What is perceived to be better for admissions purposes.
1500 SAT - one sitting - 770 M, 730 E
34 ACT - superscore two seatings - 35M, 35E, 34W, 30 Science
At DD’s top school, the 34 ACT superscore places her right at the 75th percentile. While the SAT 1500 places her right below the 75th percentile, but I think the one sitting on the SAT might look better.
Does the top school superscore the ACT? Not all do.
Yes they do.
While the top school superscores, do they want all ACT’s submitted? Also was there an improving trend or down trend from T1 to T2?
That’s a good question,
ACT 1 was 35, 35, 34, 29
ACT 2 was 34, 34, 33, 30 I think (no access to website right now)
So there was a slight downward trend on the second one but so minimal.
With the ACT, don’t you need to send both test dates on separate reports, and the school does the superscoring? I don’t believe the ACT sends one “superscored” report.
She doesn’t like the ACT test, even though I think she did slightly better on the ACT. The second time, she took it to improve her Science section score.
She wants to take the SAT again. They were all taken mid 11th grade and she thinks she can improve the SAT score.
If she is at the 75th percentile already, is retaking the SAT the best use of her time? Are merit scholarships the reason?
The official concordance maps a 1500 to 34. Specifically the 2nd of 4 that map to 34, so about a rounded 33.75.
Your ACT superscore is a 33.5 rounded to 34. They are pretty equivalent, but the SAT is marginally better, especially as it’s one siting.
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-SAT-Concordance-Tables.pdf
Sounds like taking the SAT again makes sense, over another shot at the ACT.
Yes, she is hoping for merit aid. Her first choice school is very selective, her SAT score places her right under the 75th percentile, I believe their 75th % is around 1520.
I was wondering which one to report, or report both? I’m curious if the ACT looks less impressive due to being in two sittings.
Honestly I don’t think it matters…you can always report both and let the admission officer decide which to use.
The exception would be if applying as a science major I probably would just send the SAT since the ACT science subscore is lower than the rest of your scores.
A 34 concords to a 1500 (1490-1520) looking at the ACT site https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/scores/act-sat-concordance.html. If you were to submit 1 score, I’d probably choose the SAT. If merit is involved, it may be worth taking the SAT 1 more time.
Thank you all! I appreciate your insight on this.