My son just received his scores from the February ACT, and I’m trying to understand the importance of the composite score. His composite was 33, and his individual section scores were Math 30, Science 32, English 36, Reading 35.
I’m thrilled with these scores, but he’s disappointed with the composite. His dream schools are all highly selective, including two Ivies, and a 33 composite is below average for most of those schools. I told him that since he wants to major in political science, his reading and English scores matter more than math, and his math score is probably good enough. I would feel differently if he wanted to major in science or engineering. Am I thinking about this correctly? I know he can take the test again and try to get his math score up, but he already studied A LOT for the math section for the February test.
My older daughters both took the SAT, so this is my family’s first experience with the ACT. My daughters’ verbal and math scores were also fairly close. I’m not sure how colleges view a gap in scores like my son’s. Thank you!
A 33 is a great score! If your son isn’t satisfied, he can take it again and focus on bringing up the math score since most schools will superscore, but I honestly think it’s good enough.
I would caution him though against having a dream school that is highly competitive. He should be honing in on what he loves about the “dream school” and finding less selective schools that have the same qualities so he has a well balanced list.
And a 36 composite still wouldn’t guarantee admittance to a highly selective school.
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What @momofboiler1 said. Do not let him fall In love. And that score is gonna get you a ton of merit if money matters to you.
It’s actually 33.25 (133/4). For the most that superscore, one more point in any subject moves him to 34.
Oh and he’s in the 98th percentile.
A bit hard on himself.
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Great advice on all points! 
Retake if he wants to with concentration on raising the math and science, especially if the schools he is interested in allow for a superscore.
“And a 36 composite still wouldn’t guarantee admittance to a highly selective school”. - Truer words have never been spoken. A 35 or 36 on the ACT and a near-perfect GPA only get you into the consideration set in these schools. The rest is to a large extent a crap shoot. Extracurriculars, essays and demonstrated interest certainly help but nothing is a certainty.
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Fwiw, a composite is just the rounded average of the 4 sections. It holds no additional meaning.
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Okay - but there is a chance that only half of the applicants (if that many!) even SUBMITTED their scores at all. In other words, mostly those with a 35 and above submitted, while many with 33 and below never submitted, thus giving you a grossly distorted view what an “average” applicant really looks like.
You can look up the common data set for his reach schools, to see the spread.
Per example for Columbia University, 29% submitted ACTs (44% SATs). Of those 29%, here’s the spread of the mid 50% percent of accepted students:
ACT Composite: 34-35
ACT English: 35-36
ACT Math: 32-35
So - yes, colleges are quite used to students faring differently on different portions of the ACT.
Also, the ACT range of 34-35 fits the profile of 50% of the admitted students, but probably also fits with around 90% of the not-admitted students (class of 2026 had to reject 96% of applicants). FYI: At Cornell that 50% range is composite 33-35.
There are so many facets to a successful application, the ACT score is just one of many.
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A post was split to a new thread: Help with ACT score submission
Thank you. This makes so much sense. Appreciate the suggestion to look at Common Data sets. They give helpful context.
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My 36 ACT 4.0 kiddo was rejected REA from an Ivy. IMO a perfect score won’t help if you don’t also have a hook that they want or need.
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Thank you! That is so nice to hear. When we visit colleges this spring and summer, we definitely want to include schools where he might be able to get merit aid.
Yes, once your application had put you into the “realm”, the admission officers “shaping” a diverse class (regional, demographically, interests,…) will look at many factors of what “kind” of student they ideally still need. At that point, relative GPA, ACT/SAT, etc. standings take a back-seat to myriad other considerations.
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According to the Harvard lawsuit, a 33 would be at the bottom end of an academic rating of 2. You would likely need something else really special to get your overall rating up to a 2/2+. A 33 ACT would be a slight drag to getting to that level.
So a few things:
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Never have a dream school - ever.
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Ivies don’t have merit - nor do other highly rejective, whether a Tufts, NESAC (a few do), Gtown, Franklin & Marshall, and more.
Do you have need? Run a net price calculator for one of his desired schools.
But if you’re full pay - there’s a ton of merit out there - but not necessarily at the schools he’s seeking.
More than merit though - you need a budget - a #. If your goal is $60K a year, certain schools can get there.
If it’s $40K or $25K, you can still get there but the list of schools changes.
So budget is the most important thing - and don’t even start looking til you have that figure.
Good luck - and thanks.
PS - you might start off close to home - go and visit a large public, and a mid size and small school - likely private. Just walk the campus - check the area - and start figuring out what he likes. Many like a dream name - til they get there - and realize - that’s not what they want at all, etc.
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Fortunately, the English and Reading parts are the hardest parts to fix, since they’re based upon years of reading voluminously in order to acquire the proper vocab and grammar. He has already got those down.
It is easy to raise the science score, since all he has to do is a bunch of practice science sections, to familiarize himself with the various ways in which they present data for interpretation. He should get the Official Guide to the ACT (an older book is okay, too, since they only change over one of the 5 tests per year) and do all the science sections.
The math is, in my opinion, the toughest one to raise. My kid got The Best ACT Mathbooks Ever 1&2, went through them as review, concentrating on the parts he was least familiar with, did the math sections from The Official Guide to the ACT and also math sections from legally available retired ACTs that we found on a Reddit thread about the ACT. Any time he got something wrong, he went back and re-taught himself out of the Best ACT Math series. He was able to get his math up to a 34 this way - he always ran out of time, and said the last few problems on the math section of the ACT were so hard that he couldn’t do them. After he’d started Calc BC, he said that if he’d had that before he took the ACT, it would have helped.
Personally, I think that your son could easily raise the science to a 35, and with some focused prep, could probably get that math score up to a 32 or higher. That would bring his overall score up to the range where it would not detract from any application, not even a tippy-top school’s, and it would probably qualify him for merit money at schools that award merit for high test scores.
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Thank you for this detailed advice. I will share it with my son.
He followed your advice on test prep, and it worked! He just received his scores for the June ACT: 34 Composite, with Math 30, Science 35, English 36, and Reading 35. Thanks very much to you and the others on this thread!
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Ha! Glad he got the score he was shooting for. Funny how consistent he was on the other 3 sections.