I am applying to NYU Abu Dhabi, which has an unusual approach to standardized tests. They allow you to pick from a list of standardized tests such as ACT, SAT, AP tests and more. Typically, I share all of them, but they only allow you to select one option. I’m sure if I sent in more they would review them, but I don’t know if that’s necessary. The problem with my tests is I performed well on my SAT in Math, my ACT in English and Science, and my AP’s in everything except languages.
You can submit just three AP’s, which is Literature/Humanities, Math/Science, and your choice. If I can count Psychology as a humanity I can submit only 5s, which is technically a perfect score, but I’m sure way more people have 3 5s than say a perfect score on the ACT or SAT (I don’t have either, I’m just saying it doesn’t seem super impressive).
Scores:
ACT:
Math, 32
English: 36
Science: 35
Composite: 35
(the prior ACT had a 33 for math, but everything else was worse so I don’t want to submit that one)
SAT:
English, 720
Math, 770
(Both SAT and ACT have abysmally low writing scores, but I think ACT was better.
APs:
5s on all sciences, statistics, and psychology
4s on languages and history
What do we think? Should I submit one of these or all of them. All of them are in Common App, but I could remove some for just this application.
The only way to get the ACT you listed is with a 35 or 36 in Reading. That score concords to a 1530 or 1540 SAT, so definitely the ACT over the SAT.
I also agree that there are many, many 5’s in AP world, so it’s hard to differentiate yourself that way. And with one needing to be a 4, I’d stick with ACT.
What exactly is the wording? If it says send only one, sending them all would not be a good idea, IMHO. Not following instructions and making more work for admissions officers is not a way to improve your chances.
Sorry I didn’t make it clear. It says ‘what would you like to submit in support of your application’ and lists all the options, but it also says to only send the most competitive scores, because they will review everything they see. It seems to me that they expect you to submit at least the one. Perhaps I will just leave all of my scores in the common app and only submit the ACT officially.
I believe it was a 36 on reading, I just wish I had a better Math score on that test so I could be more confident in just sending the one (especially considering I’m going into STEM).
This is something like a year and a half later and I am still exceptionally pissed that they confiscated my calculator for that ACT (which is why I ended up with the poor math score). They had told me it was acceptable, so I left my backup calculator, and then the proctor took it away. I can’t really say anything about it though, because there’s no way to prove it and it just looks like an excuse.
The caveat is that the SAT and the ACT differ in their EBRW difficulty, so it is really hard to determine which one you did better in. However, your ACT total score is a better score, so I would send that one.
Thanks for the help. I think the conclusion is that I will probably submit just the ACT officially but submit all of the rest unofficially on the Common App. Or, if they don’t require any official test reports I will just report them all on the Common App.
