College Competitiveness

• SAT scores often are only as important as the college is competitive. Typically, noncompetitive colleges like local community colleges do not put much weight on SAT scores in their admissions decisions. In fact, SAT scores may not even be required. Highly competitive colleges and universities like Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, seek students with high SAT scores. When they have so many high-achieving students to choose from, SAT scores might indeed become the deciding factor.
  
  

SAT Scores and GPA

• While SAT scores are undoubtedly important to many colleges, it can be just as important to prove you have earned good grades and a high GPA throughout your high school career. At San Francisco State University, the higher your high school GPA is, the lower your SAT scores can be and you still can be admitted to the school. For students with a 3.0 or greater GPA, it may not matter what your SAT scores were. Still, with a lower GPA, your SAT scores become that much more important.
  
  

ACT Scores

• The ACT is another college admission test. American colleges will accept SAT scores, ACT scores or even both sets of test scores if you have them and wish to submit them both. If you decide to take both the SAT and ACT, but you perform significantly better on the ACT, your SAT scores become unimportant and you can simply decide not to submit your SAT scores to colleges you apply to.
  
  

Statistics

• Many colleges provide annual statistics -- including SAT scores and GPAs -- and profiles of the latest incoming freshman class. It is not an infallible system, but comparing your scores against the average scores of the latest incoming freshman class can give you an idea of how competitive you may be, or what your SAT score might need to be, when applying for a particular school.