<p>Don't know, it must be a NJ thing ;)</p>
<p>I believe Stanford requires 3.</p>
<p>EDIT: Nevermind it's 2, that is, unless you took the old SAT I:
"We strongly recommend that students taking the new SAT also take two SAT Subject Tests. We recommend Math Level 2 as one of these tests; the other test can be in any subject of your choosing. For those students submitting scores only from the old SAT, we strongly recommend three SAT Subject Tests, one of which should be Math Level 2, or the former Math IIC."</p>
<p>(source: <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/applying/1_2e4_standardizedtest.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/applying/1_2e4_standardizedtest.html</a>)</p>
<p>
[quote]
why would anyone want to take SATs and three SAT IIs (so long... seven hrs total in testing!) why wouldn't people just take the ACTs?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Often, I think it is habit, or least what has traditionally been done by people shooting for particular schools or living in particular areas. People either don't research for themselves what is true now or are just uneasy bucking what everyone else has or is continuing to do around them. I know when my daughter or I told people that she wasn't taking the SAT, they always seemed to think that was so terribly "risky." My arguments that all the schools she was interested in took the ACT, that she liked the format of the ACT better, and that she scored better in practice on the ACT fell on deaf ears. "I don't know ... Everyone I know is taking the SAT and that is what the high school recommends, I think," etc.</p>
<p>As to why many don't just replace the SAT I and II's with the ACT, one reason is that you are not likely going to get into Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, the UC's, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, Cooper Union, MIT, Haverford, and some others without taking the SAT II's as they require them even if you submit the ACT. Also, Stanford, UVirginia, and a number of others that "recommend" II's expect to see them in addition to the SAT or ACT.</p>
<p>Note also that most students actually do not take SAT II's because most are not applying to the minority of colleges that require them.</p>