<p>It's a 32 ACT. I know I should take the test again and see if I can raise it, but would a 32 still keep me in the running? Or should I think of a 32 more like a medieval soldier who steps in a battlefield with only a sword and no armor, shield, or horse - in other words, a bare minimum?</p>
<p>It’s under the average for these schools, should retake.</p>
<p>Try taking the SAT if you can as well.</p>
<p>^ I did. I do much better on the ACT</p>
<p>@PAGRok: My ACT for Duke’s Trinity is in the higher end of the middle 50% (29-33). According to collegedata, the middle 50% range for both Penn and Dartmouth is 30-34.</p>
<p>32 is in mid-range. Just make sure you have other areas (grades/EC/etc.).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Your chances would be better if you retook and scored a 34+.</p>
<p>Note: even though school publishes a ‘median range’ you really want to be above the 75th percentile, especially if you are unhooked.</p>
<p>@Juvenis</p>
<p>If you are unhooked applicant, you want your SAT/ACT to be at or above the 75th percentile mark. Median is not good enough.</p>
<p>Additionally, the median can’t be estimated by taking the simple arithmetic mean of the 25 and 75th percentiles.</p>
<p>Please use true evidence when you attempt to refute those who are trying to aid you. In all truthfulness, a 32 is probably fine but it won’t help your application. These three schools are so difficult to get into anyway that your chances are tiny no matter what ACT score you have. </p>
<p>Duke Class of 2015, Arts and Science: ACT Middle 50% - 31-34
<a href=“http://admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2015profile.html[/url]”>http://admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2015profile.html</a>
UPenn Class of 2015: ACT Middle 50% - 31-34
<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/profile/[/url]”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/profile/</a>
Dartmouth Class of 2015: ACT Median - 33
<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/admissions/facts/test-stats.html[/url]”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/admissions/facts/test-stats.html</a></p>
<p>lol at Duke Engineering ACT score. It keeps on getting higher. I imagine engineering scores are higher across the board at all schools.</p>
<p>the point of of of this data is a 32 is below average for all of those schools. And if you are unhooked, you never want to be ‘below average’ on anything for a highly selective school.</p>
<p>Pagrock- </p>
<p>Not completely accurate. I think it’s safe to say your chances are higher as your score increases, up to a perfect score. If you look at brown and darthouth’s admissions data, applicants with perfect scores have the highest rate of acceptance and it drops considerably as score decreases. Yeah, those applicants may be stronger but not all of them are and by the numbers your chances are higher with a perfect score.</p>
<p>One other point to consider - The scores published are usually the entering class and not admitted class. The admitted class usually has a higher range but the range drops when people with higher scores and more choices don’t always show up.</p>
<p>For example - Rice admitted student profile is given below</p>
<p>Middle 50% of SAT and ACT Scores for Accepted Students</p>
<p>SAT (Critical Reading + Math) 1430-1540
ACT 32-35 </p>
<p>What ends up happening is that more of the people in the lower scores show up even though it looks like they admitted more than 25% of the people with a score of 35 or more. When the final pool comes in, the range drops by a couple of points.</p>
<p>I got a 33 and got into Duke, you’re definitely competitive.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe a school will actually care that much if a student has a 36 not a 35, or a 35 not a 34. All the scores from 32+ should be viewed as nearly equal. Of course having a higher score is beneficial, but I don’t think it will change a students chances that much. They will be admitted if they have a 36, a 35, a 34, a 33, or a 32 if the school wants them.</p>
<p>A 32 student and a 36 student will likely be very similar, with no noticeable difference in intelligence, motivation, etc. The difference may simply be a 36 students was automatically more test gifted, took a study course ($), studied more on there own, or took the test multiple times ($). A 32 composite score is in the 98 percentile, a 33-36 is in the 99 percentile. It may be schools admit students with perfect scores to get more students who have money or to simply have higher averages and so bragging rights, but not because these students are truly more academically gifted.</p>
<p>The reason they do care is that affects their US News ranking, and they all care about that, whether or not they admit it publicly. More specifically, their average ACT score matters for US News, so the higher your score, the more you help them; the reported and widely cited middle 50% is just window dressing. They don’t report average ACT scores in the Common Data Set, but for the class that entered in 2010 (latest available on US News), Penn’s average ACT score was 31 and Dartmouth’s was 32. Duke didn’t report an average, but based on their middle 50% I’d guess about a 32. If those averages hold, I’d say a 32 helps you a little at Penn and neither helps you nor hurts you at Duke and Dartmouth. A 33 or higher would help you at any of these schools. But keep in mind that even with a 33 or higher you’ve got to have a complete package of outstanding credentials, and even then it’s something of a crap shoot.</p>
<p>^ yeah I’m not expecting to be anywhere near a shoe-in. Plus those averages were from 2010, so I’m expecting that average to be currently a bit higher.</p>
<p>@PAGrok: My Duke statistics was taken from Duke’s website. Your statistics is from the class of 2015 while mine was from the class of 2016.</p>
<p>Actually Pagrock, for duke at least, points are assigne to various aspects of the application such as standardized testing, academic grades, essays, extracurricular activities, etc. applicants are admitted of their sum of their points are below a certain cutoff and auto denied if below a certain cutoff ( applicants in the middle go to the whole admissions committee) a 32 would most likely earn you a few points in standardized testing while a 36 or 35 would almost certainly earn all the points for standardized testing. So those 1-3 points could very well be the difference between an acceptance or rejection.</p>
<p>“A 32 student and a 36 student will likely be very similar”</p>
<p>I highly doubt that. There are only 0.25% of all test takers that score a 36, something like 600 people each year. There are 20 thousand people at 32 or above.</p>
<p>2011 numbers - number of people, percentile and score.</p>
<p>704 100 36
4,204 100 35
9,154 100 34
14,283 99 33
20,319 98 32</p>
<p>So there are 47,000 or more people when you start at 32. There are only 30,000 applicants to Duke.</p>
<p>A 32 ACT is good enough to apply and expect your application to get serious consideration. If everything is there, you would have a chance at acceptance with this score.</p>
<p>However, it won’t blow anyone away.</p>