<p>Hello, I'm a junior in high school, and looking into USC (first on my list!). And I know it's kinda late, but I was wondering if USC (or other West-coast schools) had a preference over the SAT I or the ACT. Also, there's the score choice for the SAT starting now, but I read that USC will not be using that feature, and rather will collect all the SAT scores. Seeing as I live in Chicagoland, and the Midwest high schools tend to focus preparing students for the ACT, do you guys think it's an alright idea for me to send in just my ACT score, 'cos I did really bad the first time I took the SAT, and I don't want to take it more than twice (I'm taking another one on June), because I heard colleges don't like to see multiple sittings for tests.</p>
<p>Help!
-Matt</p>
<p>P.S. - I'm sorry if this topic was already covered. I couldn't find a thread on the USC board. Thanks!</p>
<p>That’s perfectly okay. USC has no preference from what I can see. However, they take the best score of each of your SAT I categories (CR, WR, Math) from all of the sittings, so it should be an advantage if you take the SAT two or three times to get the highest combined score. I don’t know whether they would do the same for ACT. But if you’d prefer not to retake the SAT, then you should be fine.</p>
<p>Submit your best score. There is a good reason to try very hard to have a high SAT score. First, I hope you took the PSAT and scored well. Then if you are able to prepare and score high on the SAT you may become a National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>NMScholars, if admitted and select SC first, qualify for a half tuition scholarship. That would make SC less expensive. These scholarships are given on merit. </p>
<p>If you achieve that and there is financial need, in the opinion of SC, your family MAY receive financial aid in addition to the scholarship.</p>
<p>yshin0, I’m also from Chicago. I submitted my ACT, but if I could it again, I would have taken the SAT multiple times so I could use the superscore. Like everyone else said though, I’m pretty sure USC has no preference.</p>
<p>I only submitted two ACT scores (one with a writing, and a higher composite w/ out writing) and they accepted both scores…just as long as they had a writing on one of the scores. So you can still take ACT multiple times and they will accept the writing score from the lower test and the composite score from the highest…and btw I had NO subject tests and NO SAT and was admitted a month ago in early march. Good luck!</p>
<p>Since USC is a West Coast school, they do prefer the SAT over the ACT. If your ACT score is high, I wouldn’t bother with the SAT. But just to be safe, give the SAT a try.</p>