ACT vs. SAT II subject test(s)

drusba
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:16:31 +0000

Colleges everywhere, including in the Midwest (where majority of high school students take ACT) and East (where majority take SAT), accept ACT or SAT without preference and do not favor one over the other.

Taking SAT and a literature test does not really get you much additional when you consider what colleges require, recommend or consider:

-- The majority require SAT or ACT and do not use subject tests for admission. Thus, taking a subject test for those is usually pointless except some of those use them for placement after admission but the ones usually used for placement are math or language not literature.

-- 11 high ranked colleges require two subject tests in addition to submitting SAT or ACT. Submitting one subject test to those won’t even get you considered.

-- 19 high ranked colleges require two subject tests if you submit SAT but no subject tests if you submit ACT. Submitting one subject test to those does not qualify you to even be considered for admission if you submit SAT and has little to no value if you submit ACT.

-- About 22 colleges recommend but do not require subject tests regardless of whether you submit SAT or ACT and usually recommend two except Georgetown and Johns Hopkins recommend three. Having one subject test might help a little but you really should have two (or three for those two colleges) for those to get meaningful consideration.

-- About 50 colleges will “consider” subject tests for which submitting one subject test could provide some help but you should not assume for those colleges that one subject test is going to make any meaningful difference.

–A growing but minority number of colleges require no tests although submitting anything, SAT, ACT or subject tests could help somewhat.

–A small number of colleges, such as NYU and Middlebury, take either SAT or ACT but will accept SAT subject tests in lieu of both of those. For those you need three subject tests.