<p>I’m not sure the disparity between SAT and ACT scores holds up across regions. At the University of Michigan, for example, the 25th-75th percentile ACT and SAT seem very close to the concordance:</p>
<p>University of Michigan</p>
<p>2007 middle 50% ACT
27-31 = (per concordance) 1220-1380 SAT</p>
<p>2007 middle 50% SAT CR + M
1220-1430 = (per concordance) 27-32 ACT</p>
<p>Very close. My hypothesis is this: In addition to superscoring of SAT but not of ACT at many top schools, there’s also a regional factor. The largest number of applications to elite East Coast schools come from East Coast applicants. In the East, the SAT rules, and many students take the ACT only if they do poorly on the SAT I. But generally these are somewhat weaker standardized test-takers. Those Easterners who submit the ACT in lieu of the SAT I (or sometimes in lieu of both SAT I and SAT II, depending on the policy at the particular school) generally do so because they did a little better on the ACT than on the SAT, but often not great, because standardized tests aren’t their strength. In some cases, however, they’ve got stellar grades, ECs, “hooks” (athlete, legacy, URM) or other positives that result in their being admitted. So when reported, their ACT scores show up a notch or two below the SAT scores of their classmates, who did well enough on the SAT that they either never bothered to take the ACT, or didn’t report the scores.</p>
<p>In the Midwest it’s a different story. There, everyone takes the ACT, and you end up with a representative spread of test scores. By and large the only people who take the SAT are those seeking admission to elite schools outside the region (primarily on the East Coast and in California). But there are relatively few of these. Some will do better on the SAT than on the ACT; they’ll report high SAT scores. Some will do better on the ACT, and that’s what they’ll report. These are for the most part very high-end students, so they should tend to pull up ACT medians at the East Coast schools. But there just aren’t enough of them to make all that big a difference in the East Coast schools’ medianbs, as Midwesterners make up a tiny fraction of the applicant pool at most East Coast schools.</p>