<p>My son received an initial SAT score of 1990. He just got a 34 on the ACT. Should he retest the SAT or just submit the 34 with applications. Will there be any negative effect from just submitting the ACT?</p>
<p>Every adcom I have met has told me that the best combination is one ACT and two SATs. Study, retake the SAT, and admit it along with that excellent ACT score. The SAT won’t hurt your son, but it will help him if he gets it higher - especially if he is looking at schools at which the SAT is prominent.</p>
<p>applicannot - that seems like strange advice. Are you sure the adcoms didn’t mean the ACT plus two SAT subject tests? I don’t see what would be good about a combination of one ACT and two SAT reasoning tests.</p>
<p>Nearly every selective college claims to consider either the ACT or SAT. I heard an adcom say recently that if you submit both, they just convert the ACT to a SAT scale and take the highest score. </p>
<p>The 34 ACT is a great score. I would submit that, perhaps with strong (over 700) SAT subject tests if they are available. The subject tests might help if there’s any weakness in the ACT subscores, or on the transcript. While I’m not an adcom, I have read many posts by kids who got into elite schools with ACT only. In fact, I saw a discussion where a couple of kids got into Yale and Stanford with ACT only, but didn’t get into H and some other top school, where they submitted ACT plus SAT subject tests. They were convinced the less than fabulous subject tests made the difference, and they wished they had submitted only ACTs to all the school they applied for.</p>
<p>But as I said, I’m no expert and I’d like to hear more opinions on this. My D is very happy with her ACT score and plans to submit it instead of the SAT. Is that misguided?</p>
<p>No, I’m sure. They meant take two SATs (because it is easy to improve the score after one time) and one ACT for optimal scoring. They say this is the system for their highest scoring students. You can submit either or, or course, but this was the recommended track. It doesn’t matter if you don’t submit an SAT, I’m just saying that’s what I was told gives the highest scores.</p>
<p>Interesting! Were these private college counselors you were talking to, or admissions officers at colleges? I didn’t know the latter would be so agressive with their advice 
FWIW, my D took both and did about the same, but liked the ACT much better. She chose to take it a second time, and got the results she wanted. Now she doesn’t see the point of also retaking the SAT.</p>
<p>You are good to go with the 34. It is MUCH better than the SAT score. All the top colleges will take it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was told this by the admissions officers at American and George Washington, actually. This area is definitely an SAT area. The reasoning behind it was that it is considered (this of course varies by person) easier to bump up an SAT score than an ACT score, so students should take the ACT once but the SAT twice for the highest possible score combination. I’m the opposite of your daughter. I can’t stand the ACT. I went from a 2080 to a 2250 on the SAT, scored a 31 on the ACT and am not retaking.</p>