2 Q's about ACT - test optional and percentile

Applying to College
1

<p>I have two questions about the ACT. My son has taken it 3 times, he got better every time but still not as high as he would have liked. He MIGHT take it again in September, but I have a couple of questions and hopefully I can spare him the trauma! FYI he's not trying to get into any Ivies, but there are a couple of very competitive LACs on his list.</p>

<p>First question - a few of the schools he is applying to are test optional. His ACT score falls at or slightly above the bottom of the 25-75 range for those schools. We have been told if you are in that range you are a match, although that doesn't mean much with competitive schools (tons of kids at the top end get rejected). My question is this - if he falls within the range, but is in the lower end, should he go test optional or submit the scores? I had assumed he would submit, but I saw a thread earlier where a kid was rejected from a lot of average schools when he had a stellar profile but his SAT was at the lower end of the 25-75 range.</p>

<p>The second question has to do with where an applicant falls in the class. Let's say his ACT score is at the 25th percentile, but his GPA is at the 95th percentile, and he has great ECs, community service, great essays etc. Does the test score damn him to the lower end of the desirability spectrum? In other words, thinking about financial aid for example, we have been told he needs to apply to schools where he is in the top 10% of applicants. He would be there at these schools, except for the test scores. Does that mean good financial aid, or even admission itself, will be a long shot? He has little interest in schools where he is at the top 10% of their test scores, except for a couple of safeties.</p>

2

<p>Wow, there’s a lot going on in this question. I’ll try to get the responses started by talking about the things I think I know, but I expect some other people who know better will be along shortly.</p>

<p>If I were applying to a test-optional college with an ACT score that was near the bottom quartile, I would not send my test score. I wouldn’t send it unless I were roughly at or above the median score for currently enrolled freshmen. A lot of those lower scores, even at selective LACs, belong to athletes, legacies and other hooked applicants. Very often, they’re not typical scores for typical applicants.</p>

<p>As for aid, keep in mind that there are two kinds: need-based, and merit-based. If you get into the college, your need-based aid will depend (appropriately) on your financial circumstances much more than anything else. It’s merit-based aid where high stats are important. When my daughter was applying to colleges, we told her we thought she was a good candidate for merit aid at colleges where her SAT scores were clearly above the 75th percentile. She applied to three universities that give merit aid where her grades were above average for the class, and her SATs were above the 75th percentile. Two of them offered her merit aid; one did not.</p>

<p>Generally, I do think that offers of merit aid tend to go to the top 10-15% of a college’s applicant pool. Because often the college’s objective in offering merit aid is not to make the college affordable for the sort of student it typically attracts. Rather, the objective is often to lure highly qualified students who might otherwise go someplace “better.”</p>

3

<p>I second Sikorsky’s answers.</p>