My son took the ACT in June and has a 33 which seems fine but he is interested in Stem and his Math is a 30. 35 science 33 English 35 Reading. Does it make sense to take it again to try and bring up the math score? His gpa is 94/100 at a large public unweighted (101 weighted). He will take AP Calculus BC in the fall and if he does well is that enough proof his math is fine? Still working on where he will apply to college.
My opinion is that it’s worth the time to try to bump up the math sub score, especially if by STEM you mean engineering.
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Just keep in mind that it is possible that other subtest scores will go down on a retake.
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So I am normally reluctant to recommend retaking for any thing starting with a 3, but in this particular circumstance, that is going to count as a low math score for the most selective “tech” colleges and schools. And while I am not sure how that GPA ranks at your school, just on the face of it, it also strikes me as potentially a little low, which would mean having stronger test scores could be helpful.
And so in that context, if a higher Math subscore seems achievable given practice tests and such–I would also consider retaking.
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Our school doesn’t rank but provides a gpa distribution chart on a school profile stating the top 40 kids (out of a class of 500) are within a 98 to 103 gpa range. It is a large Massachusetts public school. Any thoughts on what this means for my son are appreciated.
Are there highly rejective schools on the list/likely list?
yes a few reach schools will probably be on the list.
If that is weighted, that sounds like your son is maybe around top 15-20 with a 101? If so that is top 3-4%.
Assuming that is right, that is very good. It is also within the range we don’t have good information available through the Common Data Set. But I would think that will certainly be competitive for many highly selective schools, understanding there are still many other things involved besides being academically competitive.
With that context–I am not sure. I’d guess for MIT, say, you’d still want to retake. For other still excellent schools, you might be fine as is.
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Depends on where he’s applying.
In general, it doesn’t hurt to take it again. But some schools are test blind as an example and your reach may not actually be a reach. So it’s hard to answer.
My D24 also ended up with a 30 Math and 33 composite from the June ACT.
When I look at her GPA/class rank/ECs overall, I don’t think a slightly higher ACT is going to be the thing that makes or breaks her application, but I’m not going to stop her from taking it once more since she really wants to.
Her potential majors are not super math heavy (at most, calculus 1-2 will be the end of it) and her math score is already in range for her potential schools. If this is not the case for your son, I would be encouraging him to take it once more (if he would commit to studying).
Have you looked at whether the schools superscore? That would also be a consideration. If they superscore, there is almost nothing to lose by taking it again except time that probably should have been spent writing essays etc.
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What kind of “STEM”, and how selective are the target colleges that require or prefer to see ACT or SAT scores?
Having “only” a 30 on the ACT math section will matter less if the likely major is biology than if the likely major is math, physics, statistics, CS, or some kind of engineering. It will likely matter significantly to (test-required) MIT, but not at all to (test-blind) Caltech. Nor will it matter at less selective colleges like University of Alabama (although a higher ACT composite may help get better scholarships there).
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At the moment not exactly sure what kind of stem. His favorite class has been chemistry so far but starting to think about engineering as a potential major which will change college search significantly and seems like it requires a higher math score. Looking like he will study the month of August and retake. We don’t consider him a credible candidate to MIT. He only has school awards, sports, honors band and some clubs. No huge math or science spike.
He’s only credible if A) he’s interested and B) if he applies.
Nothing wrong with Honors Band and a few other things if he’s legitimately involved.
But we don’t know the first thing of the students interests or budget to be talking about specific names.
I guess that would have to be weighted GPA’s, or it wouldn’t go to 103… so his rank seems very good.
Did he have trouble finishing the math section of the ACT? My understanding is that the ACT is a bit faster-paced than the SAT, and if the speed issue hurt his score, it might be worth trying an SAT practice test to see whether perhaps that test suits him better. OTOH, if it’s more of a strategy issue and he can improve just by drilling the different kinds of problems, bringing his ACT math score up may be very attainable.
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Did your son take Calc AB already? If so, what was his AP score? Also, as @aquapt mentioned, your son may do better with a different format of test, so taking a practice SAT might be worthwhile to see.
My only possible concern with what “reaches” your son is applying to (unnamed, but apparently not MIT) is if the school is going to have kids who were scoring 35/36 on math with relative ease. If that is the crowd that will primarily be in the classes, then there are a couple of potential issues:
- The change in dynamic from being one of the top students to (perhaps) being in the bottom 50%
- The potential difficulty of the classes (either the pacing of the class, the prior knowledge expected, etc)
Different personalities do differently with changes in dynamics. Some thrive and some become very dispirited. What do you think might be likely for your son? What does he think might be likely for himself?
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This. My son had an issue with speed and actually worked with someone pretty much on the speed of the test. Used the 5lb ACT book and used a timer to get the speed down (other resources also). His score jumped.
Saying this to the OP. For Stem you need a good GPA in the math class and or a good Act score. Everyone will have an opinion but I would try to shoot for 33/34 as being optimal for all schools and subsets in math and science to match. It’s common for Stem kids to have lower reading /writing scores but higher math /science scores.
But don’t fret if you child just doesn’t want to have another go at it. There are good schools out there for every child.
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No Ap math yet. The accelerated sequence at our high school is geometry, algebra 2, pre calculus and senior year is calculus ab or bc based on teacher recommendation. He will take BC.
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Give us an idea of your list. You say reach schools but are they really ? We can’t truly answer the question without knowing what it’s related to.
Thank you so much to everyone who has replied. Our oldest attended Colby and our middle child is at Middlebury so our youngest son thought, based on his siblings positive experiences, that he would likely go to one of the nescac schools. Now he is looking for schools that offer engineering as well as liberal arts. He wants to see Rice. I realize it is a huge reach and he would have to get his score up for that. Also if a parent attended graduate school at Cornell does that count as legacy? My husband came to the US from Latin America 30 years ago and never left. Not a ton of students from our high school attend selective colleges so I truly appreciate all the help from this site.
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Look at Union, Lafayette, Trinity, RANDOLPH Macon etc. make sure they are ABET accredited. But you get LAC and engineering.
You might email Cornell admissions and ask about legacy if it’s not in their FAQ.
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