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• Popularity: ACT vs. SAT

Popularity: ACT vs. SAT

All colleges and universities are required to report various statistics to the National Center for Education Statistics. One of the statistics that is tracked is the percentages of students that submit specific college admissions test scores on their college applications.

The following table shows examples of colleges and universities in Illinois. These percentages represent college applications submitted in the Fall of 2017 that included ACT scores.

Illinois Colleges & Universities

Percentage of students submitting ACT scores on their college applications:

University of Illinois – Champaign	85%
University of Illinois – Springfield	94%
Illinois State University	98%
Eastern Illinois University	97%
Northern Illinois University	97%
Western Illinois University	96%
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale	94%
Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville	98%
Bradley University	94%
Millikin University	94%
Illinois Wesleyan University	91%
Northwestern University	77%

Look how high the percentages are, and those would include Illinois public school students that took the taxpayer-funded State SAT test. The clear majority of students were still taking the ACT.

The following table shows major colleges and universities throughout the Midwest. Again, these statistics are from the Fall of 2017 and the percentages represent those applicants that submitted ACT scores.

Midwest Colleges & Universities

Percentage of students submitting ACT scores on their college applications:

University of Iowa	95%
Iowa State University	90%
University of Wisconsin	89%
Indiana University	67%
Purdue University	59%
Ohio State University	86%
University of Kentucky	92%
University of Tennessee	99%
University of Michigan	76%
Michigan State University	57%
University of Missouri	96%

The following table shows the Ivy League schools and their percentages based on Fall of 2017 college applications.

Ivy League Schools

Percentage of students submitting ACT scores on their college applications:

Yale University	57%
Harvard University	53%
University of Pennsylvania	54%
Brown University	61%
Princeton University	54%
Columbia University	57%
Dartmouth College	48%
Cornell University	56%

This table is significant. Fall of 2017 was the first time in history that over half the applicants submitted ACT scores.

Here’s the irony: the SAT was originally invented by the Ivy League schools! It was their test and now most of their applicants are submitting ACT scores.

The ACT has been the most popular college admissions tests nationally and internationally since 2011.

Over 130 countries administer the ACT.

I live in Illinois. The ACT has been the most popular exam since the 1960s.

Illinois is one of eight states that administer a taxpayer funded State SAT, but 20 states administer a state ACT.

*Ohio and Oklahoma require each public school district to administer a “free” ACT or SAT but allow each district to choose which test they will use. 415 of Oklahoma’s 425 public school districts chose the ACT. Approximately 95 percent of Ohio’s 1,245 public high schools chose the ACT.

I have eight children. As a parent, I have had to help my children go through this ACT/SAT process. They took both, because Illinois provides a taxpayer funded State SAT, but I had them focus on the ACT because it is the most popular of the two, and that’s what the majority of college-bound students are doing.

Because more college-bound students are taking the ACT, this is why schools tend to connect more scholarship opportunities to the ACT.