UF Honors Program

<p>I see that Florida requires 2070 on the SAT or 33 on the ACT to be admitted into the honors program. Does anyone know why Florida would require a much higher ACT than SAT score? The only conclusion I can come up with is, Florida respects the SAT test more.</p>

<p>I can’t say for sure with UF, but if you look back into the history of ACT vs SAT,
SAT was geared towards those going into sciences, math and engineering.
ACT was geared more towards the liberal arts.
While times may have changed, there may still be a stigmata that ACT is “Easier” to
get a better score on.
Whether that is true or not now days, I can’t say. Haven’t taken them in 20 years.</p>

<p>UFParent</p>

<p>The other strange thing is, Florida will let you superscore the SAT and not let you superscore the ACT.</p>

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</p>

<p>The ACT has a science section. The SAT doesn’t. How exactly is it geared toward liberal arts?</p>

<p>I think that in the future they will eventually superscore the ACT. More colleges are doing it. UF is never one of the first to catch on to anything like that.</p>

<p>Really? About the SAT being geared more for math and science? D’s a total math/science brain. Only got a 2040 on the SAT (couldn’t get her writing above a 600 as she’s horrible at extemparaneous prompts). On the ACT she scored a 35 one time sitting, absolutely no studying. Perfect math score … oh, and loved that science section, too. Found the SAT (even though she got a 700 on the cr) much more difficult for her math/science self.</p>

<p>zebes</p>

<p>^^^^^Most kids seem to score better on one test than the other. My daughter scored about the same on each test but just hated the ACT. Am I right that a 33 is much higher than a 2070?</p>

<p>Here’s a conversion chart, one put out by ACT, I think:</p>

<p>[ACT-SAT</a> Concordance](<a href=“http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/index.html]ACT-SAT”>http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/index.html)</p>

<p>That’s why we used her ACT score for everything because it converted to a much higher SAT.</p>

<p>zebes</p>

<p>well, my ACT doesn’t qualify…SAT does…I’ll still send them both… <em>shrug</em></p>

<p>Have any of you guys considered that UF has high ACT standards in order deliberately to have less people qualify for Honors program?</p>

<p>If Florida allowed everybody with a 31 or 32 into honors, class sizes wouldn’t be able to remain as small as needed. Additionally the SAT allows for better score differentiation. A 32 could represent a score between 2100-2160, although a 2130 seems to be the agreed upon median.</p>

<p>Thus, in order to ease demand pressures and assure a more consistant system, UF requires a higher ACT score when compared to the SAT.</p>

<p>Just a theory. I don’t want to spawn the whole SAT vs. ACT debate since they are both equally good standardized tests, just in different ways.</p>

<p>OP is just wondering why they dont use act/sat equivelencies. i think you more or less nailed it though: i think they’re basing their numbers off of their own statistics, and not those of ACT/collegeboard.</p>

<p>Well then they should raise the SAT requirements as well. Then, almighty IntangibleGator, not only would it be fair but class sizes would be even smaller! It’s win-win.</p>

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</p>

<p>That’s very interesting point actually. Maybe UF created its own conversation chart based on student applications. Should be easy to do.</p>

<p>I agree the standards should be raised slightly. </p>

<p>2100 seems like a better qualifier than the rather random 2070.</p>

<p>However, Jman is obviously rather biased sense he himself missed qualifying for the honors program by 1 ACT point.</p>

<p>I believe a 32 is 99 percentile and it is a longer test with actual science section.</p>

<p>ACT percentiles aren’t comparable to SAT percentiles.</p>

<p>A 32 on the ACT is in the top 1% due to less people taking the test and lack of score differentiation. </p>

<p>I would rather have a 2130, which is the top 3% of SAT scores, than a 32 anyday.</p>

<p>Slightly off topic, but do you know how many students take the SAT vs. the ACT? Just wondering which percentile is considered more prestigious.</p>

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<p>1,421,941 students took the ACT in 2008.</p>

<p>1,518,859 students took the SAT in 2008.</p>

<p>That difference is negligible when you talk about percentiles.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.act.org/news/data/08/pdf/one.pdf[/url]”>http://www.act.org/news/data/08/pdf/one.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/cbs-08-Page-2-Table-2.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;

<p>It is rather a Pyrrhic victory to celebrate being in the top 1% of ACT scores with a 32 when UF will grant qualification to the top 4% of SAT scores, a 2070, for admittance to the honors college, yet not a 32. </p>

<p>It makes it rather obvious what score UF considers prestigious.</p>

<p>You don’t have a damn clue why the scores aren’t equivalent.</p>

<p>When you stop making wild assumptions and present cold hard facts, let me know, and I’ll continue with this.</p>

<p>There is no reason for any college to believe the SAT to be more “prestigious.” It is not tougher than the ACT. If anything, the ACT should be seen as more prestigious. The SAT doesn’t have a science section.</p>

<p>whats prestige got to do with tests anyways.</p>