College Entrance Exams ACT Edges Out the SAT Among Seniors for the First Time Written by Zaragoza Guerraon October 12th, 2012 Prior to joining College Coach, I spent part of my career as director of admissions for the Boston Conservatory, where I oversaw overall recruitment and auditions for students interested in music, theater, and dance. I spent most of my admissions career, however, as an admissions officer for two institutes of technology. As an associate director of admissions at MIT, I directed overall recruitment and yield activities as well as international, transfer, and special student admissions. I also served as an assistant director of admissions for Caltech, where I handled specialized student recruitment and reviewed domestic and international student files. Learn More About Zaragoza act, sat, standardized testing, standardized tests, For the first time this year, the ACT edged out the SAT as the most widely taken standardized test in the US: 1,666,017 seniors took the ACT as compared to 1,664,479 who took the SAT. Here’s what a few of our College Coach admission experts had to say… Elyse Krantz: I always recommend my students take both the SAT and the ACT. More times than not, students score significantly higher on one exam over the other. If students don’t give both a chance, they’ll never know which test is the better fit for them. Karen Crowley: In the high stakes world of high school students with an eye on selective colleges I’m not surprised students are preferring the experience of the ACT, a more straightforward examination of concepts they worked so hard to master in high school. Most students prefer the testing experience of answering questions based on material they learned in school rather than wrestling those concepts within a reasoning based test that often feels full of tricks. I expect that the ACT’s popularity will continue to grow. Related Resources Read | Posted on October 23rd, 2023 Should I Submit SAT or ACT Scores to Test Optional Schools? Read | Posted on June 15th, 2023 Standardized Testing Policies in 2023 Read | Posted on January 17th, 2023 Does Your PSAT Score Matter?
