Do colleges weigh ACT (or SAT) scores differently by major?

To elaborate, say I am applying to Cal Poly Pomoa; CPP’s ACT composite 25/75 percentile is 20/27. The school If I apply as a chemical engineering major, will they try to see if my ACT score matches that of other chemical engineering majors? Or is it just a trend that other majors will have higher ACT scores than others?

I’m not sure about calpoly, but for some colleges where you are admitted by major/school, you are pitted against others applying for thar major. In general engineering students at such schools will have higher scores, so I would try and be on the upper end of the spectrum.

Interesting to know. Calpoly is a public school. Would you say this practice is more prevelantly seen in private or public institutions, or perhaps another variable?

yeah, for impacted majors, ACT score will generally be higher

You will usually find at universities that have multiple colleges, such as a liberal arts college, engineering college, and a business college, that the middle 50% ranges for both test scores and GPA/class rank of those admitted vary among the colleges with the engineering college having middle 50% ranges higher than all the others, and thus the middle 50% range you see online for the university as a whole is lower than the range the engineering college actually has. That will usually be the case regardless of whether the univeristy is public or private. Cal Poly has multiple colleges including an engineering college and it is likely the middle 50% range for that college is higher than what you see online for the university as a whole.