by comparison. I mean, if it helps my case at all, I live in a rural area and my scores are 99th percentile for my school, whatever that may be indicative of.</p>
<p>1800 is like 80th percentile right? Not bad at all. Especially since SATscores are only relatve to other people that are going to college anyway.</p>
<p>Just checked, 1820 is a 83rd percentile, while 1270 is 87th percentile nationwide. However, the average score for my school is a 980 (CR+M). The following scores are out of 1600 and the highest scores at my school in sequential order, 1410, 1340, 1310, 1270 (me), 1260. The only “good” score by the standards on this site are the 1410, which I also agree is a good score, but is a huge outlier for my school. I don’t want to chock it up to grade inflation, because A’s are earned, and the top 3 places in the class are highly competitive. We each have very strong schedules (currently 2nd) and have all three done better on the ACT: 1st (31) 2nd (30, me) 3rd (28). I am just trying to give some data representative of the phenomenon being discussed in the thread.</p>
<p>I don’t think they are low either. And I’ll bet many people on cc are fudging their self-reported numbers.</p>
<p>I’ve also been suspicious of that, however, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and trust their self-reported scores. Not because I believe everyone is an honest person, but because I don’t see any benefit from self-inflating scores.</p>
<p>High GPA and Low SAT because of grade inflation and also the nature of the SAT. Some kids who do well in school just can’t think the way the SAT requires.</p>
<p>Gosh, definitely high GPA, low SAT. Our valedictorian, who has gotten several B’s but managed to stay in first somehow, scraped an 1550 last year on the SAT as a freshman. Our other valedictorian got a 1600 last year as well. I have a 4.0 and don’t struggle for A’s, but got an 1850 last year as a freshman. The best test taker in my grade, also a 4.0, received a 28 on the ACT last year and an 1900. This year on the PSAT, the best test taker got a 209 & I got a 194, and those are the two highest scores for our sophomore class!! I go to a good public high school, with over 550 kids per grade, I don’t know why we don’t have any very good test takers.</p>
<p>I suggest you guys check out this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/649604-i-got-without-3-7-gpa-club.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/649604-i-got-without-3-7-gpa-club.html</a></p>
<p>There are some pretty surprising results, including someone who got into Cornell with a 3.3 (no hooks) and a couple who got into schools like UCLA, Emory, UMich, etc. with <3.5 (all unhooked)</p>
<p>Problem is, in that 3.7+ link, you have no idea if the people are being honest.</p>
<p>I have a 3.2 unweighted GPA, lots of honors/AP classes, + a 2120 SAT (cold/first-sitting, 800 writing) + 2120 SAT (second time, improved everything by 80, dropped by 80 on writing). 2200 superscored. Decent essays, pretty great extracurriculars compared to the people around me in my school.</p>
<p>We’ll see in April how I do.</p>
<p>" As time goes on high SAT scores will become more and more impressive as the curve becomes harsher and high GPAs will become less impressive as more schools inflate their grades. "</p>
<p>I’m not sure if high SAT scores will still be impressive, because as time goes on you’ll see more and more persons getting 2400. I mean look at the admission statistics for various top 20 schools from 2006 to now. A person who got 2100 on the SAT in 2006 had a much higher chance of getting into a top 20 school then, than a person who gets that same score now, ceteris paribus. </p>
<p>I think this is because more and more schools are inflating their students’ GPAs and as such colleges look at the SAT/ACT score as a somewhat “true” reflection" of ability. So this in turn cause more students to work harder to get that high score. If more and more students get the same score while the number of seats available at colleges remains the same then there is obviously going to be an issue. It is going to create a vicious cycle where students are doing whatever it takes to get that high score. Take for example the recently exposed SAT scandal. Although SAT cheating rings have been going on for years, it is slowly becoming more ubiquitous as more students feel the pressure to get high scores. Also note the increased use of Adderall by students as a study aid. </p>
<p>So what’s going to be the tipping point for an admission officer with 5000 applicants with 2400 SAT/36 ACT and 4.0 UW /5.0 W GPA?</p>
<p>wow I kinda went off on a tangent, well I think if anyone is going to continue with the discussion as to which is more common or better: high GPA/low SAT or low GPA/high SAT, we have to have a clear demarcation of what each variable is.</p>