<p>So I have a 36 ACT and a 2110 SAT (mostly because of distractions such as bulldozers and construction going on at the time of testing right next to my room). I figure, hey, Harvard's pretty cool, they'll scratch out my SAT, and just look at my better number, the 36. </p>
<p>No. I just had my interview today, and the alum said I'm a very competitive applicant, but if I wanna improve my chances I need to retake the SAT BECAUSE they prefer it over the ACT. The dude was ultra conservative though, so I dont know if that has anything to do with it (Harvard itself being liberal btw). I had heard rumors of this, but nothing confirmed.</p>
<p>Thoughts? Can anybody prove me wrong, particularly students or adcoms? I need to know by Thursday whether i should take the December SAT or not, and i would love CCs opinion on this.</p>
<p>But you know, I think you might talk to the admissions office about this, that way they can a) tell you if he's wrong and b) tell the interviewer to stop giving out misinformation.</p>
<p>True. Because that scared the living stuff outta me. I shall give them a call tomorrow. But the dude did know alot. Like how they rank schools in states, etc. But idk if they do that as much anymore, i mean stick to these lists anymore.</p>
<p>He just said like they have a list which has ranked the schools in the state, or in the area.</p>
<p>See my problem is that I know Harvard probably used to do it, but I thought they were moving away from all of that stuff (especially preferring the SAT over the ACT). So I dont know if it's just his own opinion, old fact, or today's truth.</p>
<p>So far I have talked to lots of people and they have all told me that Harvard does not hold one or the other. I'll continue to update you guys on what i hear. :) Thanks for the responses</p>
<p>For example, bicyclekick, if there was 2 applicants that looked exactly the same, one would get in over the other if their school was higher on the list.</p>
<p>I talked to some counselors today who had some contacts on the admissions committee, and they said that the guy who told me all of this stuff is grossly misinformed and wrong, at least about the ACT and SAT. Case closed, at least for now.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for your help!</p>
<p>Btw, the skeptic report kit does help, I use it all the time. :)</p>
<p>hmm, well i would think the school lower on the list would help you get in, don't they want bright and unique students from underprivileged backgrounds? or is that all just talk?</p>
<p>^ That's what I thought! Because if a school is higher ranked, it'll probably have more people from that school applying to the top colleges. They would also have more opportunities, better teachers..etc and that's probably why they made higher scores on tests and such.</p>
<p>I honestly do think SATs are preferred over SATs only because the bracket for each ACT can only go so high. I dunno...I just find it odd that all of my ~2000 SAT/~650 SAT ii friends are getting 34s and 35s on the ACT. I just find ACTs just not valid enough to predict academic ability...but then again, neither does standardized testing in general.</p>
<p>But yeah, in my opinion SAT score > ACT. The SAT scores just seem to correlate more with academic achievement/ability more than the ACT scores do.</p>