I am in a stage of uncertainty surrounding whether or not I should retake the SAT or the ACT. I would greatly appreciate your opinions.
Currently I am a Junior and am aiming to apply to some top level colleges. I know that tests are not nearly everything when it comes to college applications but I would like to set myself in a good position when the time rolls around.
Here are my current scores:
SAT: 1480- 780 math and 700 Reading and Writing, Essay: 6/6/6
ACT: 34C- 35E, 35M, 31R, and 34S, Essay: 8 (with 8 on each section)
Should I bother retaking either of the tests? I have only taken each of them once.
I have taken the SAT math II test and got a 770. I will be taking the subject test for US history and physics in May.
Just to note I want to do something in the business or political field. For majors probably something out of political science, economics, or finance.
I would say you don’t need to retake the ACT but it truly depends on 1) what your GPA is 2) Which schools you are applying to.
For a school to be a match you need to be in their 50% range of accepted scores. If you don’t want to share what schools you are interested in here, you can go to each individual schools website and look at their CDS to see what their accepted score range and GPA is.
For most schools you have excellent scores. Even for Harvard as an example. Their 25th percentile for ACT is 32, 75th percentile is 35 meaning you would definetly fall in the 50% range. However, for Harvard you are a little low on the SAT 25th percentile is 1430 75th is 1600 putting their 50% range around 1520. Although your SAT score might be fine combined with your GPA…
Remember though schools like Harvard are a long shot even for someone with perfect scores and GPA’s.
@Boilermom Thanks so much for the input! I will do some searching around for the schools I am interested in. Should I worry about retaking the SAT, even though I am more happy with my ACT score?
Whether or not you should retake the SAT will depend on which schools you are applying to. A lot of the Ivies require you to take SAT subject tests, what you need to verify is whether or not they require you to report all scores. For a school that requires you to report all scores and requires subject tests they will automatically see that score. Now again its not a bad score and if it falls in that particular schools 50% range you might be ok. But if you are closer to that schools 25% range it might be a good idea to retake it, although some would say why bother they are going to see the lower score too if they require all scores. That is true so you have to way the pros and cons.
If you are applying to schools that don’t require subject tests or who don’t require all scores your ACT is all you need. Schools do not prefer one test over the other. So in those cases only submit the ACT.
Make sure when doing your research you are looking at the CDS (common data set) to get your information, it will show you not only the 25th & 75th percentile, but how many were accepted at those levels and if any below those levels were accepted.
Remember that the SAT/ACT score is just one facet of your application. I would retake whatever test you decide only if 1) you are willing to put in more prep work for it than the first time you took it (otherwise, expecting a radically better score doing the same amount of prep or less might be wishful thinking), and 2) that prep doesn’t interfere with your classwork. Pouring yourself into getting a rocking SAT score at the expense of your GPA is not smart. You don’t appear to be one of those “take it 6 times” kids (they exist), so probably not a concern.