My SAT is a 1510 (730R, 780M), while my ACT is a 34 (35M, 35E, 34R, 32S). Based on some conversion charts I looked at, these scores are practically equivalent.
Should I submit both scores? They are in the 25-75 or above range for all the schools I’m applying to that are considering scores this year, which are listed below:
Pomona
Pitzer
Harvey Mudd
Washington University in St. Louis
Stanford
University of Washington (Seattle)
Occidental
I’d submit them if they are above the midpoint of the 25-75 range. Don’t submit them if they’re just at the 25% number.
That would be everywhere but Mudd and WashStL
A 34 ACT is within the top 1% of ACT test takers. I would submit that everywhere. Maybe even Stanford. It helps to submit it to Stanford because if you don’t, they’ll rope you in with the people who got 30s. At least this way, they’d know that you are a strong student, perfect or imperfect score.
My son is in a similar boat. He’s got a 1480 SAT (720M, 760R) and 34 ACT (32M, 35E, 36R, 34S). We’re wondering the same: is one a bit better? Is there anything to be gained by submitting both? Because, you know, money.
-Jim
1480 =33 Act so the 34 is the slightly better score. Nice job though
Shouldn’t really matter. 1510 is sorta middle 34 Act on the concordance. 1520 is the top 34 Act. So if you had to pick one send the 34. 35 on math is pretty nice if being picky.
Adcoms at those schools won’t be beholden to any concordance tables. They’ll be looking for appropriate strengths, incl the ACT sub scores. What major?
Those schools (maybe ex UW) are so competitive that they’re reaches. If you’re stem, the SATM is great. The ACT sci, we can’t guess the impact.
Adding. This will be about the competition. Not about these scores being some top %, which reflects all test takers, even those not aiming high- or not headed to college.
His ACT composite is a 34.25, rounded down to 34. The concordance to 34 ranges from 1490-1520, so I’d say a 34.25 is roughly a 1520. But the entire range of a 34 is higher than 1480, so that’s the preferred score.
There’s no advantage to sending both. I’ve seen a myth floating around that a “backup” or “supporting” score can help. It’s just that - a myth.
Why a myth?
Because every AO that I’ve spoken with says any superscoring/filtering of standardized test scores are done either automatically by their information systems or manually by a lower-paid clerk in the office - AOs aren’t doing rudimentary math calculations.
They receive an extract of the application data that shows only the data to be used int eh admissions decision, which is the single superscore for schools that superscore. If they don’t see other scores, they can have no impact on the decision.
Yes, but.
Here, we’ve got SAT and ACT. The system I know would list those separately.
Not one superscore including both test types.
Thanks for the response, @RichInPitt. Those scores I reported are both super-scored over 2 tests, BTW. I note that the Princeton Review concordance tables are substantially more favorable to the ACT than the ACT tables, putting a 34 ACT in the range of 1520-1550 SAT. Which is a tad odd.
-Jim