<p>We are trying to decide whether to send my son’s ACT scores to a couple of schools that claim to only evaluate your scores during a single SAT sitting. His ACT scores, using the concordance table, are around the same (or perhaps a touch not as good…but not sure) as his best single sitting SAT. </p>
<p>I imagine that if a college has said they are only going to look at your best sitting, then they are not going to look at both. So, would there be a reason to send both?</p>
<p>What specific colleges are you talking about? What are the Web links to their statements about their test score policies?</p>
<p>The UCs state they’ll use your best score from any ‘single sitting’ of the SAT or ACT. It means they don’t ‘supersize’ (i.e. take the best sections of the SAT from multiple sittings) like some colleges do but if the person does better in one of, for example, 3 SAT sittings or an ACT sitting, they’ll use the best one. </p>
<p>You should check the particular college’s website to see what it states on the subject because they don’t all treat this area the same.</p>
<p>Thanks. I’m talking about schools that claim to be “V2” schools on the “Reporting Practices” SAT chart. The wording is as follows (again, it is SAT wording only):</p>
<p><university x=“”> has indicated that it considers the SAT scores from
your single highest test date (sum of M+CR+W). Only your highest
scores will be considered as part of the final admissions decision. Each
time you submit scores, <university x=“”> will update your record with
any new high scores.
<university x=“”> strongly encourages you to submit your scores each
time you take the SAT. Sending your scores each time you take the
SAT can benefit you by allowing <university x=“”> to consider you for all
available enrollment-related opportunities.</university></university></university></university></p>
<p>Here is a link to a comparison chart.</p>
<p><a href=“http://phs.prs.k12.nj.us/guidance/SAT_ACT_Comparison.pdf[/url]”>http://phs.prs.k12.nj.us/guidance/SAT_ACT_Comparison.pdf</a></p>
<p>Kajon…thanks, I have that chart. My question is whether a college who is only looking at a “single sitting” is going to even look at the ACT.</p>
<p>My son’s single sitting SAT score is at the top of the range for his ACT score according to the concordance table.</p>
<p>All schools accept either the ACT or the SAT. I would send whichever is better.</p>
<p>
Yes. By ‘single sitting’ they’re referring to not ‘supersizing’ with multiple sections (ex: high ‘reading section’ from sitting A plus high ‘math section’ from sitting B) from multiple sittings as I indicated earlier. Instead, they take the highest combined score from any of the sittings (ex: 2100 from sitting A and 2250 from sitting B - they’ll take the 2250). The ‘single sitting’ for the SAT has nothing to do with the ACT. </p>
<p>But, check the website for the particular college to see if they have some different rule.</p>
<p>I guess I’m not being clear…but then again, neither are the websites!</p>
<p>I know that the “single sitting” refers to the SAT only; however, one would also assume that means that they will look either at one ACT score or one SAT score…not two sets of scores from anywhere. </p>
<p>I guess there is no real answer to this; maybe I’ll call admissions tomorrow…although they will probably just tell us to send everything!</p>
<p>I think that you can submit multiples sittings of the ACT and/or the SAT. The college will not “superscore” the SAT as explained by ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad. I have heard that WashU will “superscore” the ACT, but I know of no other school that will. If you have multiple sittings of both, they will take the highest single score whether it is the ACT or the SAT, presumably based on their reading of whether the ACT score or the SAT score is higher.</p>
<p>RTR: you were clear; they either take the higher of the single sitting SAT or the ACT: no superscoring of either…hope that helps.</p>
<p>Okay - let’s say the student takes the SAT 3 times and the ACT 2 times and sends all the scores to the college. Many colleges will convert the ACT scores to the SAT equivalent, compare all 5 scores, and use the highest of these 5 scores as the official score for the student. Does that help make it clearer?</p>
<p>Yes, thanks. So, I guess there is no downside to sending both and seeing if the college can decide which one is higher. Or perhaps sending the one that is most above the “middle 50 percent” of students listed for each test.</p>
<p>Personally, I would send both if <em>you</em> are not sure which one is higher. They may use a different comparison than the one you used.</p>
<p>If they’re using a conversion chart, I think this would be the “official” one, posted by the College Board:</p>
<p>[SAT-ACT</a> Concordance Tables](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/sat-act]SAT-ACT”>Score Comparisons – SAT Suite | College Board)</p>
<p>RTR, I agree, it couldn’t hurt to send both scores, especially if they’re similar. Let the schools pick the one they prefer.</p>
<p>D did a lot better on the ACT than she did on the PSAT or the SAT. So she’s gonna take the ACT one more time, and we’re only sending the best ACT score. But if her scores were similar, I’d send both.</p>
<p>Unless you’re really trying to cut down on costs I would send both, particularly if test scores are one of your S’s strengths. If anything, reinforcement of the positive aspects of his profile can only help. Let the college decide which they are going to consider.</p>
<p>How can there be any “official” concordance table, given these are different tests administered by different organizations? Furthermore, I would argue that any school that accepts ACT scores has no business converting them to something they are not.</p>
<p>That’s fine, you can argue that. But the majority of highly selective colleges get many more SATs submitted than ACTs, and it was something of a struggle to get them to accept ACTs at all. The official concordance was developed by both organizations, and goes both ways. Midwestern colleges may well convert all SAT scores they get to ACT scores.</p>
<p>Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. For what it’s worth, I would NOT submit both scores, unless the applicant took the SAT more than twice. In that case, I might submit the ACT too, since it would tend to confirm the highest combined SAT score. Otherwise, I don’t see how having two scores helps. If he took the SAT more than once, then submit the ACT because you can submit the one score only. If the college requires SAT IIs even if you submitted an ACT, then stay on the SAT side of the street, since the college will get all of the SATs anyway.</p>
<p>I would argue that every college these days knows how high is high enough for that college, whatever the joint concordance table says. Every college has applicants with one kind of score or the other, and the college knows what ACT score is high enough, just as it knows what SAT score is high enough. If you don’t know, there is no harm in submitting both.</p>
<p>If you look at the College Board’s concordance table link, it starts out by saying they KNOW they are comparing apples and oranges, but there was a demand for this info. They got the data from looking at scores of kids who took both the SAT and ACT, using their scores to see that kids who got X on the SAT were likely to get Y on the ACT and vice versa.</p>
<p>I used the table simply to help me figure out which test my kid did better on. Her ACT scores convert to an SAT score 150 points higher than she actually got. And her percentile is 16 points higher for the ACT than for the SAT. Hence we’re sticking to the ACT scores.</p>
<p>I’ve heard admissions officers in info sessions say they use “a chart” to convert ACT scores to equivalent SATs. One school specifically told us they drop the Science score of the ACT, since the SAT doesn’t have a science section, then re-figure the ACT Composite score (which is just an average of the 4 section scores, or 3 if you drop the science) and translate that to an SAT score.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’m no fan of standardized testing at all, but I understand why the colleges use them since it’s so hard to compare grades between schools (or even between teachers within a school, in some cases).</p>