Despite whatever feelings he has about the ACT, Georgetown’s admissions dean Charles Deacon concedes that the highly-selective university saw an increased number of students taking and submitting ACT scores this year. According to The Hoya, Georgetown’s student-run newspaper, the number of students submitting ACT scores was about even with those submitting SAT scores among this fall’s early applicants.
And this is a relatively new phenomenon.
For more than a half century, the ACT ran a distant second to the SAT in the high-stakes college admissions 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 that all changed several years ago, as the ACT pulled ahead of the SAT in terms of test-taking popularity. And since then, the ACT has continued to widen the gap.
It’s not that the College Board is hurting for customers. In fact, more test-takers completed the new SAT from March through June of 2016 than took the old SAT during the same period in 2015, according to a report published by the College Board last fall.
But the number of high school graduates taking the ACT soared to a record 2.1 million students—nearly 64 percent of graduating seniors. From 2012-2016, the number of ACT test-taking high school grads increased by 25.5 percent, while the estimated overall number of graduates has increased by only 1.3 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 2016, the ACT was administered to all public school graduates in 20 states. 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 a decade 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 choose to work toward high scores on both tests. And that’s okay with 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.
It will be interesting to see how this trend evolves as “new” or redesigned SAT test results make their appearance among this year’s admissions decisions, particularly as the SAT has transformed itself into yet another curriculum-based test and blurred its differences with the ACT.
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.
Here is a sample of test-submission statistics for the freshman class entering in 2005 as compared to the classes entering in fall 2016 (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%
2016 SAT: 52% (53% in 2015)vs. 2016 ACT: 51% (49% in 2015)
Auburn University
2005 SAT: 31% vs. 2005 ACT: 69%
2016 SAT: 12% (14%) vs. 2016 ACT: 87% (85%)
Carnegie Mellon University
2005 SAT: 98% vs. 2005 ACT: 17%
2016 SAT: 78% (84%) vs. 2015 ACT: 41% (37%)
Case Western Reserve
2005 SAT: 89% vs. 2005 ACT: 58%
2016 SAT: 50% (57%) vs. 2016 ACT: 66% (62%)
College of William and Mary
2005 SAT: 97% vs. 2005 ACT: 3%
2016 SAT: 77% (80%) vs. 2016 ACT: 44% (44%)
Cornell University
2005 SAT: 98% vs. 2005 ACT: 18%
2016 SAT: 69% (75%) vs. 2016 ACT: 51% (45%)
Dartmouth University
2005 SAT: 89% vs. 2005 ACT: 11%
2016 SAT: 53% (59%) vs. 2016 ACT: 47% (41%)
Georgetown University*
2005 SAT: 95% vs. 2005 ACT: 7%
2015 SAT: 78% (84% in 2014)vs. 2015 ACT: 47% (40% in 2014)
Lehigh University
2005 SAT: 98% vs. 2005 ACT: 2%
2016 SAT: 58% (63%) vs. 2016 ACT: 42% (37%)
Princeton University
2005 SAT: 100% vs. 2005 ACT: N/A
2016 SAT: 73% (80%) vs. 2016 ACT: 45% (36%)
Stanford University
2005 SAT: 97% vs. 2005 ACT: 23%
2016 SAT: 77% (80%) vs. 2016 ACT: 51% (51%)
Swarthmore College
2005 SAT: 99% vs. 2005 ACT: 14.9%
2016 SAT: 67.5% (73%) vs. 2016 ACT: 48.7% (46%)
University of Michigan
2005 SAT: 55% vs. 2005 ACT: 66%
2016 SAT: 26% (27%) vs. 2016 ACT 82 (83%)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2005 SAT: 99% vs. 2005 ACT: 22%
2016 SAT: 71% (76%) vs. 2016 ACT: 78% (74%)
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh campus)
2005 SAT: 99% vs. 2005 ACT: 20%
2015 SAT: 80% (85%) vs. 2015 ACT: 50% (47%)
University of Virginia
2005 SAT: 99% vs. 2005 ACT: 14%
2015 SAT: 77% (82%) vs. 2015 ACT: 50% (44%)
Vanderbilt University
2005 SAT: 89% vs. 2005 ACT: 53%
2015 SAT: 37.6% (41%) vs. 2015 ACT: 67.2% (63%)
Virginia Commonwealth University
2005 SAT: 95% vs. 2005 ACT: 15%
2015 SAT: 81.1% (87.4%) vs. 2015 ACT: 26.4% (26.9%)
Washington and Lee University
2005 SAT: 80% vs. 2005 ACT: 18%
2015 SAT: 37% (46%) vs. 2015 ACT: 63% (53%)
Wesleyan University
2005 SAT: 94% vs. 2005 ACT: 18%
2015 SAT: 58% (61%) vs. 2015 ACT: 41% (38%)
*The most recent Common Data Set posted online is 2015-16
