<p>D took the SAT and ACT last spring. She did much better on the ACT. According to the College Board's concordance tables, her ACT composite score translates to a likely SAT score that is 160 points higher than her actual SAT combined score. Her percentile rank on the ACT was 16 points better than on the SAT.</p>
<p>At this point, the plan is for D to take the ACT one more time in Sept, hoping to raise her composite a point or two. Her current ACT score puts her into the mid-50% range for all of her colleges (her SAT score is slightly below most of the 50% ranges). </p>
<p>All of D's colleges say they take either the SAT or ACT. We are planning to only send her ACT scores. I think that sending the lower SAT scores would be a negative. Do you agree, or do you think that not sending the SAT score at all will put her at a disadvantage? Will colleges view not taking the SAT as a negative? She's applying to 3 state flagships and other schools of similar selectivity.</p>
<p>There is no reason for your D to submit the SAT if her ACT scores are much better. There is not a single school in the country that does not accept the ACT now, and there is also no lingering institutional bias against it.</p>
<p>Have her buy the Red ACT book with real ACTs in it…and practice…the ACT is about timing and about stamina and getting more of each section completed…</p>
<p>I am a believer in student prep at home…carve out a Sunday where she can begin the exam by 8am or 9am, fed, with a decent sleep behind her, she should allow herself breaks and do the exam as if it is real.</p>
<p>Before my son could tolerate this onerous use of his weekends, I encouraged him first to do at least two of the exams open book…he could look up answers by section, come and go, relax whatever…he learned a lot about the test structure by doing some of them open booked without timers. The correct answers should take up your daughter’s attention is my point…they are often more important to comprehend than taking tests cold…so study the answers in the Real ACT book.</p>
<p>one of my son’s had a good SAT, but a much better ACT…and we sent both. He took the SAT twice, and it never budged, same exact score…go with the ACT and don’t bother with the SAT at all. The subscores on the ACT are also “respected” at some locations as equivalents for the SATII requirement/replacements.</p>
<p>Send just the ACT scores. If any of her schools need SAT IIs also, be sure they will take the ACT in lieu of both the SAT I and IIs. Most do, some don’t. Also be aware that the Sept date is not available everywhere, so if she definitely will be doing this, sign up as soon as you can (the regular deadline is Fri anyway) We had the experience with June not being as widely available and needing to travel a distance to take it.</p>
<p>My D is sending only the ACT (plus SAT IIs to a couple) and didn’t even take the SAT I, not having done as well on practice tests and PSATs.</p>
<p>Son only sent his SAT scores to those schools that required SAT II tests regardless of other tests, which quite honestly weren’t many. The thing I found most interesting and most to his benefit was that at many of his schools if you took the ACT you didn’t have to submit SAT II’s, but if you were submitting SAT I’s, they required SAT II’s to round things out.</p>
<p>His score on the ACT was much MUCH better than the SAT’s (I or II). And he only had to submit the one test date because unlike SAT’s, most schools don’t superscore. So the downside of ACT’s is if you divide up your best subscores between test dates (which fortunately he didn’t do).</p>
<p>Our GC said that if a school says it will accept either test, you are to take them at their word. Most schools aren’t looking to make kids look bad.</p>
<p>My S also did much better on the ACT. Those will be the scores we send to most schools. All of the school on his list will accept either ACT or SAT, with SAT IIs optional or rcommended.</p>
<p>The only unusual one is Pomona. They will accept either test, but if you submit only the ACT, you must also submit SAT IIs.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! This confirms what I thought.</p>
<p>None of her schools require or even recommend SAT IIs, so that’s all set, and she’s already signed up for the Sept 12 ACT test. Your right, the choice of places to take it is much more limited in Sept. </p>
<p>I wish I could convince her to study for the ACT. She keeps promising that she will… just like she’s promising to do her summer assignments for next fall’s AP classes, and start her applications and essays… Perhaps I will show her Faline’s posting.</p>
<p>Look at it this way: when it comes to reporting ACT and SAT scores, it’s in the school’s interest to have you submit only whichever is highest. That’s because if they admit you they’ll need to report your scores, which will then be reflected in their 25th and 75th percentile medians. So they’ll look better if they only have your high score.</p>
<p>My son applied to his first college (state school) this week online and we planned to only send his ACT. However, the school KNEW that he had taken the SAT and had a ‘missing’ by it on the online form. </p>
<p>It was ok since he had done fine. I was just trying to save money by sending just the ACT, but HOW did they know???</p>
<p>^^ I am going to go out on a ledge here and say, they didn’t. Tufts’ online application checklist also said SAT’s were missing and there was a Q&A that addressed that. The ACT testing was filled in as complete and so it’s just a way to fill in the blank.</p>
<p>LaFalum84, if you daughter is interested in nailing down admissions to her favorite college, she has to consider prepping at least a couple of serious shifts before school resumes. I would like to hear that her ACT puts her in the top quartile of at least two colleges she likes a lot that could be considered fine schools in her view… and matches. My eldest increased his test scores by 200 points fall of senior year to our utter astonishment, and it was pretty much attributed to motivation and desire on his part but perhaps a PET scan might have turned up brain development…these kids are still babes and their hardwiring is shifting every season. He suddenly matured and decided that he was making errors on his SAT that turned out to be somewhat within his power to correct. He did stay indoors on a few pretty days to do some at home review and timed tests. We had already decided on a list of schools that corresponded with his junior year exams. We didn’t ask him to retake his exams. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t consider a school a match until my child was in the top quartile, and even that guess has to be tempered with the reality of each college’s demographics. Midrange can mean match at some colleges, with high likelihood of admission and can mean “no go” without significant other reasons at others.
Reach colleges are even longer shots and being within the top quartile range doesn’t mean much. My eldest for instance had a crush on Dartmouth and was clearly in top quartile of their applicants on test scores, but his race, gender, state of origin and his potential talent/EC contributions to the college gave him what was still a less than 10% chance of admission which I had a hard time getting him to believe until his waitlist decision came through. Reach schools are random and capricious and unpredictable, and must be considered long shots. My son was admitted to Duke, a school he never seriously considered where he expected a waitlist and denied at the college he had attached to emotionally…that is how things work. He seriously loved and revered his match colleges and would have happily attended any of them. When you understand and revere your match schools, all else is gravy.</p>
<p>Midrange scores can be tied to other ways your student presents positives for the class of 2014 at a particular college…for admission chances to be strong. I hope she has a great season and finds the open doors to a school that is exciting for her. But I have to repeat that the ACT rewards pacing and stamina…you don’t really have to be “smarter” to do better…you just have to be more ready for the marathon that the ACT presents and complete more of each section than last time.</p>
<p>Faline I appreciate your input, but for the schools D is looking at I think the mid-ranges are a pretty good indicator of reach/match/safety. (By match I don’t mean a 100% guarantee, but that it’s better than a 50% chance she’ll get in). Most of her schools are large schools (3 are state flagships), which makes them more numbers-driven than smaller LACs. Second, most of them admit about 40% to 60% of their applicants, which means fewer incomprehensible rejections than the 20%-or-less schools. Third, once her weighted GPA and test scores put her in the “reasonable” mid-range, that’s when the ECs and recs come into play. I expect strong recs and D has excellent EC’s that show a depth of interest in 3 areas that she has pursued for 4 years (Student Gov, a varsity sport, and an outside-of-school activity). I realize that none of this is a guarantee, and I don’t expect her to get into all of these schools. But I do expect her to get into at least 4 or 5 of the 7.</p>
<p>Allthisisnewtome, is it possible your son had listed that college as one that would automatically receive his SAT score when he first registered to take the test? SAT gives you 4 free reports when you apply, if he knew he was applying to that school he might have listed it when he registered. That’s the only way I can think that the school would “know” he had scores from that date.</p>
<p>great! feeling good about her chances at 4 or 5 colleges she truly likes may not be worth flogging through the review books any further. I hope she can stay refreshed senior fall and simply write her best Why College X essays and enjoy her senior year. Our second son was overextended fall senior year…and if we could do a do over…it would be No Eagle projects the weeks before you turn 18…a mistake that a bunch of his friends also took on…quadrupling the time he had to spend on projects for his friends as well as his own. A good memory when seven of them made Eagle the same day…but a ridiculous added strain to a semester that should include some time to breath and think.</p>
<p>My D submitted only her ACT to all but her UC Campus (which required SATII) and had 7 of 9 acceptances. The two that turned her down were two of her three reaches she was admitted to the other.</p>
<p>There is no reason to send SAT unless you have to send SATII and as I understand it w/ score choice you can choose only the SATII scores so the m/CR score never has to be seen at all.</p>
<p>Not that this would apply and not that all scores accept them in this format BUT… I just requested a final transcript from son’s HS (you never know when it might be important for some reason or another plus, someone told me that several years after they graduated they found errors in grades etc and it was next to impossible to fix them). In any event, while before they send transcripts out to schools they ask specifically what you want on it, in our case they also include ALL testing from PSAT forward. Now, since we’re working with the GC the didn’t include the SAT testing on his schools where he only sent in ACT’s, but his ACT’s were on there as well (plus we sent them directly from ACT as well).</p>