[Video] What SAT or ACT score do you need to get into an Ivy League school?

What SAT or ACT score do you need to get into an Ivy League school?

College admissions data have shown that students aiming for Ivy League and other top colleges should aim for a 1470+ SAT score or 33+ ACT score.

Basically, you should aim for a score that is at minimum between the 25th and 75th percentiles of admitted applicants at a given school. All Ivy League and other top colleges publish these statistics online. Students whose scores fall below the 25th percentile should concentrate their efforts on improving their scores to make their applications more competitive.

Many students who do have an SAT or ACT score that falls within the 25th and 75th percentile range of admitted applicants at their dream school believe they should invest a lot more time into studying, but the truth is, most will only see negligible improvements in their test scores—and college admission odds.

Even students with perfect standardized test scores get rejected because they’ve neglected other important parts of their college applications. For this reason, we advise students to spend significant time developing a unique extracurricular profile, which most differentiates the star applicants from those who are academically high-achieving, yet average outside of the classroom setting.

For example, a student with an SAT or ACT score in the 70th percentile who has spent her entire high school career establishing herself as a fashion blogger could spend the next several months studying to attain a test score closer to the 75th or even 80th percentile of admitted applicants at her dream school, or she could organize a charity event to help female high school students from low-income backgrounds obtain dresses for prom. By choosing the latter option, this student will demonstrate her commitment to her specialty—fashion—as well as her ability to make a deep community impact—both of which are more impressive to college admissions committees than a slight score increase on the SAT or ACT.

If you have any questions about this video’s content or anything else related to college admissions, please ask in the Comments section and I’ll make sure to respond.

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