There are comments here about scholarships. Aside from Alabama, are there really other schools offering money specifically for a 36?
Alabama - Huntsville as well. This is another common default answer to “looking for merit scholarships” questions around these forums (even though there may be bigger scholarships just down the road).
I could see a single shot perfect score (which is not the case for the student in question) giving a slight psychological advantage. The ad comm could get the impression that the student “maxed out” and wonder just how far he could go with a harder test, the way one might wonder about a kid who maxed out on the Wechsler IQ test.
IMO, it really shouldn’t matter, but certain colleges may be strict if your score is a 35 or 36.
Agree with the above comments on how articles like this add to the paranoia and fear mongering for admissions to the elite schools. It also demonstrates a lack of understanding on how the holistic process works. The primary purpose of standardized testing is to be able to compare students across the country/world who attend different schools, take different classes and come from different backgrounds across a standard objective measure. But this is only 1 subcomponent of the academic component. Most top schools state that the most important academic criteria is the high school transcript, grades and rigor. LoR’s from teachers and GC’s, academic awards and recognition also are key factors. If you go into the academic rating instructions for Harvard that were disclosed in the litigation, you will see that to get an academic rating of 1: “Genuine scholar; near-perfect scores and grades (in most cases) combined with unusual creativity and possible evidence of original scholarship.” To get a “1” a student needs to show much more than scores and grades, and even non-perfect scores could still yield a “1”. Contrast that with a “2” (which is still a great rating) that lays out an objective criteria of "mid-to high 700 scores (33+ACT). " https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-look-at-harvards-admissions-guidelines-1539804848?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2&mod=article_inline
If you think about it, the difference between a 36 and a 35 composite could be literally 1 wrong answer. Even at an extreme it would be a 36/36/36/36 vs a 35/35/34/34, which is still just a handful of answers over a 3 hour tests (or maybe multiple 3 hour tests), with colleges having no clue of exact raw scores. At a 35, maybe even a 33/34, the test box is ticked and it is about everything else, academic and non-academic.
There is no difference between a 35 and 36, and, frankly, very little difference between a 34 and 36. There are approximately 30K students each year who get a 35 or 36, or the equivalent SAT scores. The actual number is probably lower than 30K since one student may get a high score on both the ACT and SAT. My point is this – there aren’t nearly enough ultra-high scorers to fill the freshman classes at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, etc. etc. etc. And don’t forget that some ultra-high scorers will attend public universities or “non-elite” private schools for various reasons. If you are 34+ or 1500+, your test scores are absolutely fine. You need to focus on the rest of your application – APs, GPA, essays, etc.
@HalfMoon22 Rutgers also seems to be giving a much higher scholarship for a 36 than for a 35 (as in 28K/year vs 3.5K/year)