The common app gives you the option of the self reporting ACT scores in addition to sending scores officially. S was going to self report, but we just received his latest official ACT results with writing, and the ACT is reporting the writing differently now. Last time (in April) he received four 8s for the different writing components, with a total score of 23 (83rd percent nationally). This time, his score is an 8, which is an average of his four 8s in the four different components (82nd percent nationally). The score report states that the highest score is now a 12, not 36 as it was in April. But the common app doesn’t have a way to show these lower score metrics (they’re still showing 36 as the highest). Should we just officially send scores and not self report? Thanks!
Most schools will want a set of official scores for admissions purposes.
what is his composite score without writing?
We are definitely send his scores officially through ACT but is there a downside to not self reporting on the common app since we can’t include his most recent writing score? they ask for highest score for each section.
Write them in as you know it.
Here is the issue: The ACT changed the scale for writing. It was out of 36 and now it’s out of 12. The common app hasn’t integrated this change. It’s a drop down menu with a range of 1 -36 – you can’t type it in. So it I put in an “8” it would look like he got an 8 out of 36 - instead of “8” out of 12.
Why self-report? Send the scores officially. The colleges can work it out.
Thanks - that’s what I wanted to know. Whether it was okay just to send officially and not self report, given the issue with the common app not being up to date with changes in the ACT.
@cbdnyc I just looked at the common app. What it says is:
Highest Combined English/Writing or Writing Subject Score
What my kid did (same situation, score of 25 out of 36 on this Feb sitting) was report the “highest combined English/writing” score which is labeled ELA on the score report. That is scaled to 36 I believe. I will check with the GC on Wednesday to see if that is the correct course of action.
On the common app, it has the following question for ACT: Highest Combined English/Writing or Writing Subject Score. So I could just go with the ELA? That combines writing and English? Our GC are incredibly difficult to communicate with so if you do get info from your GC about this, I’d be incredibly grateful.
She said use ELA. She said the ACT writing is a mess and they are going to end up systematically converting the scores using a consistent scale based on the real file from ACT - but ELA is fine for self reported. @cbdnyc
Thanks so much!
our rule is to not self-report unless the scores are at or above the 75th percentile (check the common data sets) for all the schools being applied to through the common app.