How important is the SAT anyway?

In the countries of Eastern Asia, such as China, Japan, and Korea, your admission to a college is comprised of a single test. Every school has its own entrance exam and your score on that exam determines entirely whether you are in, or out. That’s it, one exam. If you miss a school’s cutoff by one point, they’ll tell you, “Sorry, better luck somewhere else.” It does not matter whether you were valedictorian of your high school or one of the bottom-dwellers—as long as your score was above, you’re in; lower, you’re out.

Fortunately (or unfortunately for the lazy) college admissions in the United States are much more personal and comprehensive. In the United States, colleges consider everything you have done in your years of high school: your standardized exams, grades, extracurricular activities, jobs, volunteer work, research projects, recommendations, and essay are all part of the equation.

Colleges know that some people might just be bad test takers and would gladly accept you if the other parts of your portfolio reflect that you are a bright and motivated individual. A subpar SAT score would not discredit the rest of your hard work.

On the other hand, this also increases the confusion on how much emphasis is placed on these standardized exams when admission officers look at your applications. Since the SAT is only one variable in the equation, it is hard to know how much effort you should put into prepping for that exam. Would your effort be better spent on, for example, volunteering or improving your essay?

The truth is, the SAT is important—up to a certain point. The majority (read: over half) of the applicants to the Ivy League have a combined SAT of 2100 or higher. Clearly, you need other things in order to catch the attention of the top colleges.

You can view your score on the SAT as your first impression to the college:

• A high 2350+ SAT score would give a great first impression to the admission officer reading your application and they would probably grant you acceptance if the rest of your application lives up to that expectation.
• A below-2100 SAT would give them a worse impression so you would need to work harder on the rest of your application in order to change that opinion of you. Note that it is never too late to change their mind no matter how low your score is (unless you fall below the 25 percentile, at which point you should consider retaking).
• But for the majority of us who fall within the 2100-2300 range, the SAT gives you as good of an impression as most other applicants and would not put you at any disadvantage. At this point, what you need to do is stand out in other ways (like scoring well on the SAT 2s).
  

So what does this all mean to your strategy to college admissions?

It just means that you should not worry too much about your SAT score once you go above the 2100 range. Past a certain point, the Ivy League colleges know that the difference in ability between you and the next applicant cannot be fully portrayed as a single number. Instead of spending more time and money on SAT test prep, your efforts would be much better spent applying for an internship over the summer or getting that leadership position in a club you are passionate about.

That way, the school knows that you are more than just a number.