This may be the wrong section to post my question, but I couldn’t decide where it belongs. Please move as appropriate.
Question: can schools use both ACT and SAT scores from the same applicant in reporting for their common data set? If they can, is there value in submitting BOTH scores to colleges where a student’s numbers are well above the school’s 75% and scores are roughly equivalent on the concordance table?
Yes, they can report both, and a fraction of enrolled students submitted both. If yours are both strong scores for that college, I’d go ahead and submit both.
In statistics, these would be known as substantiating data points, and, therefore, sending two equivalent sets of scores would add value to an application (at least if interpreted by a data scientist).
Lol! I agree with the logic of substantiating data points, I just wasn’t sure whether or not colleges are allowed to use both SAT and ACT scores from a single applicant when they report their data for their common data set. If they cannot use both scores and must choose only one in their reporting, then I’d think there’s a lot less value for AO’s to receive both.
I believe it’s the other way around. Colleges that, by policy, report both results would, hypothetically, have a disincentive to invite both sets of scores because it’s unlikely that they would be exactly equivalent by concordance. Colleges that, by policy, report only the “higher” score would not have any reason to be concerned about appearance, and could use both scores simply for a favorable (in this scenario) evaluation of the particular applicant. In terms of your specific question regarding the CDS itself, its standards appear open to interpretation. I’ve seen schools that report full SAT and ACT profiles and those that create profiles by selecting only one (the higher, by concordance) of these results per enrolled student.
Hmmmm. In my case, kiddo is one ACT point away from being exactly concordant with their latest (and final) SAT score. Their SAT score is high enough to submit anywhere, so there’s no real reason to even think about the ACT except this kid has a specific ACT score in their head they want to achieve and they want to shoot their shot again. They won’t prep at all (haven’t taken a single practice test at home, won’t do tutoring, etc.) so testing is low-stress; they’re only expending mental energy on test days.
I suppose I’m trying to justify to myself letting them take the ACT once or twice more even though we have a SAT score we’re good with (they’re a junior.) Since the schools they’re interested in aren’t super selective, they offer merit. Maybe submitting TWO awesome scores actually makes sense and is worthwhile. Give the AO’s something to make them want to max out merit on my kid.