Top schools are seeing more ACT scores

Princeton University

For more than a half century, the ACT ran a distant second to the SAT in the college admissions
test-taking race.  It was the “We Try Harder,” entrance exam—popular in the Midwest and the South but hardly worthy of notice on either coast.

But all that has changed, as several years ago, the ACT pulled ahead of the SAT in terms of popularity among high school graduates.  And since then, the ACT has continued to widen the gap by aggressively marketing for use as statewide assessments.

It’s not that the College Board is hurting for customers.  A record 1.7 million students from the class of 2015 took the SAT, compared to 1.67 million students from the graduating class of 2014 and 1.65 million in the class of 2011.

But the number of high school graduates taking the ACT soared to a record 1.9 million students—nearly 60 percent of the 2015 U.S. graduating class.  In fact, over the past 10 years, the number of ACT test-takers has increased by nearly 60 percent, leaving the College Board with something serious to think about.

In all fairness, a significant percent of the growth experienced by the ACT is a direct result of the adoption of the ACT for statewide assessment.  For the graduating class of 2015, the ACT was required in 13 states. This year, that number will grow to 18 states, plus three additional states that fund the ACT on an optional basis. These students were pretty much required to take the ACT—like it or not.

But the good news for the ACT doesn’t end there.  Not surprisingly, the number of tests submitted for admissions purposes shows a similar trend.  Colleges are definitely seeing way more ACT scores than they did ten years ago. And it appears that many more students are taking both tests and submitting both sets of scores for consideration by colleges, particularly uber-selective institutions.
According to the New York Times, there appears to be a real “shift in the behavior of top high school students,” as many more are choosing to work toward top scores on both tests.  And that’s okay with the top colleges.

“I don’t know all the pieces of why this is happening, but I think more students are trying to make sure they’ve done everything they can,” said Janet Rapelye, dean of admissions at Princeton University, in an interview with the Times. “And for us, more information is always better. If students choose one or the other, that’s fine, because both tests have value. But if they submit both, that generally gives us a little more information.”

And applicants are getting the message.  Those with top scores on both tests want colleges to have the benefit of knowing they did well on both.  On the flipside, those who did significantly better on one test or the other tend to only submit the better set of scores—depending on the specific rules of the particular college or university.

Regardless, based on test-submission patterns easily tracked for colleges posting Common Data Set information, the College Board has a very real challenge making up for ground lost to the ACT.  And the redesigned SAT launching in the coming days may or may not be the tool needed to reverse the trend.

Here is a sample of test-submission statistics for the freshman class entering in 2005 as compared to the classes that entered in fall 2015 or 2014 (note that yearly totals exceeding 100% indicate colleges considered both the SAT and the ACT for some students):

Amherst College
2005 SAT:           87%       vs.          2005 ACT:          13%
2015 SAT:           53%       vs.          2015 ACT:          49%

Auburn University
2005 SAT:           31%       vs.          2005 ACT:          69%
2015 SAT:           14%       vs.          2015 ACT:          85%

Carnegie Mellon University
2005 SAT:           98%       vs.         2005 ACT:           17%
2015 SAT:           84%       vs.         2015 ACT:           37%

Case Western Reserve
2005 SAT:           89%       vs.         2005 ACT:           58%
2015 SAT:           57%       vs.         2015 ACT:           62%

College of William and Mary
2005 SAT:           97%       vs.         2005 ACT:           3%
2015 SAT:           80%       vs.         2015 ACT:           44%

Cornell University
2005 SAT:           98%       vs.         2005 ACT:           18%
2015 SAT:           75%       vs.         2015 ACT:           45%

Dartmouth University
2005 SAT:           89%       vs.         2005 ACT:           11%
2015 SAT:           59%       vs.         2015 ACT:           41%

Georgetown University*
2005 SAT:          95%        vs.           2005 ACT:            7%
2014 SAT:          84%        vs.           2014 ACT:          40%   
         
Lehigh University
2005 SAT:           98%        vs.          2005 ACT:            2%
2015 SAT:           63%        vs.          2015 ACT:          37%  
  
MIT*
2005 SAT:           92%       vs.         2005 ACT:           20%
2014 SAT:           84%       vs.         2014 ACT:           42%

Princeton University
2005 SAT:           100%     vs.         2005 ACT:           N/A      
2015 SAT:           80%       vs.         2015 ACT:           36%

Purdue University
2005 SAT:           83%        vs.         2005 ACT:          43%
2015 SAT:           73%        vs.          2015 ACT:         58%

Stanford University
2005 SAT:           97%       vs.         2005 ACT:           23%
2015 SAT:           80%       vs.         2015 ACT:           51%

Swarthmore College
2005 SAT:           99%       vs.         2005 ACT:           14.9%
2015 SAT:           73%       vs.         2015 ACT:           46%

UC Berkeley*
2005 SAT:           99%       vs.         2005 ACT:           N/A
2014 SAT:           85%       vs.         2014 ACT:           43% 
 
University of Michigan
2005 SAT:           55%       vs.         2005 ACT:           66%
2015 SAT:           27%       vs.         2015 ACT            83%

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2005 SAT:           99%      vs.         2005 ACT:           22%
2015 SAT:           76%      vs.         2015 ACT:           74%

University of Pittsburgh
2005 SAT:            99%       vs.         2005 ACT:           20%
2015 SAT:            85%       vs.         2015 ACT:           47%

University of Texas-Austin
2005 SAT:           94%       vs.         2005 ACT:           29.4%
2015 SAT:           82.8%    vs.         2015 ACT:           55.1%

University of Virginia
2005 SAT:           99%       vs.         2005 ACT:           14%
2015 SAT:           82%       vs.         2015 ACT:           44%

Vanderbilt University
2005 SAT:           89%       vs.         2005 ACT:           53%
2015 SAT:           41%       vs.         2015 ACT:           63%

Vassar College*
2005 SAT:           93%       vs.         2005 ACT:           22%
2014 SAT:           70%       vs.         2014 ACT:           43%

Virginia Commonwealth University
2005 SAT:           95%      vs.         2005 ACT:            15%
2015 SAT:           87.4%    vs.        2015 ACT:            26.9%  

Washington and Lee University
2005 SAT:           80%       vs.         2005 ACT:           18%
2015 SAT:           46%       vs.         2015 ACT:           53%

Wesleyan University
2005 SAT:            94%       vs.         2005 ACT:           18%
2015 SAT:            61%       vs.         2015 ACT:           38%

Yale University*
2005 SAT:            96%      vs.          2005 ACT:           22%
2014 SAT:            79%      vs.          2014 ACT:           41%

*The most recent Common Data Set posted online is 2014-15