Harvard SAT and ACT score bands: what the trial revealed

AAdmissions readers at highly selective colleges think about test scores in bands rather than single numbers, and the reading procedures made public during the Harvard admissions lawsuit show where those bands were drawn. Families tend to ask whether one particular score is good enough. Readers ask a different question: which band the score falls in, and how much the rest of the file then has to carry. Readers in Stanford's admissions office described their own practice as slightly more forgiving than those procedures.

The procedures predate the digital SAT and the shortened ACT, yet they remain the clearest public record of where readers drew their lines. Below the top band a student could still be admitted, though only with activities and writing strong enough to compensate. Using the bands today starts with knowing what has moved since they were written.