If you take the SAT and you do not do well, should you take the ACT?
"Yes; people seem to be more comfortable with one or the other format. One should repeat the test one did best on."
- Tony Strickland, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
"Most students take one or the other. I recommend that you take the SAT or ACT multiple times. Being comfortable with the test can help to boost your score."
- Roland M. Allen, Associate Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Is there a formula that admissions offices use to rank prospective applicants that depends upon, say, grades, SAT, SAT II, AP classes taken, or extra activities?
"While MIT does not use a formula, past academic performance (grades!) in better courses is the most important profile component of an applicant. Everything else (SATs, recommendations, extracurriculars) support that. The reasoning here is that past performance is considered the best indicator of future performance."
- Roland M. Allen, Associate Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"We bring rank and SAT/ACT together as a rough screening device; APs, leadership, nature of school, and a myriad other factors then come into play."
- Tony Strickland, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Do colleges look at all your SAT scores or just the best one? And, will most colleges look at the best scores from different sittings or from just one sitting?
"Most universities take the single highest score in each category of the SAT."
- Roland M. Allen, Associate Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Best verbal and best math from all sittings."
- Tony Strickland, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
What role does the SAT play in the admissions process of your school?
"They are useful but only in context; not as influential as four years of demonstrated performance in and out of class."
- Tony Strickland, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
"The most persistent question I am asked when I do admissions presentations is: What is the minimum SAT required to get in? Of course, every highly selective university will skirt that question and talk in generalities about the middle 50 percent range of competitive applicants. The SATs are important. That is why colleges and universities ask for them. But, they are mostly used in collaboration with other information we know about you: the quality of courses in a chosen curriculum, consistency of academic performance, initiative in academics and extracurricular involvement, support from teachers, and other factors. I cannot give a numerical value of the importance of the SATs."
- Roland M. Allen, Associate Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"SATs measure verbal and mathematical reasoning ability to do college level work. Used alone, they are not good predictors of academic success. However, when used in conjunction with secondary school performance, rigor of academic course history, record of achievement and activity in and out of school, recommendations, and writing samples, a sharper assessment of the talent and ability of a student can be made. Our validity study indicates that our ability to predict student success is better with SAT results than without them."
- Michael Steidel, Director of Admission, Carnegie Mellon University
How much do SAT IIs matter?
"MIT is very specific as to which SAT IIs are needed: one in either history or language, one in a science, and one in math. (The TOEFL can be substituted for the writing or history SAT II by any student who is either foreign-speaking international, or whose household language is not usually English.) At MIT, we understand the importance of numbers, so we do not use these tests lightly. They are used as predictors of preparation of a student for our freshman core, which includes four courses in science, two in calculus, and two in humanities. The SAT IIs help us make sense of what we see on the transcript as we choose our class."
- Roland M. Allen, Associate Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"In the competitive college admissions world, everything matters. SAT IIs matter most at those colleges that are the most selective. When there are 5-10 qualified applicants for every space at a college, every credential is magnified. Also, colleges are interested in an impartial view of you as a writer... UNC-CH requires the Math IIc for placement, and it should be taken no later than January of senior year."
- Tony Strickland, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
"SAT IIs measure subject knowledge. In some programs at Carnegie Mellon, particularly in the more technical fields, there is strong correlation between subject knowledge as measured by the SAT II Subject Tests and freshman performance. As a result, SAT IIs can be important in assessing student strengths, abilities, and goodness of fit for these programs while attempting to predict freshman performance. While the SATIIs can be helpful in better understanding student knowledge in a particular subject area, nothing replaces the predictive value of secondary school performance."
- Michael Steidel, Director of Admission, Carnegie Mellon University
"SAT IIs are required for placement purposes at UT Austin but not required as part of the application process."
- Bruce Walker, Associate VP-Student Affairs, University of Texas-Austin
