How high do your SAT scores have to be to get into USC, the UC system, Ivy league schools, or Stanford?

Question

I have lots of EC and gpa of around 4.5-4.8

Answer 1

With that GPA, I'd say you need around a 650 or so on each SAT section to have a good chance for USC, UCLA, and Berkeley. You can score REALLY low if all you want is Riverside.

For Stanford, even if you score 700 each, it'll still go down to your extra currics, essay, and letters of rec. I know you said you have lots of EC, but that's not what's important. You have to stand out. Be special in at least one of your ECs. President of a club doesn't count. That's not special. Running varsity track isn't enough either. Qualifying for the Olympics is special.

Answer 2

Well I don't know how you got such a high GPA, as that's definitely not even a possibility at my school, but for those schools, you should probably aim for mid-700's on all three sections. Obviously it depends a lot on what the rest of your application looks like, so you've got to be really dedicated to your extracurriculars and show leadership in them, have great recommendations, etc.