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Wha-ooops.</p>
<p>^Guys, you’re making this much harder than it actually is. The nice folks at the ACT and the College Board have already figured this out for you: [SAT-ACT</a> Concordance Tables](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/sat-act]SAT-ACT”>Score Comparisons – SAT Suite | College Board)</p>
<p>Is there any point in taking the ACT & SAT?
Would colleges look upon you any more favorably if you had a 36 ACT and 2400 SAT as opposed to just the 36 or just the 2400?</p>
<p>^ No.</p>
<p>Let’s use common sense here. Colleges want to maximize the number of applicants to their school. Therefore, they want to be able to reach the largest applicant pool they can (different parts of the country “favor” one test over the other). It is of no benefit to the colleges to state that both tests are viewed equally and then surreptitiously pick the SAT kid over the ACT kid in some boardroom setting. How do you think applicant numbers would fare if it were discovered that College X said one thing about its admission methods and practiced another.</p>
<p>Also, individual penchants for one test are far from any solid proof that that one test is better or more highly valued.</p>
<p>well, “viewed equally” could mean many things.</p>
<p>a 36 could be “viewed equally” as a 1800 on the SAT. So really, they’re not lying even if that were true :D</p>
<p>bahahaha I just read this whole thread. online arguments are so pointless xD
IMO (emphasis) I agree with cooljazz- students on the coasts are more academically competitive than those in the south and midwest. just look at SAT score breakdowns by state, etc
and again IMO the SAT is MUCH harder than the ACT. first, it’s a sum whereas the ACT is an average. second, I know so many people in my school who have gotten 34/35 on the ACT and 2000-2100 on the SAT</p>
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<p>When you’re talking about a pool of 1.5 million people, personal experience means sh it. I don’t know what regions are most competitive, so unlike everyone in this thread, I’m not going to speculate. Regardless, no one has explained why the SAT-ACT concordance tables don’t irrefutably prove that the SAT and ACT are equal.</p>
<p>From limited personal experience (N=2), both of my daughter’s had very high ACT scores and just OK SATs. Both also had 4.0+ GPAs, lots of APs, etc. They both were admitted to good, but not necessarily elite schools, but neither got merit scholarships at the best schools. Acquaintenances with similar stats but higher SATs got good money. My question is whether they may be viewed similarly for admission but not for merit scholarships?</p>
<p>you cant deny that students on the coasts are generally higher quality than those in the midwest and south. i feel like thats why its so much easier to get a 99 percentile on the ACT, since most who take the ACT come from those regions</p>
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<p>SAT-ACT concordance tables prove that the percentiles for both the SAT and ACT generally match when someone takes both. Does that not completely invalidate your theory? Empirical evidence is always more trustworthy than anecdotal evidence.</p>
<p>This is a really pointless thread. It’s been addressed ever since the two tests were created. There is no difference and certainly no preference (unless the college specifically requires one, which not many do).</p>
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<p>^I’m assuming then that you must be one of those lower quality students from the midwest or south that you speak of, because this quote is a pathetic substitute for a thoughtful analysis based upon the objective evidence.</p>
<p>^ That objective evidence is a survey of the very top echelon on those states. The reason so few are surveyed is that many simply do not take the test or cannot afford it.</p>
<p>Fact: the most competitive groups of college applicants flock to elite schools in New England, the Tri-State area, and California. Many of these states are then “neutralized” by large cities with poor, low-scoring students, but that doesn’t change the premise that these are, far and away, the most competitive areas in terms of college admissions.</p>
<p>gbesq-well since my location says “Pennsylvania” that would be a no</p>
<p>but please observe: princeton admits by state
[Number</a> of Students in the Class of 2012 by Geographic Region](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/map.htm]Number”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/map.htm)</p>
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Precisely. well said- I could not agree more. the reason PSAT score cutoffs by state aren’t GROSSLY different from region to region is because states on the coast often contain those large cities with underprivileged populations.
the rules of competition prevail. higher population areas=more competition=better students</p>
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<p>The SAT-ACT Concordance Tables? No, those tables are not the result of a survey. SAT and ACT worked together to find ALL (not just a sampling) scores of the individuals who took both tests. 300,437 individuals took both. That’s over 20% of the 1.5 million pool. </p>
<p>If that 20% represented the “very top echelon” as you state, it would only strengthen my argument. </p>
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<p>The location of a college doesn’t reflect the quality of high school graduates in that area. It may reflect the historical academic strength, but not the current.</p>
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<p>You don’t think that has anything to do with population? Add up the number of people accepted from areas where the ACT is dominant and from where the SAT is dominant. Compare the sums. I guarantee you’ll find they’re about equal.</p>
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BAHAHAHA is that a joke?! or is your math just that bad. that’d be like 1000 to 200</p>
<p>ACT is dominant in the south and mid-west. however the only southern state where SAT is dominant is texas, and look what they have to say about that
“Among the 23 states where a majority of high school graduates take the SAT, the worst ten-year SAT score trend belongs to Texas, the national model for top-down testing mandates under former Governor and now President George Bush. In fact, Texas is the only SAT-dominant state where average college admissions test scores actually declined over the past decade, dropping one point compared with a national average increase of 18 points on the combined Verbal plus Math scale.”</p>
<p>go look back over that princeton admits map, add up the south+midwest vs california+texas+new england+midatlantic and tell me their equal or that you’re just delusional</p>
<p>If you direct me to information regarding states and the percentage taking each test, I’d gladly do the math for you, although I shouldn’t have to. </p>
<p>The question is whether the ACT and SAT are equal in admissions. The SAT-ACT Concordance Table is the only evidence directly related to this question and I have yet to receive a valid explanation of its alleged falsehood. Or do you just ignore statistical evidence if it’s inconvenient for your argument?</p>