Ivy League and the ACT

<p>A 2100-2200 on the SAT is not low. And anything above a 33 is in the 99th percentile on the ACT. Once you get to a certain point on both tests, colleges stop looking at them (i.e. a college won’t look down upon a 2100).</p>

<p>:-j Sorry for the inconvenience everyone,
I read the information about Duke a few days ago and thought I remembered it correctly. Looks like the writing portion is compulsory!
However, the info about Yale was a total disaster.</p>

<p>@billshso I can’t debate on geographical and historical reasons, because clearly you know better but
The ACT exceeded the SAT in central and southern states
in 2006, I never said, it increased overall. My words were : “…but the increase is only in the central/southern regions…”
<a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/SAT-ACT_Preference_Map.svg/800px-SAT-ACT_Preference_Map.svg.png”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/SAT-ACT_Preference_Map.svg/800px-SAT-ACT_Preference_Map.svg.png&lt;/a&gt;
I made a small mistake and you didn’t even read my post properly before contradicting my theory!</p>

<p>A lot of people tell me there is a de facto bias toward the SAT, don’t know if this is true or not? Also, if I get a nice SAT score and an ACT score that is basically the same, will sending both give me any advantage over someone who got the same SAT score but didn’t take ACT? I know the difference won’t be much, I just want to know if there will be any difference. </p>

<p>How are the ACT essay scores weighted for the Ivies? Is an essay score of 9 viewed as bad as opposed to, say, a comparable SAT essay score?</p>

<p>@TeamRocketGrunt Both the SAT and ACT essays happen to be out of 12, meaning they’re graded by two readers who each assign a score between 1 and 6. So I’d imagine they’re viewed on an equal level, if not synonymously in the eyes of Ivies. </p>

<p>If writing is even considered. The other scores are more important. Much more. </p>

<p>Will Ivies be willing to look at me with an ACT of 32? I know its relatively low, but I don’t see the point of spending numerous hours to bring a test score up by 1 or 2 points. </p>

<p>Look at the latest Class profile of the Ivy you’re interested in, if you’re in the middle 50%, your job’s done and you should start working on other parts of your applications,
If not, then look at the least scorer they admitted (lower extreme end).

  • If you’re below it, you should definitely boost your scores by 1-2 points.
  • If you’re above it, you have 2 options
    Retake (if your gut feels like it), OR
    Showcase your other talents in such a way that it overshadows your ACT scores. :)>- </p>

<p>There is no preference! I submitted only my ACT (a 34) to Yale, UPenn, and Columbia, and got accepted to all 3 of them. So submitting no SAT’s and no subject test scores didn’t seem to negatively impact me. </p>

<p>@terminatorp,
Well, you must have had extraordinary ECs? not to mention, you were in the middle 50% ACT range of all schools.</p>

<p>I’m from a rural region where every student takes the ACT, and I’ve heard many of my teachers say Ivies require the SAT. (I know this isn’t true.)</p>

<p>One should aim at the admission average or above, not just the mid 50 (which starts at 25%). The admission rate at 25-50% is much lower than 50-75%. If you look at the admission data from a few top schools, you will see the difference in admission rate can be 2 fold. There is little difference in admission rate when the score is above ~75%.</p>

<p>Is a 9 essay score on the ACT above 75%? I’m unable to check at the moment.</p>

<p>Moderator’s note: Duck007 will no loger be contributing to CC.</p>

<p>@Duck007</p>

<p>I was well-engaged in a few activities in highschool, but the point I was trying to make is that submitting your ACT’s don’t put you at a disadvantage. A 34 ACT, which is in the middle 50% of the schools’ ranges, is just as good as say a 2200-2280 SAT , which itself is a decent score to apply with. " :)</p>

<p>@terminatorp
Duck007 has been posting misleading information in many threads and is now blocked. He is just a kid playing around. You can ignore pretty much whatever he said.</p>

<p>@terminatorp If my friends are to be trusted, a 34 ACT and no SAT or SAT II is an auto-rejection to ivies (I guess you just proved them wrong). What did you do to stand out in admissions? </p>

<p>^ Your friends don’t know.</p>

<p>D’s HS principal said “Ivy Leagues like to see SATs” (we are in the midwest). I just smiled and nodded as we were in a meeting about scheduling that I requested and he was nice enough to accommodate. </p>

<p>Interesting coincidence. My daughter got an email from admissions at Amherst this morning. By their calculations, her superscored ACT is better than her superscored SAT, and they are requesting official ACT scores to take to the meeting. First of all, I think that’s a really gracious move on their part. Second, I think it’s proof positive that at least one elite NE school takes the ACT pretty seriously.</p>