Can colleges see how many times you take ACT?

My DD will likely take the ACT 3 times. She is concerned that colleges will see how many times she sat for the test. With the exception of “all score” schools, do others colleges know how many times a student has tested?

When you order a test sent by ACT to a college, it sends only the test ordered and says nothing about any other tests taken. However, that does not itself guarantee that a college will not learn of other tests. Many high schools put all your scores on the official high school transcript sent to colleges. Thus, you need to check what your high school does.

Also, if you are in a state that has a state testing date for the ACT different from the national testing dates, which state test is used to show compliance with no child left behind laws, and the state requires students (usually second semester juniors or first semester seniors depending on date of test) to take that test, then if the scores for that test are not provided, the college may know one is being withheld.

As to having all test scores sent, be aware that colleges uniformily assert that they use the highest scores to determine admission – depending on college, either that test with highest composite or a superscore of the multiple tests (meaning using the highest section scores from the combined tests).

As to “all scores” colleges, be aware there are currently only six colleges left with any kind of “all scores” requirement: Georgetown (for all SAT, ACTs and subjects tests), Yale (for all SATs or ACTs, or all of both if you decide to send both, but score choice accepted for subject tests), Carnegie Mellon (same as Yale), Barnard (for either all SATs or all ACTs), Cornell (for all ACTs if you choose to submit ACT, but score choice accepted for SATs and subject tests), and Syracuse (for all SAT scores but you can send whatever ACTs you want to send)

And, with all of the above being true, taking a test three times wouldn’t raise an eyebrow with any admissions office, IMO.

You need to be up to at least 5 before someone thinks it’s an outlier.