Do colleges really "prefer" SAT, but they say no?

bookannelida · September 5, 2011, 7:09pm

According to [url=<a href=“http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/resources/application-process/standardized-tests/sat-or-act/]some[/url”>SAT or ACT - BS/MD Admissions by College Admissions Partners]some[/url</a>] counseling experts, when colleges say they don’t have a preference, we must look at the Stats of the admissions pool. So, if a college has 90% of applicants with SAT scores, and only 25% with ACT scores, DO NOT SEND ACT. Is this true? Can someone with real experience in admissions either verify or dispute this? Is it really not worth submitting ACT if only <30% of the pool supplies them?

Citation from the article:

T26E4 · September 5, 2011, 7:15pm

Colleges spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to attract great apps from across the country. THen they’ll turn around and immediately handicap those who only turn in the ACT. Make sense?

It doesn’t to me either. When a school has 90% SAT and 25%ACT, it speaks of their lack of ability to market themselves to states where traditionally everyone takes the ACT and few take the SAT.

If you read the entire article, they don’t state that colleges inherently prefer one or the other. As a matter of fact, the example of Swarthmore seems to indicate you’re better off being in the minority of sending in only ACTs because of the seeming abnormality of lower ACT ranges being accepted over SAT ranges.

DrGoogle · September 5, 2011, 7:47pm

Look at your school naviance. From our high school, it seems that there are more students that are admitted with SAT than ACT. But it could be because our highschool is in CA.
I really don’t know what/who to believe except that my kid seems to do better in SAT than ACT so I won’t have to wonder.

Sikorsky · September 5, 2011, 8:20pm

Seriously, there are several different questions here.

<ol>
<li> Do more applicants submit SAT than ACT?</li>
<li> Are applicants who submit SAT more successful than those who submit ACT?</li>
<li> Do colleges prefer that applicants submit SAT rather than ACT, even though they say otherwise?</li>
</ol>

These just aren’t the same question.

The answer to #1 is in the Common Data Set, but it doesn’t really tell us anything about the answer to #3.

The answer to #2 is probably knowable, even though many colleges may not make the necessary data available to the public. But even if the answer is knowable, knowing it wouldn’t really tell us the answer to #3. If applicants with SAT are more successful than applicants with ACT, it could be just correlation, and not causation. It could be, for example, that top applicants from rich suburban school districts–with the highest paid, most experienced teachers, and the best curricular offerings–tend to favor SAT over ACT. But that wouldn’t tell us a darn thing about what the colleges themselves prefer.

To answer question #3, we must either take colleges at their word, or assume that they are saying the opposite of what they mean (perhaps because they really want to enroll a freshman class of really good mind-readers). The second option here really seems a lot more far-fetched than the first.

To be fair to you, book, I remember that a year ago, when my daughter was applying, we constantly tried to read tea leaves, to find hidden meaning in every bit of information about the admissions process. But, you see, we were out of our minds. After the whole process of searching, applying, waiting and matriculating was finally finished, we were restored to sanity, as if by magic.

Good luck to you. Don’t make yourself any more crazy than necessary.

bookannelida · September 6, 2011, 4:09pm

Thanks for the replies.

I am at loss because I have a good Superscored SAT, but my individual scores are bit mediocre for the top schools who do not superscore (~2150 on average).

My practice ACT score on one of the ‘real tests’ was 35. So I am sort of leaning toward the ACT.

zephyr15 · September 6, 2011, 4:17pm

Definitely take the ACT.

Schools claim that they treat the tests equally. But I guess some people doubt this.

My only thoughts – which are musings without any real basis –

I suppose it’s possible that if you come from a region of the country where the SAT is dominant (e.g., the Northeast) and only submit an ACT, that some admissions officer somewhere will assume that your SAT score was weaker. This line of thought would make no sense at all if the school superscores, but it’s possible.

Although the SAT/ACT publish concordance charts to compare score for the two tests, I also suppose it’s also possible that some schools use their own conversion tables, which are different from the published ones.

bookannelida · September 6, 2011, 5:37pm

zephyr15 - What about submitting both ACT and SAT scores? Would an excellent ACT coupled with an “okay” SAT be a boost? (e.g. a 36 ACT + 2150 SAT) My personal hunch is “yes”, but who knows…

bclintonk · September 6, 2011, 5:53pm

If they say they treat the tests equally (and they all do), take them at their word. Why would they intentionally lie about it? And what good does it do you to second-guess them, unless you have drop-dead proof that they statistically (perhaps unwittingly?) prefer one test over the other?

Here’s one thing that’s not equal: most (but not all) highly selective colleges superscore the SAT, but very few superscore the ACT. At those colleges that superscore the SAT but not the ACT, reported middle 50% SAT scores will be higher than reported middle 50% ACT scores using the official SAT-ACT concordance table for comparison. (And for a similar reason, SAT comparisons across schools need to be taken with a grain of salt, because a school that superscores will have higher reported SAT medians than one that doesn’t, even if the actual test scores are identical).

If your superscored SAT is higher than your ACT, but your ACT is higher than your highest single-sitting SAT, send both. Almost every school now says they’ll use only your highest score. Their computers will tell them which one that is.

Relying on your school’s Naviance (if it has one) is also only so helpful. The fact is, SAT v. ACT is almost entirely a regional phenomenon. In the Northeast, California, and a smattering of states elsewhere, the SAT is by far the dominant test, which virtually all college-bound HS students take. In those states, a smaller number take the ACT. Usually they’re students who didn’t do as well on the SAT as they’d like. In the Midwest, Middle South, and much of the Mountain West, the ACT is dominant—it’s the test that virtually all college-bound HS students take, and in a few states all HS juniors or seniors are required to take it. There the profile of SAT-takers is a little different; some are students who didn’t score as well on the ACT as they’d like and are hoping to do better on a different test, but many are high-achieving, high-ambition students who already did pretty well on the ACT but are taking the SAT because they want to see how they stack up at the most selective Northeastern schools, which generally report their admissions stats in SAT scores, not ACT scores. Some of those high-achieving Midwesterners may mistaken believe that means the highly selective Northeastern schools prefer the SAT—which of course they did, at one time. So the profiles of SAT-takers v. ACT-takers are going to vary regionally. No point trying to second-guess all that, either. Just go with your stronger test.

drusba · September 6, 2011, 6:47pm

“So, if a college has 90% of applicants with SAT scores, and only 25% with ACT scores, DO NOT SEND ACT”

The SAT is the predominate test taken by high school students in eastern states and west coast states. In the mddle of the country the ACT is the predominant test. Far more students from the east (and California) apply to the ivies and other eastern colleges than from the midwest or any states in the middle of the country combined. That ACT is only 25% of those that apply to ivies is not surprising (it is actually in the above 30% range now for ivies) . What is suprising is that it is that high because to reach that percentage means more people in the east must be taking the ACT since 10 years ago the typical percentage of those who applied to ivies and took the ACT was closer to 5%. What has chenged since then? The remaining ivies and other eastern or west coast colleges that still stated a preference for SAT dropped it. Also, the SAT added the writing section, making the test extremely long, and driving many to to take the ACT instead, and more and more students from the east and west are taking both tests.

The colleges say they treat the tests equally. If the college is lying about that why would you want to go there?

zephyr15 · September 6, 2011, 7:03pm

bookannelida

Whether to send both ACT and SAT is generally a guidance counselor question. Alternatively, you may want to call your colleges and find out what they do when the receive both scores.

FWIW For both of daughters the SAT and ACT were very comparable. They decided to send both.

Should you wind up with a 36 ACT 2120 SAT, you may want to consider only sending the ACT as this is a much better score. Even if the schools favor SAT – 36 is a perfect ACT score, which always stands out. Assuming the colleges only look at your highest score - whichever test it is (which I suspect is the most likely case) it probably won’t make a difference.

Good luck!!

Do colleges really "prefer" SAT, but they say no?

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