The discussion of whether or not schools disregard writing scores seems irrelevant in that ACT will not release composite score without writing. So it doesn’t matter if schools care about writing if composites are being held back too…
How would we send screenshots to the admissions office? Would we attach it as a Document via the Common App?
@Erin’s Dad Are there any schools that don’t accept scores electronically left in this world?
Yes - and my d has some an her list
@tonymom…actually it is relevant. It is a good reminder to folks to go back and check with the school. Talk to the admissions office/rep. Stop assuming that what the school will and will not take, especially under these “special” circumstances created by the poor business planning of ACT. You can sit and whine and complain that it is unfair and or you can advocate for yourself/kid and find a compromise.
As D’16’s writing score was/is still outstanding this week and she is up against an EA deadline 11/1. D’16 went back to the colleges on her list that had November deadlines, double and tripled check the score requirements. In doing so she realized that her EA deadline school 11/1 does not use the writing portion of the ACT. So she called the admissions office and indicated that her Sept ACT score was coming, she had access to the composite but the score report was held up waiting on the writing portion. The school suggested that she screen shot the composite score. Another school (EA 11/15) that does use the written portion also said to screen shot the composite have the GC sign off and send it. Fortunately D’16 had sent an ACT score from a previous sitting and the schools at least has something to go off of for the writing section.
I understand that your kid may not have another score to submit and that truly stinks. ACT absolutely has a mess on their hands. I am sure there are senior kids applying ED/EA/Recruit that are paying the price. Should ACT release score reports with just the Composite, probably. Should you be complaining and working that angle with ACT, absolutely. But in the meantime, call the schools on your list that need the score and see what they want and are willing to do to accommodate.
I see for you, it is a recruiting issue for Yale. Have you called Yale admissions, not just the Coach? If the Coach is really interested what is he doing to advocate for his potential athletes? If Yale doesn’t want to accommodate…maybe that is Yale’s way of saying “you should have planned ahead that is a trait that we value in our students”. But just because the advice to call and check with your schools isn’t relevant in your case doesn’t mean that it isn’t relevant for hundreds of others.
Calm yourself please! I was referring to all the talk about the ACT writing portion not being used NEXT year. The discussion had started to refer to how it is ironic that most colleges are switching to not using it.
Colleges should accept the screen shots and then if they find out the student somehow provided incorrect info, it would mean immediate rejection
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Are there any schools that don’t accept scores electronically left in this world?<<
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Yes. colorado school of mines did this last year. Crazy.
Wow, Colorado School of Mines? Would never have guessed that, I would have thought they were doing everything electronically.
Don’t need a screen shot in this case. The college can just accept self-reported scores, and then require an actual score report to verify for those who matriculate (rescinding those whose self-reported scores do not match). Of course, if lots of colleges did that, the test companies’ revenue from score report fees would go down…
Yes, that would be very easy to do, @ucbalumnus.
“Of course, if lots of colleges did that, the test companies’ revenue from score report fees would go down…”
Yes, and maybe that would give the test companies some incentive to finally get their crap together. Or, for more colleges to put less weight on standardized test scores. Both would be good things IMHO.
Unfortunately, University of Michigan is one of the schools that is completely inflexible regarding this issue. For EA, your score must arrive by 11/1 or they will bump you to RD. I get that they are a big school, but it’s a shame they won’t move the deadline a bit or do as was suggested above.
The UC system has students self-report all grades, and only accepted students submit transcripts to the campus they choose to attend for verification. It does seem like a similar honor system with serious consequences would work fine for scores, and would save families a lot of money.
But they don’t allow students to only self-report test scores, @Ynotgo – I’ve wondered why that was since everything else is strictly self-reported.
On the UGA admission blog they specifically say that they DO NOT want the screen shots from the ACT. I don’t blame colleges for not wanting screen shots… The ACT needs to get their act together. DS took the Sept ACT. He is a Junior and has both his composite and writing scores. I would have thought that they would have tried to do the Seniors first since the scores matter more to them. To me it’s nuts that he already has his October SAT score and kids are still waiting for their Sept ACT scores…
Pomona College has posted a message on its site that tells applicants to send screen shots (along with a copy of some email from the ACT that I don’t actually think anyone has gotten). Good for you Pomona!
http://www.pomona.edu/admissions/first-year-admissions/testing/act-reporting-delay
I think you are correct. DS did not get any emails from ACT until after he had received his writing score so I’m not sure what email they would be taking about unless it’s the email reminding the student that they are registered for the test that they sent out before the test…
Gotta love the SAT for their little stab at the ACT in today’s “Your Scores Are Ready!” email!
Meanwhile, niece finally got her writing score today, but due to the new scoring method it is way lower than her other scores. Anyone faced with this issue, and would you send an old score just so the college can have another writing score (even though it’s really the rubric that has changed even though it looks like the score has changed?)
Finally received writing score this morning…it was nearly identical to previous writing score. We sent all ACT scores to certain school and just one score to others. But that was after careful review of what the “typical” score was for a given school, whether they even use the writing score, and if it was a score optional school (we submitted score to score optional schools). It was definitely a process of weighing the pros and cons.