Every autumn, thousands of families in New York City sit down with an ISEE score report and ask the same urgent question: Is this enough? It is a question that sits at the intersection of genuine complexity — because the honest answer is nuanced, and nuance is in short supply during admissions season.
Here is the most important thing to understand: the ISEE is a significant factor, but it is one component of a holistic process that also weighs academic transcripts, teacher recommendations, parent interviews, student essays, and in many cases, campus visits. No single element determines admission.
The academic literature on holistic admissions is substantial. A widely cited study by researchers Richard Atkinson and Saul Geiser, published in Harvard Educational Review in 2009, examined the relative predictive validity of standardized test scores versus other application components in selective admissions contexts. They found that while test scores do carry predictive weight — particularly for academic readiness — they are most meaningful when interpreted alongside measures of academic achievement in context, precisely the approach elite private schools have long used.
What this means in practice: a student with a stanine 6 across the board but a glowing academic record, compelling teacher recommendations, and a demonstrated passion for learning is not automatically at a disadvantage relative to a student with stanine 8s and nothing else to distinguish them. Schools are choosing students, not scores.
Admissions directors at several leading New York City independent schools have been candid in published interviews about their evaluation philosophy. The consistent message is that standardized test scores are used primarily as a data point to understand a student in context — particularly to calibrate whether a student's classroom performance reflects their intellectual ability, and to ensure that candidates can succeed in rigorous coursework.
A stanine 4 or 5, when surrounded by strong grades in challenging classes and enthusiastic teacher recommendations, is unlikely to disqualify a student at most schools. A stanine 8 or 9, meanwhile, is not a guaranteed admission ticket — particularly at schools that seek students with specific qualities or backgrounds that the ISEE is not designed to measure.
That said, there are circumstances in which the ISEE score carries elevated weight. If a school is academically very competitive and receives far more applicants than it can admit, test scores are often used as one of several screens in early rounds of evaluation. A very low score relative to a school's typical admitted range can make an application harder to advance — not because the school is indifferent to the whole child, but because admissions officers are managing large volumes of applications under time constraints.
This means it is worth understanding where your child's likely score range falls relative to the stated or known profiles of the schools on your list. Not to fixate on achieving a specific stanine, but to ensure that the score is not creating an unnecessary obstacle in the initial review. For more information about preparing for standardized tests, see our resources page.
Your job as a parent is not to engineer a perfect score. It is to help your child prepare thoughtfully and thoroughly, present their authentic best self across all components of the application, and find schools where the fit is genuine — schools that will value who your child actually is, not just what they scored on a single test administered on a Saturday morning.
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." — William Bruce Cameron, frequently attributed to Albert Einstein
Scores count. So does everything else. The schools that are right for your child will see all of it. Learn more about the admissions process and how schools evaluate applications holistically.
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