Why are top schools more lenient with ACT scores?

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Schools on the east coast are flooded with coast applicants, who generally take SATs. They want, however, to balance their class with people from the middle of the country w/o coasts, who generally take ACTs. They are willing to take a drop on ACTs to get the “50 states” designation.

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<p>Otoh, Midwestern schools like Northwestern and ND tend to have higher ACT scores than their peer schools on the East coast.</p>