Would 1580-->1600 SAT make a difference? & other UChicago admissions questions

JBStillFlying
Sat, 18 Jan 2020 17:03:13 +0000

Vasaveda’s work is from 2011 and likely based on data well before that year. Much has changed since that time, including admissions criteria and the SAT itself.

While 1600 is obviously the least common outcome, 1580 is a close third (behind 1590). They are all a fraction of 1% of test scores. What is the marginal benefit of a 1600 over a 1580? Unless CB provides the actual number of testers who got those scores so we can calculate the drop in frequency, this answer isn’t knowable.

A perfect 36 is also uncommon, and ACT does (or did) publish the number of testers who achieved this. It’s in the mid 2000’s (out of 2 million+ testers) last I looked. However, while rare, that number has also been increasing over time. Furthermore, it’s not clear that a perfect 36 or 1600 submitted as part of a UChicago application is the result of a one-and-done or several tests. Finally, as we saw just from this early cycle, perfect 36’s were deferred or outright rejected at UChicago so it’s not clear at all that such a score carries any marginal weight over and above other strong scores with the adcom.