<p>I have taken both the SAT and the ACT. On my SAT I received a 2030 and on my ACT I received a 30.<br>
These scores are very similar and if you do the math a 30 on the ACT is equivalent to a 2000 on the SAT.
However, the range for a 30 is very broad…for example you could get all the way from a 29.5 to a 30.25 and still get a 30…whereas the SAT is very specific. My question is which of these scores looks better?</p>
<p>Also, I know that colleges SAY they treat both test equally, but it feels like most colleges prefer the SAT. For example, I feel that they are more impressed with a 2000 SAT than a 30 ACT. I feel that they prefer the SAT because it is more difficult for students to do well on. This is all speculation...but is there any truth behind this speculation or am I incorrect?
I am not trying to offend people who did well on the ACT, I am just really trying to get a feel for which is the more impressive score.</p>
<p>Overall questions: Which one of my scores looks better? </p>
<pre><code> Do colleges actually prefer the SAT and are more impressed with SAT scores?
</code></pre>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>It really doesn’t matter. I think it just might seem like people use the SAT scores slightly more. I personally did better on my ACT (32 ACT compared to 2000 SAT) but I still submitted both scores so that they know I tried. However, I qualified for an honors program at a college for example because of my ACT score (my SAT wouldn’t have been high enough) because it said I either had to have 31+ ACT or 2110+ SAT to qualify. So I think that kind of proves that colleges are really fine with either. So just try both and be proud of either one you do better on 
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<p>Yes, they do treat them the same. Only one school in the country has an admitted preference (and that is a private school in CA for the ACT). Schools will use the ACT/SAT concordance to convert scores. <a href=“https://www.act.org/aap/concordance/pdf/reference.pdf”>https://www.act.org/aap/concordance/pdf/reference.pdf</a> </p>
<p>And the ACT passed up the SAT two years ago in number of test takers.</p>
<p>Each school may have a different conversion chart. Some schools would only consider certain section scores in the conversion. As for your scores at 2030 and 30, they are very similar. Most schools will correspond your ACT score into a range of SAT instead of a fixed number and the division in SAT is smaller. It is hard to tell which score look better without knowing the individual section scores. The distribution of section scores is as important as the composite score. Schools would have no preference between ACT or SAT, however, their conversion chart and your section scores may look better in one test or the other.</p>