I got a 32 on my ACT and am debating whether or not to retake it in September. I am going to take the SAT in June or else I probably would have just taken it then. I would live to apply to a few Ivy Leagues, but I am not sure that I would be competitive with this score.
I am involved heavily in music. I play clarinet and have been in many different honor bands and orchestras. Also, I have been in All-State since I was a freshmen and just auditioned for All-National (fingers-crossed!). I dance at a studio competitively and am the leader of PaY, a volunteer club at our school. I am a member of band council, science olympiad, and FCCLA as well and have won various awards through these. I also have about 200 or so hours of volunteering through Church, the library, and animal rescue shelters. I am looking at fostering a service dog this summer as well, so that will add to that number.
I have about a 4.2 GPA weighted, 4.0 unweighted. Currently, I am the top of my class of 300, but I think I will be second after this year due to having only taken 3 AP classes this year. I have taken 5 AP classes total so far and am taking 4 more in my senior year. I got a 4 on both the AP Bio and AP Euro tests last year and am still waiting for the scores from this year.
Does it sound like I would be a competitive applicant? A 32 seems low for those schools, but I am not sure if it would rule me out completely or not. Thanks in advance for any advice!
I’d retake if you are serious about admission and if your SATs aren’t high. Even then, I am sure you know your odds aren’t great (no one’s are).
How much time and effort did you use to get a 32? If you worked on it for months, chances are you may only increase your score by a small amount, if at all. If you didn’t practice and study, and got a 32, then it makes plenty of sense to try again - this time with study, and practice, and (if you can afford it) a little expert tutoring.
Good luck!
From what I can tell, 32 is actually close to the median score for quite a few of the Ivies (Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn) and it’s at the 25th percentile for the others. So, your score is in the ballpark. If you’re asking what would a higher score do, say, 33 or 34? That would put you in the middle range for HYP. (Actually you may be in the mid range for Princeton). I don’t know if the effort in studying (and stressing) will significantly increase your chances. Put it this way, what does increasing your chances from 4% (slightly lower acceptance rate) to 10% (slightly higher acceptance) do?
I would work on your application - figure out how best to present yourself to colleges. Read http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1891200-asian-rejected-from-everywhere-postmortem.html#latest. The poster has good advice to someone like you. Don’t stress over being first or second or third (or seventh) in your class.
A 32 ACT is not going to be competitive for HYP, unless you are a URM; and even then, it’s not likely.
I second the suggestion of @SlackerMomMD to read the article she cites.
Perhaps you should ask yourself, What do the Ivy League schools have to offer (not counting their names and/or prestige) that other schools don’t? Or, Is what I want from an Ivy League school available at another school where I might have a better chance of being admitted?
Your decision should be based on if you think you can improve on your current score. Did you study a ton before the first ACT or do you think that if you work on it over the summer (practice exams, maybe take a course etc.) that you can bump your score?
@happy1 and @SlackerMomMD I studied a bit for it, but not as much as I could have. It was all self-studying as well. The main reason I’m considering taking it again is that really the only thing that really hurt my score was reading. I started running out of time and guessing and got a 26 on that section. On english and math I got a 35, and I got a 31 on science. I will probably wait and see what my SAT score is before deciding. Thanks for all of the advice!
Make sure you keep working on the other sections if you decide to retake.
You can retake, at worst you’ll still have the 32.
The MOST IMPORTANT things you can do now are
- talk with your parents: do they know their EFC? Can they afford it? Will they need you to get a lot of need-based aid? Or will they need you to “earn” merit awards?
- choose two schools you know you will get into and that are within budget, that share several characteristics with your dream schools. It means you’ve gone deeper than “they’re selective and famous and prestigious”, but looked at their intrinsic, unique qualities. Is it a liberal atmosphere? A conservative atmosphere? A preprofessional focus? Urban? Rural? Is gritty urban a problem or an opportunity? any preference regarding architecture? food quality? Yup, any criteria that matter to you. Then, look for schools where these criteria are highly regarded and check whether it has the academic fields you’re interested in and run the NPC to make sure it’s within the budget your parents gave you. Once you have these two schools, the hardest part of your list is done.
