<p>On Princeton's website, it is stated that admissions "will consider the highest individual section results across all sittings of the SAT Reasoning and the highest composite score for the ACT with Writing."</p>
<p>Does anyone notice that this is clearly less fair for those who take the ACT as opposed to the SAT? Basically, it's saying that it will consider your highest scores for the SAT, while for the ACT, it won't. Moreover, this is the common case for most schools' admissions, so my outrage need not be directed solely at Princeton. Regardless, I don't understand why there isn't a larger degree of dissatisfaction comparable to mine to be found on these boards. A lot of people defend the notion that schools have strictly no preference for one test or the other, while policies like these seem to provide clear evidence to the contrary.</p>
<p>The problem with super scoring the ACT is that it puts low income students at a disadvantage as you have pay to have the record of each sitting sent…the SAT sends all sittings on one report for one fee. Some schools do superscore the ACT. </p>
<p>Princeton is the only school that stated outright that they preferred the SAT…that I’ve seen anyway. They did last year anyway…I can’t find it on their website now.</p>
<p>^I would love to see a cite to any direct source that says Princeton (or any school) prefers the SAT to the ACT.</p>
<p>Your comment is directly opposite to EVERY admission information session I have attended.</p>
<p>After years of research, my children’s HS dropped its support for the SAT in favor of the ACT without any impact on graduating students admissions to top schools.</p>
<p>Stemit…I can’t find it now, but it was stated in their online literature last year. It said they will accept either, but prefer the SAT. The MIT rep on their board says they treat the ACT differently…not sure what that means though. My son knocked the ACT out of the park, so never took the SAT.</p>
<p>I am fairly confident that the Princeton website did not express a preference for the SAT last year. Princeton, like every other school I know of, has not expressed a preference for either test over the past few years.</p>
<p>Schools generally do superscore the SAT, but many do not superscore the ACT, so I guess to that extent the tests are treated differently, but as you have pointed out, there is a monetary issue involved (although I used to hear that the ACT did not encourage superscoring of the test, but I don’t know if that’s accurate).</p>
<p>I did a practice ACT once and thought it was less inferential then the SAT, most prominently in the reading section. The ACT reading is pretty straight forward. If you can read (literally) ACT reading is definitely more doable than its counterpart SAT.</p>
<p>"^I would love to see a cite to any direct source that says Princeton (or any school) prefers the SAT to the ACT.</p>
<p>Your comment is directly opposite to EVERY admission information session I have attended."</p>
<p>The fact that Princeton gives students submitting the SAT over the ACT favor in their super scoring policy is direct evidence to suggest that Princeton (and many other schools) prefers the SAT. For example, the highest score they would receive for my ACT is a 34 (35E, 36M, 33S, 31R, 8E); however, if they gave ACT scores equal consideration as they do SAT scores, it would be a 35 (35E, 36M, 35S, 33R, 10E), a much higher score indeed. Students like me are at a disadvantage to those sending the SAT, as those students have the luxury of using their highest scores in each section, while students like me do not.</p>
<p>Indeed, the ACT charges per test, so the cost of sending multiple ACT scores to multiple schools may be exceptionally high for lower-income students. However, that is a greedy policy with which Princeton and other schools should not have to contend by sabotaging the equality of their own policies. Moreover, it would be necessary for schools to adopt the same policy for the SAT as they do the ACT if they wish to keep things fair (that is, only consider the SAT scores from the date with the highest sum).</p>
<p>What I find especially irritating is that schools such as Cornell, Yale Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford require that students send their ACT scores from every date while still maintaining the same biased policy (only consider the highest composite) as those that allow only one score to be sent. The argument of cost can’t even be applied here, since it is necessary to pay the price of sending every score anyway. These schools have hardly any justification for this ridiculous requirement. Essentially, they are requesting that someone who has taken the ACT more than one time send them scores that will simply be ignored.</p>
Agreed. I’ve been following Princeton admissions for six years, and in that time they have never expressed a preference for either test. The only schools I know of to express a preference are Cal Poly SLO, which prefers the ACT, and possibly BYU, which seems to have a bias that direction.
No. This is evidence that Princeton superscores the SAT and doesn’t superscore the ACT. Nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my son didn’t submit an SAT score. He submitted an ACT and three SAT Subject Tests. His admission result didn’t indicate any test preference bias.</p>
<p>Yes, but the students who took the ACT are still being compared to those who took the SAT. If the students who took the SAT are allowed to be super scored, while those who took the ACT are not, then that means that collectively, those submitting the SAT would tend to have higher scores than those submitting the ACT. If the SAT students have higher scores on average, then they would be given preference in admissions.</p>
<p>Midatlmom…I assure, it was on their website last year when i was doing research for my son…it was referenced in a CC post…I can read and I’m not delusional. I have no reason to make it up. After doing some searching, I now recall it said “Princeton STRONGLY prefers the SAT…”…It stood out to me because it was contrary to everything I’d read. Since they no longer have that verbiage, it must no longer be the case. They always said they will accept either, S took the ACT first and did well, so that’s what he went with. Super scoring was a nonissue here, but it really does seem unfair.</p>
<p>I believe that you read that. You’re not delusional. But you didn’t read it on the Princeton website. It was posted on another website, but there is nothing on the Princeton website to confirm it.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges do not treat ACT the same as SAT as in the Concordance table SAT/ACT, MIT is one example. An adcom from MIT has mentioned that it has its own history of ACT for successful candidate. Same with Penn. Check out the results thread for more information.</p>
<p>MIT is actually an exception. They are one of the few schools that considers the highest sub scores from multiple ACT test dates (i.e. they superscore the ACT). The fact that the SAT has higher admissions rates for upper-level scores, however, negates whatever fairness may have been granted by their allowing this. And randomness shouldn’t be a factor to consider when a large sample size like that for MIT admissions statistics is in question. Again, MIT is basically giving quantitative evidence to show their preference for the SAT. Schools can deny it however they like, but it is clearly evident in their policies, or in MIT’s case, their hard numbers, that they give preference to the SAT. </p>
<p>^^im no statistician, but it seems that comparing a critical reading SAT score to an ACT composite score, and assuming that the ACT score was a straight number across the board for comparison purposes stretches the conclusion.</p>
<p>Comparing math to math in the class of 2012 ([Admissions</a> Statistics | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats]Admissions”>Admissions statistics | MIT Admissions)), reveals that 13.13% of ACT 34+ were admitted compared to 13.72% of SAT 750+ scores were admitted. That is really close, though I lack the knowledge to determine if the difference of .59% is statistically significant in light of all the other variables (e.g., students who took both tests, international students, holistic evaluation impact, URM admissions, etc.)</p>
<p>I also found old info from admissions consultants website that states Princeton strongly preferred SAT, it seems that they must copy and paste directly from Princeton website(guessing).
<p>MommyDearest is right! I read on the Princeton website that the SAT is preferred because it is less costly for students to send all of there scores as opposed to the ACT where you have to pay to send each individual score. You’re not delusional!</p>