<p>I just want to know if it's better to send in one test score over the other. I have not taken either of them and I plan on taking both, but I personally believe I will do better on the ACT. It seems that when most people or universities speak of test scores or average student scores, they always list the average or minimum SAT, not ACT. So is the SAT better?</p>
<p>Schools look at both the same way, with no preference. Some people will say east coast schools prefer SAT, while Midwest ones like ACT, but the truth of the matter is that if the school accepts both, they have the same preference for both.</p>
<p>I am from the midwest and the ACT is required to take jr year, if you take the sat you ave to take it on your own time. So I would guess that the ACT is pushed for midwest schools.</p>
<p>Colleges accept either without preference and midwest colleges do not “push” for the ACT. SAT is test most taken in East and west coast and ACT in most states in middle of the country. As a result, more applicants submit SAT to eastern and west coast schools and more applicants submit ACT to those in the middle, but that is a matter of happenstance not preference. And the reason you will see some schools state their middle ranges in terms of just SAT or just ACT is because the vast majority of applicants submitted the identified test and not many submitted the other.</p>
<p>An exception are the California Polytechnics’s which are in a state almost completely controlled by the SAT and decided a couple years ago to state a preference – they prefer the ACT.</p>
<p>When colleges say they’ll take either the ACT or the SAT (with no preference for either), I think they mean it. They’re not going to put false statements on their websites.</p>
<p>^I would naturally agree with your statement, because why would it be adventitious for a college to fool you into taking the wrong test? </p>
<p>But… Some top-notch schools (I believe Princeton included) openly prefer the SAT over ACT, which leads me to believe all top schools (like Princeton) prefer the SAT over ACT (to some extent, of course).</p>
<p>
I’ve seen that claim about Princeton a few times on CC, but the thing is…it just isn’t true. Prove me wrong…provide a link to a statement from a Princeton source where they “openly” state a preference for the SAT over the ACT.</p>
<p>Good luck trying. It just isn’t true.</p>
<p>Princeton had that preference until a couple years ago when it dropped it. I have seen a link to a staement that Princeton prefers SAT but that is not a Princeton site and I believe it is just showing info from a couple years ago.</p>
<p>For all of the colleges that I plan on sending my application they accept either ACT or SAT, I saw it on the commonapplication website and the collegeboard website, where they show stats from first year scores on both tests for that university/college</p>
<p>They have no preference. Though if you live in the Midwest the ACT is much more popular so you’d be better off sending the ACT scores in. East coast and West don’t really have preferences.</p>