How will SAT affect college admissions?
I'm a high school junior (class of 2022) preparing for college admissions, and I received a pretty good SAT score this September. 1560 (800 Math, 760 R&W). Most of the colleges I'm looking at are saying in their tours that they are test optional, but does that mean that my application won't benefit from my SAT score? I'm looking at very competitive schools for now like Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, UPenn, UCLA, etc.
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Unless the school is 'test-blind' vs 'test-optional', all colleges will take into account your test score.
List of test blind colleges:
https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/test-blind-colleges
Therefore, all the UC schools like UCLA, UC Berkeley don't care, and also Caltech is test-blind.
One thing to understand is that based on demographics like race, gender, orientation, income, you may find that at certain schools your high test score will not make much of a difference because there are many Asians with super high test scores like yourself. If you are applying to Ivys and Elites, keep in mind that many Asians admitted, have a 1550+ or better like yourself. Therefore, I would err on the side of caution and make sure that your ECs, Essays, Recommendations, and any "spike talents" will differentiate you on your college application. All the Ivys already announced they are test-optional for 2022. Only Vandy/Duke hasn't announced it yet but I'm sure they will as well.
Test optional colleges 2022:
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
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I think that test optional implies that if you choose to submit your score the school would take it into consideration, thus since you scored very well your application should stand to benefit.