What are the SAT Score averages at High Schools in Massachusetts?
In this data driven blog post, we’re going to share the data collected from the Massachusetts Department of Education on SAT score averages at High Schools in Massachusetts. You can view the data tables on their website if you would like. We’ll share our thoughts on these high school averages and how you can use them to guide your college admission strategy.
At Tigerway, our subjective house view is that standardized testing is compared locally at the school-level. While admission offices may not confirm this, we think that a student’s scores are judged relative to their peers at their own high school or compared to peers with similar demographics, background, and academic environment.
As a basic example, if a student goes to Braintree High School in Massachusetts, you can see in the table below that the English average is 583 and the Math average is a 590 for a total of 1173. Braintree High School is a heavily represented high school in our Program with many of their students attending our SAT Coaching and College consulting classes.
Over the past several years, we’ve observed with concrete data that Braintree students who score well above the average of 1173 to around a 1350-1430 on the SAT have a significantly higher chance of getting accepted into popular schools in the Boston area such as Boston University, Northeastern University, or Boston College.
At the same time, we found that students who score at the average (or below average) at their High Schools have a relatively more challenging time during college admissions for their first-choice schools.
What this implies about the process is the following:
We think that colleges will check the averages of SAT scores at high schools when evaluating your standardized testing performance. As a result, while most parents and students focus on a College’s median scores and percentiles for scores of admitted students, we also think understanding your score relative to your current high school is also a valuable factor.
If your standardized test scores are much higher than your school’s average, your score has special meaning in the context of college admissions.
If your SAT scores are higher than your school’s average AND your high school is underrepresented at the college you’re applying to, that is an added bonus to your application because now you represent “diversity” in the eyes of admission officers.
We think SAT scores are compared at the school level, your state, then the regional level (e.g. Northeast vs. South vs. West coast), and finally the national level. It makes most sense for admission officers to view the context of a score relative to the environment that score comes from. High scores from diversity applicants can have a serious positive boost to college applications.
The takeaway here is that you now have one more data point to view the context of your standardized test scores and whether you should submit them in today’s test optional environment.
The first goal of your SAT preparation process is to outperform the average at your school from the tables shown below. If you have among the highest set of scores from your academic class in your year, even if your scores fall slightly short of the typical admitted students’ score ranges, our Program thinks that your odds of being the preferred candidate from your high school is elevated.
Massachusetts SAT Averages by High School
Connect with us: Our Coaching Team at Tigerway has extensive experience with the PSAT and Digital SAT.
If you want individual advice on your situation with a private coach, let’s connect to see how we can best help you achieve your goals.
Contact Info:
Calvin Cheung, Director (617-749-8421, text today to book a call)
WeChat ID: CalvinGCheung
Sreya Ravi, Program Officer (774-432-7381, text to book a call)
If you only speak Cantonese or Chinese Mandarin, send me a message on WeChat ID: LarryCheungCFA.
