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Are there really any colleges that only accept the ACT but not the SAT, or vice versa?


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The question of why so many kids take both the SAT and ACT came up in another homeschooling group, and *seven* different people claimed that it's necessary because some colleges only accept one and not the other, and some even claimed that some schools prefer, or even require, that students take both the SAT and the ACT. I'm wondering if those people are confusing the general SAT with the subject tests, and when they see that some schools require the SAT or ACT plus 2-3 SAT subject tests, they are misinterpreting that as ACT + SAT.

Does anyone know of an actual college that only accepts one test, but not the other, or that requires (or says they prefer) to see both tests?

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In cases like this I often ask them to give me an example. 

I think it may have been more of a possibility back in the 1980s when applications were more regional. So it's possible they are remembering something from their youth.

Another possibility is that the ACT eliminates or reduces the need for other requirements like subject tests (Uni of Hawaii) or lab reports (Arizona State). This might come ti be thought of as needing to take one over the other.

There is a similar statement often made about Latin not being acceptable. The only school I could find that said they required a modern world language was US Air Force Academy and even then I've heard if exceptions.

 

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6 minutes ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

In cases like this I often ask them to give me an example. 

I think it may have been more of a possibility back in the 1980s when applications were more regional. So it's possible they are remembering something from their youth.

Another possibility is that the ACT eliminates or reduces the need for other requirements like subject tests (Uni of Hawaii) or lab reports (Arizona State). This might come ti be thought of as needing to take one over the other.

There is a similar statement often made about Latin not being acceptable. The only school I could find that said they required a modern world language was US Air Force Academy and even then I've heard if exceptions.

 

Yes, I was thinking the same thing about Latin — someone gets a mistaken idea, which then gets picked up and repeated, and pretty soon it's considered "common knowledge" even though it's untrue. 

One thing I really appreciate about this board is that not only are the folks here very helpful, they generally know what they're talking about! That seems pretty rare as far as homeschooling forums go. 

 

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Nope and nope. (And I've been looking at a LOT of college admission requirement pages.) I've seen some that clearly receive a lot more of one than the other, but none have said they require one specifically or both tests.

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

Does anyone know of an actual college that only accepts one test, but not the other, or that requires (or says they prefer) to see both tests?

 

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5 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

There is a similar statement often made about Latin not being acceptable. The only school I could find that said they required a modern world language was US Air Force Academy and even then I've heard if exceptions.

Speaking of which... I just now read this exact sentence on another homeschool list: "colleges want modern languages, not Latin. "   <SMH>

(I am seriously missing the emojis right now!)

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I think I saw the same post about only modern languages. I don't have the energy to correct everyone on the internet so I let it go.

There will always be people who base their plans on recollections of impressions of anecdotes. These same people sometimes complain that no one told them about xyz.  

Or they know the outcome for a particular student in a particular state applying to a particular college. They don't recognize where there are differences between that situation and that of their own student.  

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Rhodes College, where my daughter attends, had requirements for SATII for homeschooled kids.  SHe took ACT and had dual enrollment in a science class and Spanish and they accepted her without SAT 11s.  I have never encountered a college that only accepts one but some have easier hoops to jump through if you use one or another.  I know that middle daughter got to skip freshman comp because of her ACT score and she moved up to a higher English class.

So I agree with others above that it is either from ignorance or from shortening the requirements to what is the easiest way to do it

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I think it was the case "back in the day" that some colleges only accepted one or the other but I do not believe that is at all true today. I have never seen it. 

I live firmly in ACT country. The only kids I know that take the SAT are those that are National Merit eligible. But kids go all over.

Our regional state Us have ACT scores that place you out of certain classes like Comp 1. I am pretty sure they offer an SAT equivalent score for placement. 

I have heard that some schools will accept ACT with writing instead of SAT 2s but we have not personally encountered that anywhere we looked. 

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2 hours ago, dmmetler said:

The community college here uses the ACT for placement, so if you have just the SAT, you need to do the COMPASS as well, but if you have the ACT with good enough scores, you need only that. 

Ours is similar. My kids just took the placement test. But i know some families who want to avoid that (I'm not sure why). So I will hear people say you have to take the ACT for the CC. Not the whole truth.

A few years back a popular college prep speaker at conferences was making very categorical statements about what was possible or required.  A few things she said I knew were wrong, but she wouldn't qualify them even when asked directly.  But it freed my time up during her other workshops. I did wonder how many people accepted what she said with no other research. 

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2 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

Ours is similar. My kids just took the placement test. But i know some families who want to avoid that (I'm not sure why). So I will hear people say you have to take the ACT for the CC. Not the whole truth.

Do you have to pay for the placement test at CCs there? It's free here, and it's much quicker and easier than the ACT. I can't imagine why someone would rather go through the hassle of registering weeks in advance and paying $46 to take the ACT,  just to avoid a much easier test they could take for free any time they wanted as a walk-in!

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1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

Do you have to pay for the placement test at CCs there? It's free here, and it's much quicker and easier than the ACT. I can't imagine why someone would rather go through the hassle of registering weeks in advance and paying $46 to take the ACT,  just to avoid a much easier test they could take for free any time they wanted as a walk-in!

The placement tests are free and there is a limited ability to retake them if the placement is low.  I don't really get why some folks see the placement test as a burden.  Perhaps they already have ACT scores from annual progress requirements.

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There are colleges that will accept an ACT score in lieu of an SAT score but not many. (This does not say that the ACT is required; just  that it can be used lieu of)

Actually, the list of colleges not requiring either test is growing as studies are showing that SAT scores are correlated with family income and not success in college. Some of the top colleges in the country no longer require either test  or have de-emphasized the use of the test scores in their admission decision.

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1 hour ago, RenaInTexas said:

There are colleges that will accept an ACT score in lieu of an SAT score but not many. (This does not say that the ACT is required; just  that it can be used lieu of)

Actually, the list of colleges not requiring either test is growing as studies are showing that SAT scores are correlated with family income and not success in college. Some of the top colleges in the country no longer require either test  or have de-emphasized the use of the test scores in their admission decision.

I think you are misreading the paragraph in the article. I think the short list there is schools that require:

SAT Reasoning plus SAT Subject Tests

OR require

ACT.

The question from the original post is if there are schools that only take the SAT Reasoning test or only the ACT.

Also the statement in the article that no school requires  more than two Subject Tests may not be true for a homeschool applicant. 

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1 hour ago, RenaInTexas said:

There are colleges that will accept an ACT score in lieu of an SAT score but not many. (This does not say that the ACT is required; just  that it can be used lieu of)

Actually, the list of colleges not requiring either test is growing as studies are showing that SAT scores are correlated with family income and not success in college. Some of the top colleges in the country no longer require either test  or have de-emphasized the use of the test scores in their admission decision.

I agree with the below quoted post that perhaps you misread the question in the original post (or the article?). Also, I will note that at least the first linked article is from 2014, so the data is, in some cases, outdated. And, I agree with the below quoted post that homeschool applicants are sometimes asked to submit more (SAT Subject Tests, for example) than other Freshman applicants. For example, George Washington University is listed as test-optional in one of the linked articles. However, their admission FAQ says that homeschooled applicants are required to submit standardized test scores. Students who attend online high schools must also submit standardized test scores to GWU.

I picked one other college from the FairTest site (which lists colleges that offer 'test optional' applications) at random (Augustana). It looks like that although they are test-optional, they do require that a SAT or ACT be supplied for placement purposes before actually attending. They also require an interview for homeschooled, non-traditional, and test-optional students. I could not find a requirement for standardized test scores for homeschoolers.

Okay, so I picked another college at random: Knox College. They don't require SAT/ACT scores of regular applicants, but do of homeschooled applicants. (On a weird note, their website says that if you are an "ndocumented immigrant residing in the U.S.", you "should apply as [a] Home Schooled Applicant." Seems strange.) 

19 minutes ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

I think you are misreading the paragraph in the article. I think the short list there is schools that require:

SAT Reasoning plus SAT Subject Tests

OR require

ACT.

The question from the original post is if there are schools that only take the SAT Reasoning test or only the ACT.

Also the statement in the article that no school requires  more than two Subject Tests may not be true for a homeschool applicant. 

 

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19 hours ago, Corraleno said:

Do you have to pay for the placement test at CCs there? It's free here, and it's much quicker and easier than the ACT. I can't imagine why someone would rather go through the hassle of registering weeks in advance and paying $46 to take the ACT,  just to avoid a much easier test they could take for free any time they wanted as a walk-in!

The CC here wants the ACT if you’re in high school at the time you apply. I assume that this is because the ACT is given to all PS high school students as a graduation requirement. If you are out of high school, or already have SAT scores (presumably those applying from out of state) then you can do the COMPASS, but you can’t just walk in and take it and skip the ACT or SAT unless you’re willing to sit out a semester after graduation.

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On 4/5/2018 at 11:34 AM, dmmetler said:

The CC here wants the ACT if you’re in high school at the time you apply. I assume that this is because the ACT is given to all PS high school students as a graduation requirement. If you are out of high school, or already have SAT scores (presumably those applying from out of state) then you can do the COMPASS, but you can’t just walk in and take it and skip the ACT or SAT unless you’re willing to sit out a semester after graduation.

That's a good example of the intricacies of how the tests are utilized.  If I'm understanding correctly, a student could use either ACT or SAT to meet the admissions requirement.  However for placement they need either ACT, SAT and COMPASS, or time since graduation plus COMPASS.

This is why it quickly gets complicated to answer questions about what students need without asking more questions and qualifying what exactly you are talking about.

And if I remember your dd's journey correctly, the more a situation is outside the norm the more categorical statements don't really apply.

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On 4/3/2018 at 6:20 PM, Sebastian (a lady) said:

I think I saw the same post about only modern languages. I don't have the energy to correct everyone on the internet so I let it go.

There will always be people who base their plans on recollections of impressions of anecdotes. These same people sometimes complain that no one told them about xyz.  

Even worse — yesterday I saw someone in another homeschooling group authoritatively state "Most colleges don't care about foreign language any more," while assuring another parent that it was totally fine to skip foreign language.

Most colleges. In the entire US. Don't care if you have any foreign language on the transcript.  

I checked a random sample of 10 colleges in my state, from flagships to directional publics to small LACs, and every single one said they wanted to see either 2-3 years or 3-4 years of foreign language.  I feel sorry for anyone who takes that pronouncement as gospel without doing any further research, because there are going to be some unhappy seniors int those families.

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3 hours ago, Corraleno said:

Even worse — yesterday I saw someone in another homeschooling group authoritatively state "Most colleges don't care about foreign language any more," while assuring another parent that it was totally fine to skip foreign language.

Most colleges. In the entire US. Don't care if you have any foreign language on the transcript.  

I checked a random sample of 10 colleges in my state, from flagships to directional publics to small LACs, and every single one said they wanted to see either 2-3 years or 3-4 years of foreign language.  I feel sorry for anyone who takes that pronouncement as gospel without doing any further research, because there are going to be some unhappy seniors int those families.

 

Ouch! This was the kind of "helpful advise" given to me right when my oldest was starting high school. People would say these things with dead seriousness! At first, I took their word as gospel, because I didn't know any better. Once I started doing my own research, I was flabbergasted!

Then, I would try to gently correct, or re-direct, those types of people when they would give erroneous information to other homeschoolers. It NEVER worked. The other homeschooler simply wanted to hear whatever it was they wanted to hear.

So I gave up. I just focus on my own kids and leave others to their own devices. The information is out there if they should choose to find it. lol

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4 hours ago, Corraleno said:

Even worse — yesterday I saw someone in another homeschooling group authoritatively state "Most colleges don't care about foreign language any more," while assuring another parent that it was totally fine to skip foreign language.

Most colleges. In the entire US. Don't care if you have any foreign language on the transcript.  

I checked a random sample of 10 colleges in my state, from flagships to directional publics to small LACs, and every single one said they wanted to see either 2-3 years or 3-4 years of foreign language.  I feel sorry for anyone who takes that pronouncement as gospel without doing any further research, because there are going to be some unhappy seniors int those families.

Somewhat different context, but I had a family express shock that service academy applications required a nomination and then more shock that their was a separate nomination application process that had it's own impending deadline.  One parent objected that no one had told them.  

It is one of the first couple entries on the steps for admission page for that academy.  I don't know how much clearer it could have been.

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Regarding the ACT and SAT, it used to be that way.  I grew up on the west coast and many colleges there only accepted the SAT back in the day.  Then I ended up going to college in the midwest, where many colleges accepted only the ACT.  I don't know of any colleges that accept only one anymore, but I think certain regions still emphasize certain tests.  For example in the midwest, all the students I know (except my own) take only the ACT.  Most of my kids actually took both, in case they did better on one than the other.

 

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12 hours ago, J-rap said:

Regarding the ACT and SAT, it used to be that way.  I grew up on the west coast and many colleges there only accepted the SAT back in the day.  Then I ended up going to college in the midwest, where many colleges accepted only the ACT.  I don't know of any colleges that accept only one anymore, but I think certain regions still emphasize certain tests.  For example in the midwest, all the students I know (except my own) take only the ACT.  Most of my kids actually took both, in case they did better on one than the other.

 

A lot of districts or states administer the ACT or SAT test suites during the school day as a high school assessment.  The recent SAT revision and creation of tests below PSAT was in part an effort to move schools from ACT tests to the SAT suite. 

In states where one or the other dominates colleges often list scores for that test on their literature.

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