I know the question in the title of this post might seem surprising when it comes from an elite test prep and college application essay expert who’s personally coached hundreds of high schoolers and helped them gain admittance into hundreds of their “wouldn’t THAT be nice” colleges. Isn’t it a given that, YES, a perfect score is your only ticket to a perfect school? With the school year coming to an end—and the world starting to open up again—I think it’s time for a regroup.
When you’re applying to college, there are MANY factors that are meaningful.
But the most important parts of your application are typically:
Grades in general: your GPA across all the classes you’ve taken in high school.
Grades in college prep classes: your GPA in classes that are AP, IB, Honors, etc.
Academic rigor: did you take a challenging course load? An A- in AP Biology is more important than a 100% in Basket-Weaving.
Standardized test scores (if a college requires them): your scores on the SAT and ACT.
Now, some of you may be applying only to Test Optional colleges, and after careful consideration, are choosing NOT to take the SAT or ACT. That’s fine. If you fall into that category, this post isn’t for you! (But please pass it onto any friend of yours in need!)
However, if you are in the class of 2022 and are choosing to take a standardized test—OR you’re in the class of 2023 or beyond and likely WILL have to take the SAT or ACT—read on! This post will save your sanity.
Obsessing over the perfect SAT or ACT score
When many families first come to me and we have our Ace the Test: Game Plan™ consultation, they usually start rattling off the same 20-30 colleges as targets to aim for. And when I start working my magic and show them the “median 50 percentile ranges” for these schools so we can create a target SAT or ACT score together, many of these new clients make the knee-jerk assumption that they need a 1600 on the SAT or a 36 on the ACT. After all, HOW WILL I GET INTO YALE IF I’M NOT PERRRRFECT?! (I’m using Yale as an example here, but insert the name of any top-tier or Ivy League University, and you get my point!)
And a perfect score on the ACT and SAT is pretty rare! Only one-tenth of 1% of ACT test takers get a 36, and it’s roughly the same (a fraction of one percent) who get a perfect score on the SAT. Seems like if you spend all your time trying to be perfect, you’re a shoe-in, right?
However, statistics aren’t on your side with that line of thinking: Stanford rejects around 69% of applicants with perfect SAT scores, while Harvard rejects over half. That’s pretty daunting! I mean, if all those “perfect” students got rejected, do you even stand a chance??
But wait a minute…
Why do so many applicants with perfect test scores get rejected?
It’s actually pretty simple:
A perfect test score will not disguise an applicant who’s boring, who only cares about scores and grades and has no real passion in life.
A perfect score will not save you from a past 3.5 years of slacking off at school and doing the bare minimum to keep your mom off your back.
A perfect score will not override major personality red flags, like being arrogant, smug, judgmental or condescending.
A perfect score will not make admissions officers ignore a cliché application that shows no self-awareness, no non-academic interests, no risk-taking, and no initiative.
Elite college test score statistics: Yale
If we look at some of these numbers in a different light, though, I see opportunity. The median 50% of students actually admitted to Yale scored 1460-1570 on the SAT or between 33-35 on the ACT for the 2019-20 admissions cycle. That means that half of the students who got in fit into that range, sure. But it also means that 1 in 4 were above it (likely perfect scorers)…and that 1 in 4 were below it. Yes, you heard me right. Below it.
Let’s look at some more numbers, shall we (I love math)? In that 2019-20 admission cycle, Yale had 35,220 applicants. (This sounds like a lot, but there were actually OVER 46,000 applicants—a 33% increase!—during the current 2020-21 admission cycle, thanks to Yale being temporarily Test Optional!) However, in that same year, Yale only admitted 6.1% (roughly 2247 students).
And remember that median range? It means that even if all of the 25% of admits who scored over 1570 on the SAT or over 35 on the ACT were perfect 1600s and 36s, respectively, that’s still only 562 perfect scorers…meaning that the pool of admitted students consisted of 1,685 non-perfect scores.
A more effective kind of SAT and ACT prep
So if a perfect score isn’t a guarantee of admission, and there are actually more non-perfect scorers than perfect scorers getting into elite institutions…why are you killing yourself to be perfect? And, more importantly, why are so many other test prep companies trying to get you to kill yourself trying to be perfect?
Because I’m not. I’m here to tell you that turning a 34 into a 36 is often a waste of your time.
Being a near-top score earner gets you almost as much credit as being perfect. It makes sure the door to a prestigious institution isn’t slammed shut in your face. That’s all a standardized test score can really do, as Stanford’s and Harvard’s rates of rejecting applications with perfect scores show us. It’s just another piece of evidence that you’re college-ready. (Although it’s sometimes a VERY IMPORTANT piece of evidence, if your coursework rigor and transcript are lackluster and therefore don’t provide ample evidence of your academic readiness themselves.)
But now that the door is ajar because of your strong score, you need to be the type of interesting, passionate, inquisitive student that the college admissions officer knows will contribute to the campus. That means pouring time and energy into your talents! You need to show a strong transcript—which takes consistent effort (and time!) throughout the course of your high school career to study, do homework, and prepare for finals and tests. And you also need to convey all of that coolness and intellectual curiosity creatively and eloquently in your college application essays. Which takes thought and—you guessed it—TIME.
Time that you can’t afford to squander trying to be completely perfect on your SAT or ACT. Or worrying about it.
Instead, what if your test prep process could be streamlined, so that you are using half the time, but still locking in 90% of your test score potential? So that you score in the top end of your dream school’s median range and call it a day with test prep…and use the rest of your time to BECOME that amazingly interesting and inquisitive person who’s found their purpose and shows tremendous initiative turning their passions into reality?
If this sounds appealing to you, then I’m your gal! Book your Ace the Test: Game Plan™ to see how I can make your junior and senior years saner by dramatically increasing your SAT and ACT scores in the most streamlined, strategic way possible!
What if you don’t know WHAT your passions and purpose even ARE?
Well, lucky for you, I know just the person to help you: my friend Elizabeth Dankoski, founder of The Dream School Project. She has a fabulous year-long small group program starting in July in which you figure out what lights your up and get support in turning it into a project that shows off your passion and initiative. Tell her I sent you ;)
