<p>Why is it that colleges look at each section for the SAT, but only the composite for ACT? Do ivies do this as well?</p>
<p>This seems to give ACT a distinct advantage...</p>
<p>My SAT Score is 2280, but 800math,790writing, and 690 cr. obvious discrepancy..</p>
<p>ACT on the other hand is 33.</p>
<p>I fear that the 690 cr will harm me in my ED application to columbia. Thanks for thoughts</p>
<p>Writing is not added into the composite on the ACT and the research on whether or not the writing section actually predicts college success is still being done.</p>
<p>No just wondering why colleges ask for highest composite ACT, yet ask for highest of each section for the SAT</p>
<p>Your 690 cr SHOULD/will harm your chances at any ivy…</p>
<p>1490 math/CR is in higher than 50 percentile at a lot of school…as is a 2280 composite…</p>
<p>NW: wouldn’t it be nice if anyone actually answered your original question? well, the reason "why colleges ask for highest composite ACT, yet ask for highest of each section for the SAT " is because they report that way to the college board/USNews for ranking purposes…</p>
<p>If college board started breaking out the ACT into component parts, colleges would follow…but they don’t…hope that helps.</p>
<p>^^actually, rodney, if your response is correct, why wouldn’t colleges just superscore the ACT? (few do)</p>
<p>sry, OP, dunno the answer to your question…and, I’ve never seen a good reason why college don’t superscore the ACT either.</p>
<p>bluebayou: wish I knew the answer to that one too…just as a hypothesis…is it possible they don’t superscore because they know that one would have to send separeately each date that ACT was taken? (not sure most would care though)…as I said, just guessing…</p>
<p>another question that this made me think of though; if one were to send a school more than one ACT score, would they actually ignore the lower composite or would they acknowledge why the student sent more than one? (hmmmmmm, interesting q for an admissions office on a visit…)</p>
<p>^^re: your last q…a couple of adcoms I spoke with gave the politically correct answer: "sure, send 'em and we will look at all ACT scores, yada, yada, yada…which can be a good thing if someone bombed the science section. But, note that the same adcom does not say that they will recompute a new composite, instead they’ll just “look at” the scores.</p>
<p>There are a few colleges that do superscore the ACT however, WashU and MIT being a couple of the highly selective ones that will.</p>
<p>^^yup; not in that stratosphere with this kid…I’ll post if I hear of any more…</p>
<p>A lot has to do with cost. For $9.50 you can send an SAT score report that includes any or all of your scores from prior tests. So you only have to pay $9.50 for each school you apply to. ACT, on the other hand, charges $9 for each test date sent, and $26 per test date for scores 2+ years old. So if colleges superscored the ACT, and you took the ACT once as a sophomore, getting your highest Reading score then, and your highest Math scores on retaking the first time as a junior and your highest Science score when re-taking the second time as a senior, and you apply to colleges as a senior, you’d feel like you need to send all three scores, which would cost you $44 ($26 for your sophomore score plus $9 each for your junior and senior scores) for each college you apply to. Say you apply to 10 colleges; that’s $440 just for ACT scores, in addition to whatever application fees the colleges charge. If the colleges ask for just your highest composite score, you’ll send only one score, likely from your junior or senior year, so it will cost you $9, roughly what it costs the kids who sends in SAT scores. The testing companies’ pricing policies are completely irrational and arbitrary, but the colleges don’t control that; they just don’t want to impose financial penalties on kids from certain regions or socioeconomic groups where the ACT is more common. It may seem unfair if you think you’d get a higher score by superscoring tha ACT. On the other hand, colleges know the ACT isn’t superscored, so they may take that into account and weigh a given ACT score a little more heavily than the nominally corresponding SAT score, knowing that they’re superscoring the SAT but not the ACT.</p>
<p>bc:</p>
<p>yeah I get the cost argument, but have never heard a college rep use it as their rationale for not superscoring. </p>
<p>MIT, for example, superscores the ACT, so they obviously not as concerned about application the costs. Other colleges, such as Cornell-CAS, have publicly stated that 'we’ll consider the individual subscores, so send ‘em all’, but yet their official position is to not superscore, i.e., recompute a new composite. Sure, if they did, it might disadvantage those that only sent in one ACT score, but by considering individual subscores across tests, colleges are disadvantaging those kids anyway, are they not?</p>
<p>Even if you report your composite score, eventually they will see all the subscores when the reports are sent. I think initially it just gives the admission department an idea. However on the common application they ask you to report not only the composite, but also all the subscores as well. So, colleges do look at all of the sections on your ACT score. </p>
<p>I think when they are comparing lets say a SAT to a ACT the composite score is easier to think about when you are comparing. A 31 is comparable to a 2000 on the SAT for instance.</p>
<p>University of the Pacific does add the Math and English together, as well as look at the ACT composite. They’ll take the best sub-scores. This is what an admissions person told me when I called a few days ago. She had told me to have my daughter send in both ACT scores for that reason. In that case, her composite of 28 will still have the two higher Eng. and Math. scores. 34 and 28. Her second composite score was 30, but her Eng. and Math were 31 and 27. It was her READING score that went up from 24 to 33! I hope they peek at that, too. Her Science score even went up a bit from 24 to 27.</p>
<p>Quote:</p>
<p>If college board started breaking out the ACT into component parts, colleges would follow…but they don’t…hope that helps.</p>
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</p>
<p>Of course, but they don’t report the superscored number on their common data set. So colleges concerned about their rank…</p>
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<p>Well more like a ~2070, but more to the point: that 2000 is superscored, but the 31 is not!</p>
<p>“Of course, but they don’t report the superscored number on their common data set. So colleges concerned about their rank…”</p>
<p>bluebayou: right on there; then the next question remains: With the ACT increasing in popularity, when will colleges be permitted/encouraged (better word) to report the superscored number on their common data set?</p>
<p>Only then will they have the incentive to superscore…imo…when it helps their rank…</p>