<p>face it: most CCers are top of their class, applying to top schools, and have amazing standarized test scores.</p>
<p>for a student applying to the ivys who is at the top of their class, what type of ACT score would be considered on par with the rest of the applicants that get admitted to their top tier schools?</p>
<p>the ivys say that they like to see SAT I + II scores starting with the number "7" but meanwhile what type of an ACT score does a admission officer at an ivy see and say "this student is smart, we'd like him/her at our school" i know the ACT score is not the deciding factor in admissions but what type of a score blows the admission officer away and what type of a score tells the admission officer that the student just simply is not up to par with their admission standards?</p>
<p>help me get some perspective CCers!! what type of ACT score are you submitting to the ivys and are getting in with or are getting rejected with or are getting deferrred with??</p>
<p>bump...im also interested in this question...my guess is >32ish? for brown/dartmouth.. 30ish for cornell and >33-34 for harvard/yale/columbia to be considered..but then again i could be SO off and ACT/SATs are not all that matters</p>
<p>linke3-
Wow. Out of 29,000 people in New York state who took the ACT last year, only 159 got a 34 or above..... pretty amazing..... that puts you in a Very Selective Group (VSG)-- in the tippy tippy top!!!! </p>
<p>My daughter also got a 34 on the ACT, but she decided not to apply to Columbia because she just felt that everything about the school was Pretentious (with a big P), starting with the architecture of the library and the cookie cutter classics reading requirement for freshmen that seemed right out of high school.... </p>
<p>The presenter kept on talking about how Columbia students "walk on water" when it was clear that he didn't know the first thing about the New Testament and the origins of the phrase "walking on water.........." or what it really means.....(it has nothing to do with earthly knowledge or status schools --- that's for sure...)</p>
<p>Still, I would have assumed that a 34 would be a major positive in getting you in to Columbia...... How did you do on the SATs? My daughter pulled a 1400 o her first and last test(2160 with writing) My theory is that they ( the ivies) still just really like the SATs-- something about the ability to do those dumb little uncreative tricky "tricks" with speed just inspires unmerited respect... Although the ACT seems to require more speed and general knowledge than the SAT, from what my daughter tells me....</p>
<p>I know many who scored very highly on the SAT "tricks" but who cannnot think inductively or creatively and who do not have street smarts......(I seriously doubt that Einstein would have scored very highly on the SAT-- he had extreme ADD, and did not even begin to talk until he was about 4 years old....yet he revolutionized the field of physics..... because he was an inductive and creative thinker.....)</p>
<p>Anyway, perhaps by the end of this thread we will find out if the selective schools take high ACT scores seriously or not.... thereby saving others the trouble of wasting time, prep money and energy on the test if it is not a serious test for admission....</p>
<p>All East Coast school prefer the SAT's that is just how it is. Thus if you get an amazing ACT score they would still rather have you take the SAT.
26-29 is O.K.
30-33 is great
34-36 is absolutely amazing</p>
<p>32-33ish, i agree. though they'd rather see an SAT plus SAT IIs, for sure. </p>
<p>And concerning Einstein... a lot of geniuses have trouble talking at first because their brains overcompensate in one area, leaving other areas lacking. Sort of a mild Savant, I guess.</p>
<p>I don't object to the idea that Elite East Coast Schools (EECS) may indeed prefer the SAT-- which looks obvious given the example of Linke3 here with a phenomenal top .05% ACT score of 34 who got deferred from Columbia (and the examples of other high ACT scorers in the IVy threads..). </p>
<p>BUT what I DO object to is the lack of integrity in their recruiting documents-- statements like "We accept the SAT OR the Act with Writing.." These statements lead one to believe that these tests are indeed equal, when its clear from scuttlebut and from Linke3's example that they are probably not.<br>
Schools that want to set a high standard of honesty and integrity should put in a qualifying statement in their documents: "We prefer the SAT but will consider ACT scores in absence of SAT." This would help many thousands avoid the waste of time and money taking a test that for some reason isn't valued in the process...... and will provide applicants with a better idea of which scores to send....
ACT scores predict freshman grades better than SAT-- so I am still wondering why this apparent bias....</p>
<p>My daughter got a 30 on the ACT, didn't take the SAT I, didn't report her SAT IIs, and just finished her first semester at Brown. As I recall, their average is a 29. Now her math and science scores pulled down her composite (averaging English and reading alone would have given her a 33) and her planned field isn't a science/tech one, so this might make a difference.</p>
<p>You can easily look up what the average ACT score is at any particular school BTW. If the school's web site doesn't show it, look at princetonreview.com or petersons.com.</p>
<p>I think that people get all bent out of shape about test scores. It is just one part of the gestalt of getting in -- they also look at the rigor of courses taken, the essays, the recommendations, the extracurriculars, any special talents or circumstances, etc. I'm sure there are kids who scored higher on the ACT that didn't get in to Brown (or Chicago or UNC-Chapel Hill as an out-of-state student, the other two competitive places that accepted her) -- but again more goes into the decision.</p>
<p>I wonder at all the conventional wisdom about how certain schools really prefer certain tests, despite what they say. I believe Princeton and Penn of the Ivies show a preference (the former clearly so), but I know of no reason not to take what they say as the truth. I've talked to a number of admissions people at various colleges and asked if there is a preferred test -- not a one has 'fessed up to their being one. (My daughter was deferred then rejected by Penn, but I don't know if it was the ACT thing. It could have been the courses from Brown on her transcript and the recommendations from Brown professors irked them! Or the absence of other tests -- there really is no way of knowing what are the deciding factors for a decision either way ...)</p>
<p>After all, there is an accepted conversion chart for the tests. If a college is used to one test and gets an application using another, the school simply makes the conversion. This is what an admission's director told me in a side discussion arising from a public forum. He knew my daughter had no interest in his school and so had no reason to lie to me.</p>
<p>Not that I can see any reason for a school to lie about this. They can have a preference if they want to and nothing would happen to them. Now it used to be that there were distinct sets of SAT and ACT schools, but I think it has largely fallen by the wayside in recent years.</p>
<p>If you are applying to the University of California, the pdf format of their application has a conversion chart they use for converting ACT scores to SAT scores (for example, 36=800, 35=780, 34=760, etc.) so I've been looking at that for reference... any idea if that is a good source?</p>
<p>Definitely using the U Cal chart is the way to go if you are going there. When I was looking at this before (last year, so before the writing part was added), I didn't run across anything that converted on a 800 point basis; they used 1600. I suspect that U Cal took the regular chart, divided by two, and then rounded.</p>
<p>If you google on "SAT ACT conversion chart," you will get a number of hits. I never found any difference among them -- although I admit that after a few I just got bored ... The college board itself has a conversion chart, so that is probably the one everybody copies.</p>