<p>my son has been accepted into a top 50 school. before thanksgiving, my son had never expressed any desire to go to anything but the SEC state school which accepted him immediately after he applied. my son has a 3.6 GPA in a good private school. he rarely studies. he also made a 25 on his ACT, the one time that he bothered to take it. When he started showing interest in another higher quality school, I told him that he should have been applying himself the last few years rather than playing the video games. we arrived back home from a campus visit and he fell in love with this school. A December ACT test date was only days away but he applied as a late sign up and would try to take the test if they had room for him. He crashed studied for 4 days, they let him take the test and he made a 28. he also decided to be more responsible in school and began making all A's rather than just enough to get exempt from the exam. He was signed up to take the ACT in February with 3 good weeks to study for the test. I truly believe he would have made a 30 or 31. however, the school accepted him with the improvement to a 28 and he decided not to take the ACT test again. My question now is, is there any advantage to taking the June ACT test even though he is already admitted and enrolled in the University for Fall 2011. The average ACT score at this school is around 30 or slightly less. There are 2 reasons that I think a higher ACT will be of value.
One is self confidence around his peers, although he really does not seem to be intellectually intimidated.<br>
The second and more important reason would be for future scholarship offers or general acceptance offers to Summer Research Undergraduate programs between his freshman and sophomore years. It seems that my son will apply in January of next year and from what i understand, his freshman 1st semester grades, his ACT and high school GPA may be the deciding factor. He is planning on taking the prerequisites to medical school</p>
<p>IMO, a summer position will focus more on his 1st quarter work much more that a test he took when he was Senior in High School. The problem here is the backfire side of the equation. You stated you thought it would be good for his self confidence. What is the counter response if he does worse? (and it could be worse as his buddies are all frolicking in the summer high of “pre-college” life)</p>
<p>These High School Seniors have really pushed hard. They have obtained goals that they worked for and wouldn’t it be nice for just one summer, they did whatever the heck they wanted to do without wondering how it will effect their college applications? Sometimes it is just time to put the lid on the can of worms.</p>
<p>It sounds like your son has really turned around and done well for himself. I don’t think there’s any benefit to retaking the test.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are the one who needs the confidence boost more than your son. (You seem a little stunned that he’s managed to clean up his act well enough to get into a much better college than you ever expected).</p>
<p>You don’t have to worry about the “average” ACT at the school – my daughter had a 28 on the ACT and attended a top college where 75% of the students had 29 or above. She graduated in the top 5% of her class, with a GPA of 3.9+. The GPA would have been better but for the fact that she got a couple of B’s her first semester as she was adjusting to the demands of college. </p>
<p>It’s not about the test scores. It’s about the work. If your son stays focused, keeps up in class, does the reading, puts effort into his assignments, seeks out support or help when needed – then he can get top grades at college.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the scholarships and research opportunities. If he needs a higher score for those, well maybe. Of course it is a shame if they still put emphaiss on this stupid standardized test even after a kid starts college.</p>
<p>But I feel pretty safe in saying that if he earns As in Freshman physcis, chem and calculus, and goes on to get good grades in O Chem he will feel just fine intellectually. And I’m sure there will be a good number of high scoring pre-meds who would gladly trade their ACT scores for good grades in core classes.</p>
<p>My D applied for a dozen summer undergrad research programs, and not one asked for high school gpa or test scores. (A couple of premed summer programs targeting minorities and the disadvantaged do request test scores, however.)</p>
<p>At this level, I believe college gpa in science courses, recs from science profs, and essays (Statement of Purpose) are the deciding factors.</p>
<p>I have read on cc where an accepted student retook a test in senior spring, did well, and then qualified for merit money at that college. But, increasing to the college’s median is probably not worth missing sleep on a Saturday morning.</p>
<p>My daughter did retake it the June after she graduated to get a higher scholarship (several $000 a year so well worth it but she already had a score well over the median for the school and was looking to improve by 1 points). So if that was the reason (and the school’s scholarships allow for an increase based on June scores) then I would say go for it. Nothing my daughter has ever looked at or applied for since starting college has asked her for her ACT scores. Only her college GPA, transcript, work & research experience etc.</p>