does having high sat score make up for low gpa?

Answered

A high SAT score like a 99% percentile score will help your admissions file regardless of your GPA however it will NEVER make up for a low GPA.

The SAT is a 3 hour test that is all fairness is about 25% content and 75% test taking ability. The difference between getting a 1300 and 1500 in most cases has nothing to do with intelligence (the caveat being that there are actually geniuses who can walk into a test center blind, and get a 1500 first try). In most cases, the 1500 test scorer spent 100 or 200 hours prepping and taking practice tests. Is test taking ability important. Yes. In college you will take 30 to 40 classes and they will all have tests on the material so being a great test taker is always to your advantage if your grades depend on it.

On the other hand both your UWGPA and WGPA are the culmination of 4 years of taking test in 6 to 8 classes per semester/year. So if you add up all the tests you have to take for 24-32 HS courses, that's like hundreds of hours of testing. When someone has a 4.0 over years of testing, it is clear that person was a dedicated student that challenged themselves. Maybe their best subject was English but they still grind-ed it out and got As in STEM classes and history.

One applicant category that typically has high SAT scores and low GPAs are recruited athletes. Why? Because if they are the star Forward on the Basketball team or the key Quarterback on a league winning football team, they often have 20-30 hours of practice, games and travel time each week which definitely cuts into homework and test studying time. Colleges recruiting such players often bend the rules for these types of applicants.

But if you don't have a great reason for a low GPA like working 20-30 hours a week to help support your family because you are low income, a high SAT will not offset your GPA.

If 2 applicants have excellent grades, course rigor, intellectual vitality/curiosity but 1 applicant doesn't submit a test score, forensic admissions data from the last cycle proves that submitting a high test score will tip the scales. That is the only real example I know of when a high SAT really helps an applicant these days.

Good luck and hope that is helpful.