<p>I have already taken the SAT and have scheduled to retake it this June. I'm now considering taking the ACT and/or the SAT II test in literature. I may take both, but If I can't due to time and money constraints, which would look better on a college application? I know many students score well on the ACTs, but considering that my largest struggle with standardized testing is time constraint and the ACTs are thought to be "faster", I am worried that I will struggle. Any thoughts? Thanks in Advance!</p>
<p>If you believe that your SAT score is pretty solid or you are confident that your June SAT will result in an even better score, I would suggest taking the subject test. It shows your interest in Literature (I’m assuming you want to go into a career involving literature) and will make you stand out from the rest of the applicants.</p>
<p>However…</p>
<p>Keep in mind that some schools, generally in the Midwest, will prefer students with great ACT scores over students with great SAT scores. Now it is true that students with great SAT scores have gotten into Midwest schools, but the general rule of thumb I have heard is that East/West coast prefer SAT while Midwest likes ACT. Therefore another criteria to keep in mind is what schools you want to apply to and which ones do you favor over the others.</p>
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<p>This is simply not true.</p>
<p>This kind of thinking is so dated. These days all schools consider both SAT and ACT scores. The sole objective is to identify the best student candidates for them. They don’t really care which test you take. Each school may have a slightly different conversion chart though. Just like some school only consider CR+M in SAT, some school do conversions with section scores. These differences in score conversion and consideration may give people the misconception of test bias. If you compare the admission statistics, you would see there is no regional pattern. Many applicants submit only one test or the other. If one submit both, they usually consider the better one.</p>
<p>Colleges everywhere, including in the Midwest (where majority of high school students take ACT) and East (where majority take SAT), accept ACT or SAT without preference and do not favor one over the other. </p>
<p>Taking SAT and a literature test does not really get you much additional when you consider what colleges require, recommend or consider:</p>
<p>-- The majority require SAT or ACT and do not use subject tests for admission. Thus, taking a subject test for those is usually pointless except some of those use them for placement after admission but the ones usually used for placement are math or language not literature.</p>
<p>-- 11 high ranked colleges require two subject tests in addition to submitting SAT or ACT. Submitting one subject test to those won’t even get you considered. </p>
<p>-- 19 high ranked colleges require two subject tests if you submit SAT but no subject tests if you submit ACT. Submitting one subject test to those does not qualify you to even be considered for admission if you submit SAT and has little to no value if you submit ACT.</p>
<p>-- About 22 colleges recommend but do not require subject tests regardless of whether you submit SAT or ACT and usually recommend two except Georgetown and Johns Hopkins recommend three. Having one subject test might help a little but you really should have two (or three for those two colleges) for those to get meaningful consideration. </p>
<p>-- About 50 colleges will “consider” subject tests for which submitting one subject test could provide some help but you should not assume for those colleges that one subject test is going to make any meaningful difference.</p>
<p>–A growing but minority number of colleges require no tests although submitting anything, SAT, ACT or subject tests could help somewhat.</p>
<p>–A small number of colleges, such as NYU and Middlebury, take either SAT or ACT but will accept SAT subject tests in lieu of both of those. For those you need three subject tests.</p>
<p>^ Great info. Many schools request either SAT1+SAT2 or ACT with writing. If you are going to take ACT, make sure you take the one with writing. In addition, there are far less schools would do ACT superscore than SAT. So you may want to consider these before you decide.</p>