Send 1500 SAT or 21 ACT or both?

Test Preparation
1

<p>Hello! Pretty straightforward question:</p>

<p>SAT is approx. 440 M/ 520 CR/ 530 W/
ACT is approx. 16 Math / 23 Reading / 19 Science / 24 Writing</p>

<p>I might be off by a point or two on each one but should both be sent? Only one? If so, which one? 21 ACT supposedly correlates to a 1500 SAT according to conversion charts but I was wondering if one stands out as looking better/worse than the other.</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

2

<p>Don’t send either yet. You should retake both if you want to apply to be a competitive applicant.</p>

3

<p>@sushicat, u dont know where OP is applying. U cant say hes not a competitive applicant. To an ivy, hes not. But to a lower tier school, he might be. I say just send both. Leave it to the adcoms to pick the better score.</p>

4

<p>To clarify, the scores are my brother’s-- I’m graduating college this year. Obviously he’s not looking at Ivies, he’s your run of the mill “average” student, 91 GPA without AP classes, teachers love him, typical ECs, etc. His scores are what they are, I’m simply asking how to maximize success with what he has to work with.</p>

5

<p>If everything else is great. Then look at schools that dont put too much stress on test scores. Or rigor? If hes for engineering, WPI is a great school from wat ive heard and is test optional</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the suggestion! He’s not a STEM person. We’re looking at test optional schools, but I don’t want him to end up somewhere that’s genuinely too challenging for him. Once school starts I’ll have him talk to his guidance counselor but I was curious to see if anyone had any immediate input. Thanks again.</p>

7

<p>Take a look at the SUNY chart:
<a href=“https://www.suny.edu/student/downloads/Pdf/Admissions_qf_stateop.pdf[/url]”>https://www.suny.edu/student/downloads/Pdf/Admissions_qf_stateop.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>He’s very close to the middle 50 percent on a few campuses. If his h.s. average is good, it could compensate.</p>

<p>His math on the SAT and the ACT are considerably lower–maybe some coaching would help if the hardest parts of the test are beyond what he’s been taught? Also, coaching really helped my daughter raise her score on the ACT science section–it’s the trickiest part of the ACT.</p>

<p>I think I would advise that he try both tests again, and if the scores are substantially equal, send both. At that level, I am pretty sure that schools honestly pick what they consider to be the best (just like they say in the info sessions :)!</p>

8

<p>Thanks so much! SUNY is definitely what we’re looking for because we’re in NY. I go to Binghamton. If he got into Albany, Cortland, Oneonta, or New Paltz he’d be beyond an extremely happy camper. For health and other reasons he’d like to stay within 3-4 hours of Long Island. Otherwise Potsdam/Plattsburgh would probably be great. Math is definitely a weak point. Any other suggestions would be awesome! Maybe I’ll make a new thread; I’m concerned because he doesn’t actually have any safeties, that is, schools where he’s safely above the middle SAT/GPA.</p>