<p>I strongly suspect you’d be better off taking a gap year - improving your ACT (or SAT scores) - and working on the side with your theory - perhaps also working for more $$ if that would help.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt you’re going to get into anywhere you’d really like with that low of an ACT score. Humans might have a short lifespan, but you’re better off with x-1 years on a path you’d prefer than x years on a path that won’t work. If you aren’t able to keep up with the math (should correlate with a decent math score on either test), doing the coursework to stay in college will be really tough.</p>