Which Do Colleges Want: SAT or ACT?

A question I get a lot is whether it’s better to submit SAT or ACT scores to colleges.

Right now, a lot of colleges have “test optional” policies, where if you don’t submit scores, it’s not supposed to hurt your chance of admission. But if you have great scores, sending those can help put your best foot forward and increase your chance of admission.

Then the question becomes, “Which scores do colleges prefer, SAT or ACT?” And the answer is… they don’t care. It doesn’t matter what state they’re in, what state you’re from, or what your major is. To whatever extent colleges use these scores, they just want to see the best version of you.

And because these tests are made by two separate companies, you only have to pay one of them to submit your better score. About 90% of colleges will superscore the SAT — taking your best of each subject, even from different test days — while about 70% will superscore your ACT.

So dig through each college’s website because, depending on their policies, you might send your ACT superscore to some schools, but your SAT superscore to others.

Either way, colleges can convert one to the other. And you can too with this concordance table:
https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/guide-2018-act-sat-concordance.pdf

So try out both tests, see which one produces your higher score, and just submit the one you’re most proud of.

If you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.