Odd thing happened. Although UW Seattle has it written on their website that they have no preference on the SAT/ACT thing today I was told by a friend who talked to admissions people at UW that they favored the SAT.
I too thought that that couldn’t be right, until I looked at prepscholars data on their average admissions. When you translate their SAT averages into ACT scale they are in fact 1 (new) 2 (old) points lower then their ACT average?
Is this data significant or just a fluke?
Does UW or any other school that takes both tests favor both tests?
It is not a fluke, but a reflection of the ACT/SAT distribution of the student population applying. Let’s assume the State of Washington uses the ACT as their standard test. Students from the state who plan on applying to super selective colleges also take the SAT, but in much smaller numbers. Those students tend to score higher on both the SAT and ACT. When they apply to UW they report whichever is higher. Because their numbers are smaller, it appears that SAT scores for admitted students are higher because the SAT student population does not match the distribution of ACT student population.
An alternative and complementary explanation is that many OOS students come from states that mostly use the SAT. UW requires better scores for OOS students than in-state students to be admitted. Once again, the population of OOS students is more academically gifted and has higher scores, which skews the SAT range higher than the ACT range.
You should learn all about this in your first statistics class. If you take more, your professors will hammer you ad nauseum to thoroughly understanding the underlying assumptions of your model.