<p>Its interesting that the concordance tables don’t match up too well with 25%-75% spreads of SATs vs ACTs if one digs into stats on enrolled students from their Common Data Set or Factbooks. In looking at many school-by-school comparisons, I have found that an ACT score is roughly equivalent to SAT (/1600) + ~30 points. While not every school shows this 30 point disparity, most do in my experience, some more sizable than 30 points.</p>
<p>On face value, then an ACT composite score of 29, say, may be worth a bit more than the concordance value of 1300/1600, and more like a 1330. This would be good news for ACT submitters.</p>
<p>I am not sure why this disparity exists, but here are two theories: (1) the concordance data compare ONE SITTING of SAT to ONE Sitting of ACT at the individual level. As most schools supersciore the SAT, but not the ACT, then the ~30 points bridges that difference; (2) (cynical view)…as only SATs are counted in the USNews ranking, schools take more liberties with pulling in less outstanding students (i.e., recruits, legacies, etc) who submit ACTs…while the ACT ranges are reported, they are not used as heavily in characterizing a school’s academic prowess as the SATs.</p>
<p>Example: (data taken from US News electronic version)</p>
<p>Brown
reported ACT mid 50%: 28-33
SAT concordance to above: 1260-1460
reported SAT mid 50%: 1330-1530…70 points different on each end.</p>
<p>There is definitely more going on here…Brown is an extreme example, and many others show more modest differences, with the vast majority on the side of the concordance tables underpredicting ACT to SAT conversion.</p>