ACT Score Choice Policy Changes for Top Schools

<p>Driscol brought this to our attention on another thread, but I just wanted to post it under another heading because I think it's really important and a lot of people may have missed it. Below are quotes from the admissions websites for Yale, Georgetown, and Stanford. When the SAT score choice was added in March 2009, these schools and some others rejected it and extended it to the ACT scores. This would be very important to keep in mind when considering how many times to take these tests, especially for juniors (like myself) who weren't aware of it.</p>

<p>"Please note that beginning in March 2009, Yale will require that applicants submit all score results from the ACT, SAT I and SAT II testing."</p>

<p>"Georgetown requires that you submit scores from all test sittings of the SAT, ACT or SAT Subject Tests."</p>

<p>Stanford - "Applicants must submit scores from all SAT tests (including Subject Tests) taken or all ACT tests taken. Applicants cannot elect to "hide" any scores with either testing agency."</p>

<p>Well, that kind of stinks, because don’t you have to pay to send each score. At least with SAT, you pay once, and all scores can be reported. Isn’t it something link $9.00 per report. So if you take it 3 times, and have to send all 3 scores individually, it $27.00 per school?! Multiply that by the number of applications! Yikes!!</p>

<p>Yes, I mentioned this on another thread, and it seems really pointless, since very few colleges will superscore the ACT. That’s always been the reason people could choose to send just one. I think it was Tokenadult who urged people to ask adcoms at public meetings whether they really mean to force people to pay to send the ACT tests multiple times, given that the purported reason for the change is to even the playing field. Doesn’t this just make it more expensive for everyone?</p>

<p>Unless they are superscoring the ACT, why would anyone bother to do this? We just had a college meeting today with our counseling center and they can’t imagine how this can be enforced unless superscoring is evident.</p>

<p>Justamom, exactly! It makes no sense. Some people take the ACT 5 times. That would be $45 per school. How will the schools know who took it when? I don’t think that the ACT will release this information, and the student did not need to send scores to their high school, so the hs might not have the testing information.</p>

<p>if they’re seriously doing this (which is very unfair, especially given the costs), they should at least superscore the ACT to truly “even the playing field”…
still, i don’t want to have to send multiple ACT scores to EVERY college I’m applying to…application fees and other fees are already enough.</p>

<p>I agree they need to superscore. Note that Harvard, for example, doesn’t demand all scores, so you only need to send what you want to them, which would be cheaper, but also more hassle</p>

<p>THere’s absolutely no way i can pay 45 dollars to just SEND my test scores if im applying to ten schools. </p>

<p>We don’t have that kind of money in my family…paying for apps is enough in itself thank u very much.</p>

<p>I refuse to abide by this and will defnitely question it at the next college fair i go to…</p>

<p>Then ACT should change their fee structure to include the option for students to send multiple test dates for one price. And if schools are superscoring the SAT, there is no reason for them not to superscore the ACT.</p>

<p>JustAMom, I COMPLETELY agree with everything you just stated.
If they really want to make things equal, there needs to definitely be restructuring with both the ACT score-sending options and the superscoring</p>

<p>will this mean that more schools will abide by this new rule? </p>

<p>it seems ridiculous.</p>

<p>Another problem with this policy is that it’s based on an honor system. I can’t imagine there will be a high level of compliance, but I know that at least Pomona will require applicants to certify that they have provided all scores. What a mess! I wouldn’t mind if they allowed you to send your highest and then self-report all other scores, but if they require official reports then yes, they ought to superscore.</p>

<p>Boy, this is a big mess! If scores were not sent to the high school by the student, there is no way that a college can keep everyone honest, IMO! Also, I find a rule change that was made very recently most unfair. Schools should have told students that all scores must be sent before they signed up for their first ACT seating. Oh, BTW, I don’t have a child applying to schools that are requiring all scores to be sent, so it is not a personal issue for me.</p>

<p>I think northeastmom and fauxnom are right. I don’t believe there will be 100% compliance with this. It will be honor system, but since schools do not have anyway to check to see if a student has sent all scores, then I think compliance might be low. It will be interesting to see if schools will start superscoring the ACT if they start requiring all scores. I thought most schools did not superscore the ACT because there was score choice. Hardworker is correct- if a student takes the ACT 3 times or even twice (which I’m guessing is about average) then it will cost $30-$45 to send scores to each school. That can easily number in the hundreds of dollars on top of other application costs. Lionsrcute, remember, this is not an ACT rule. Some schools have said that they now want all ACT scores, but ACT will not release scores without a student’s permission. Time will tell if more schools will start requesting all ACT scores.</p>

<p>Wow. I’m usually an honest person, but at $9 a report for each school? I can’t afford THAT much. I have a feeling a lot of my application fees will come out of my own pocket as well. Hopefully few schools will follow their lead in this regard.</p>

<p>So this goes by an honor system?</p>

<p>If so, then I’m not sending all my ACTs. There is not way I am wasting that much money.</p>

<p>But r u guys all sure there is no way for the colleges to tell how many times you took the ACT?</p>

<p>thanks prefect! good point- </p>

<p>i hope no more schools abide by this new policy… </p>

<p>does anyone have a list of schools that are coming up with this new policy?</p>

<p>masb… </p>

<p>^ bump! bump!</p>

<p>Yes, I think it was mentioned somewhere in the SAT forum that TCB acknowledged that the colleges would have no knowledge of if we did not send in all scores. But then it popped up that colleges may be able to find out by calling our high schools. I don’t know how accurate the statement was, but just be careful. Unfortunately, I have allowed TCB/ACT to send my scores to my HS, but I personally don’t care if colleges see every score.</p>

<p>^so as long as we make sure we dont send our scores to our high school, we should be fine</p>