^Not possible to answer without knowing the college. I assume you are talking about a college that has an early action application deadline of October 15. Rules vary among colleges but what you ask may be possible. For example, I know Georgia Tech has an Oct 15 EA deadline which is also the deadline for applying for certain scholarships, but Gtech actually accepts the Oct ACT both for determining EA and the scholarships, i.e., the EA application deadline is not the test score deadline and it just requires all test scores to be in by Dec 1 for both EA and consideration of scholarships. However, that does not mean all schools with Oct 15 EA deadlines do the same.
For colleges that require you to submit all scores from either the ACT or the SAT but allow you to self-report scores, what is the best way to do that on the Common App? Since the testing section only has you list the highest score from each subtest, where is the best place to include the other scores?
^Currently, there are only two colleges, Stanford and Yale, that both have an all scores rule and accept self-reporting for purposes of determining admission; the other colleges requiring all scores still require offical scores to determine admission. Just 11 days ago, Stanford provided its new process to be used. You can self-report just the highest scores on the common app for purposes of determining admission and all offical scores are not required until after you are admitted and accept admission, see https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/transfer/testing.html and https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/freshman/testing.html. In essence, it has now modified its all scores rule to one that does not require all scores for the purpose of determining admission. Yale, on the other hand, which requires you to report either all SATs or all ACTs, states you should use the “additonal information” section in the application to report additonal scores. https://admissions.yale.edu/standardized-testing
UPDATE
This updates the all-scores list of colleges due to recent changes. Eleven days ago, Stanford changed its all scores rule to one that allows you to self-report only your highest scores for purpose of determining admission and requires all offical SAT and ACT scores only after you are admitted and accept admission. (See post immediately above this one). As a result, Stanford effectively no longer has an all scores rule that should concern anyone who is applying for admission (it states only that it reserves the right to rescind your admission if the offical scores provided after admission show your scores reported on your application are false).
UMiami has recently removed the language that specifically stated all scores are required and now simply states that when you order SAT scores sent, you should “ensure” all scores are sent because it superscores. I am informed by UMiami that is not an actual requirement for sumitting all scores and you will not be penalized for failure to do so. Moreover, UMiami has dropped its SAT or ACT requirement and makes such scores “optional” for international students who are not graduating from a US high school. See https://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/application-process/admission-requirements/freshman/index.html and https://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/application-process/admission-requirements/international-freshman/index.html
As a result, only Georgetown, Yale, Carnegie Melon, Barnard, Rice, and Syracuse remain as colleges that still definitely have an all-scores rule for the purpose of determining admission, and possibly the UCs although despite its stated requirement for all SAT scores on its site, many have been told there is no all scores rule when they personally contacted admissions. And of that group only Georgetown and Banard require both all SAT and all ACT scres; Yale Carnegie Melon, and Cornell require all of either the SAT or ACT, and Rice and syracuse apply their all scores rule only to SATs. And only Georgetown and potentially Cornell require all subject test scores.
UPDATE: To clarify and provide a complete list, here are the only colleges left as of July 30, 2018 with an all scores rule and what they actually require:
Georgetown: the only college in the world that requires all SAT, all ACT, and all subject test scores for tests you have taken, and it still wants offical scores from the testing agencies to determine admission. See https://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/firstyear/preparation. Note it does not specifically require but recommends three subjec tests (but that is almost a requirement because it wants you to explain in your application why you could not submit three if you fail to do so and one doubts saying you did not feel like taking them will be considered a valid excuse).
Yale: requires either all SAT or all ACT scores. if you choose to provide both, you need to provide all scores from both. You can provide whatever subject test scores you want to provide. If you choose to provide ACT scores, you can exercise score choice and avoid sending any SAT scores if you want to provide SAT subject test scores. For the application, you can either send offical scores from the testing agencies or just self-report all the scores you need to report in your application for admission, and use the additional information section to provide scores not otherwise provided in the main score secton of the application. You need not submit official scores from the testing agencies until after you have accepted an admission offer. See https://admissions.yale.edu/faq/standardized-testing#t186n1779 and answers to questions there concerning SAT and ACT and how to complete the test sections of applications, and also see https://admissions.yale.edu/standardized-testing#required and the sections for required and recommended testing and how to report scores. Yale recommends but does not require two subject test scores.
Carnegie Mellon: requires either all SATs or all ACTs, or all of both if you choose to submit both. You can choose which subject tests to submit and can exercise score choice to submit subject tests and not SAT tests if you choose to submit all ACTs. It requires “official scores” for the purpose of determining admission but considers scores to be official if either submitted from the testing agency or they appear on your offical high school transcript. See https://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/standardized-test-requirements. Carnegie Mellon recommends but does not require two subject tests scores for majority of its colleges (including ones like A&S, science, and engineering that most will apply to). Though stated as a recommendation, there are statements made that suggest you shoulld seriously consider providing test scores unless you are unable to afford to take them.
Rice: it requires official scores from the testing agencies for determining admission but its all scores rule applies only to SATs if you choose to submit SATs. You can provide just one ACT if submitting ACT and you can send whatever subject tests you want to send (and exercise score choice to avoid sending SATs when doing so if you are submitting ACT). It recommends but does not require two subject tests. See https://futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Standardized_Tests.asp
Syracuse: requires offical reports from the testing agency as part of the application process but its all scores rule applies only to SATs, not ACTs, and it does not use subject tests to determine admisision. See https://www.syracuse.edu/admissions/undergraduate/apply/what-we-look-for/
Barnard: it states its rule requiring both all SATs and all ACTs as follows: “Barnard does not participate in score choice and requires students to send all standardized testing scores. For the SAT, we will use the highest score in each section of each exam sitting. For the ACT, we will use your highest composite; we do not superscore the ACT. Testing is one part of the application review process, and having a complete testing profile can provide insight into a student’s progress. Improvement in scores over a period of time, consistency in scoring, or the knowledge that a student took the test once (as a relatively high scorer or a low scorer) provides information helpful in the review process. We have always practiced the spirit of score choice. However, we do prefer to see a student’s full testing history in order to have a complete picture.” That is a little unclear as to whether all ACTs are required but that seems to be included in the elitist pontification provided as to why it wants all scores although still claiming it follows “the spirit of score choice.” https://admissions.barnard.edu/apply-barnard/standardized-testing-and-our-score-choice-policy. Barnard no longer uses subject test scores in determining admission. It requires offical scores from the testing agency as part of the application process.
That is the confirmed list. As far as I am aware there are no other colleges that still require all scores of any test except for the possible outlier, University of California, which states on its site that all SAT scores are required, but the rule is inapplicable to ACT or subject tests and communications with the admissions office indicate there is in fact no all scores rule at all… Many other colleges recommend, suggest, encourage, etc., that you submit all scores because the college superscores but you should not interpret that to mean there is an actual requirement for all scores or that anything bad can happen to you if you fail to submit all scores. Moreover, there has yet to be reported one case of a college with an all scores rule doing anything adverse to an applicant who failed to provide all scores, despite that all scores rules were intitially adopted nine years ago. The vast majoirty of colleges that adopted all scores rules nine years ago have since abandoned them and accept score choice.
^And of course, I accidentally left out one all scores college above, Cornell, which requires either all SAT or all ACT scores, or all of both if you choose to submit both. Cornell requires official scores from the testing agencies as part of the application process. You can submit subject tests without submittiing SATs if you are instead submitting ACTs. As to providing subject tests it appears it may require all subject tests if the particular college requires subject tests (A&S and engineering do); otherwise you need not submit them. The current stated rule is, however, ambiguous and one can argue convinicngly that all subject tests are not required even for those colleges that require two subject tests. See https://admissions.cornell.edu/standardized-testing-requirements. However, there are older statements still on the site from years before last year that state all subject test scores are required. https://blogs.cornell.edu/admissions/2011/10/19/the-faqs-of-sats-and-acts/
@drusba THANK YOU! On Cornell, did you happen to call admissions? I know they are an all scores ACT, but reallly wonder about the A&S or College of HuMEC - when one is sending in SAT subject tests?? Thank you
Questions: my D19 has taken the ACT three times. Highest single test date score is 33 (which would not change if super-scored). If she applies to schools early in the admissions process,and self reports her scores, then decides to take the ACT again at a later date (Say late October), what does she do with that score? She wants a 34 which requires she maintain her 36s in E and R, and 33 in science, while going up one point in math. I am worried she could slip in E and R while focusing on raising the math score, then would be “obligated” to report her newest test. Of course, if she were successful, she’d want AdCom to receive it. Thanks for your advice.
^To the extent your question is asking how to submit the score if it is required, you will note from above that there are only four colleges left that still require all ACT scores if you send any ACT, Yale, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and Barnard. Yale states you need to submit a score for a test taken after you apply by either having an official score sent by the testing agency or self-report the score by using “the appropriate form on the Yale Admissions Status portal” that is assigned to you after you apply. see https://admissions.yale.edu/standardized-testing#reporting. Carnegoe Mellon requires official scores but considers official those that appear on your high school report with your transcript. However, if that has already been provided, you likely need to just have a score sent from the testing agency. Barnard and Georgetown require official scores from the testing agency.
To the extent you are asking how you can submit the score to any other college to which you have already applied because you want to submit the score, you really need to check what the college allows. If it requires scores from the testing agency, then usually that is probably what you need to do, although often you can first send a copy via email if time may be of the essence, e.g…, you have applied early action and the test is from the Nov SAT, but you still need to send an offical score for those colleges. If it is a college that accepts self-reported scores, it may allow something like Stanford does in that you can just send an email to admissions with a copy of your student score report, see https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/freshman/testing.html; you just need to check each college as to what it allows.
@drusba I believe in #88 you left off Cornell. It is all scores for ACT!
ANOTHER UPDATE:
The all scores list keeps getting shorter. Rice has now removed the language on its site requiring all scores and replaced it with: “We hope applicants will report all scores knowing that we will recombine the sections to get the best possible set of scores for each candidate.” https://admission.rice.edu/policies/standardized-testing. It thus no longer requires all SAT scores. The page where Syracuse stated that all SAT scores were required is actually from the fall of 2015. The Freshman Requirements for current applicants do not include any requirement to submit all scores, see https://www.syracuse.edu/admissions/undergraduate/first-year/requirements/ and I am informed by admissions that all scores are not required.
Thus, as of August 7, 2018, the only colleges left with any rule requiring all scores are Georgetown, Yale, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and Barnard (and maybe the UCs). Only Georgetown requires all SATs, ACTs, and subject tests. Cornell requires either all SATs or all ACTs, and possibly all subject tests but that is unclear (I sent a request to Cornell to determine its actual rule some weeks ago and have not yet received any response). None of the others require all subject tests. Barnard requires all SATs and ACTs, Yale and Carnegie Mellon require either all SATs or all ACTs. The UCs either have no all scores rules or one that applies only to SATs.
NOW FOR ONE MORE UPDATE
It is 3:30 eastern on August 7, 2018 and it appears Cornell is right now in the process of modifying its admissions pages to declare that it now accepts Score Choice and no longer requires all scores. See https://admissions.cornell.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/admission-requirements and click on Standardized Test Scores, and https://admissions.cornell.edu/standardized-testing-requirements where it also says it accepts score choice except it appears it has not yet taken out the “all” before “ACT” and it would be illogical to leave it there. I had checked the site as recently as this morning and the old anti-score choice rules were still there.
@drusba I still see ALL for act ? Did you call or did Cornell email you confirmation on the ACT change? Thank you for your time.
@LvMyKids2 I sent an email to Cornell admissions seeking clarification on Tuesday. No response yet.
@drusba any news on Cornell? Their website still says “all” ACT and I would think by now that it would have been changed? Doesn’t score choice mean that one can pick and choose what they want to send in…just by the definition???
@LvMyKids2 Cornell has not responded to now two emails I have sent. It seems non-sensical to have a requirement for all ACT scores and accept score choice for the SAT. Unlike the SAT, the ACT does not even allow you to send all scores in one order and you must make and pay for separate orders on each test to provide all scores. Moreover, Cornell superscores the SAT but uses that test with highest composite for ACT and thus has no need for more than one ACT test. Like you, I wait to see what Cornell does. Possibly there is still a chance that all ACT scores are required (academic elitists too often do crazy things) but I am hoping that the delay just means that they may be redoing their admission pages since the pages they just recently changed were the ones that were used last year and they have not yet put out any new pages for this year.
I have now received a response to my emails to Cornell and the answer given is bizarre. Yes, Cornell still requires all ACT’s. Why: since ACT requires test scores to be sent separately, requiring all scores assures Cornell gets them so it can superscore the ACT.
There are two reasons why the repsonse is bizarre. First, by accepting score choice for SAT, Cornell is allowing anyone sending SATs to withhold scores even though Cornell does, in fact, superscore SATs, so there appears to be no apparent reason to have a different rule for ACTs, including because requiring applicants to send multiple ACT tests requires the applicant to pay multiple fees.
Second, according to Cornell’s wesite information, and to the rule it has followed for many decades, Cornell does not superscore ACTs but instead uses that test with the highest composite.
I actually sent another email pointing out the discrepancies, and the response I got was the same bizarre answer.
@drusba This may have something to do with the fact that you can delete ACT scores (if I remember correctly) but not SAT scores; perhaps this is their own strange way to compensate? Not too sure haha.
Cornell participates in the College Board Score Choice program.
https://admissions.cornell.edu/standardized-testing-requirements
It seems that Cornell has changed its score choice policy.
wch2018, yes, as mentioned earlier, Cornell now allows score choice. The problem is that despite doing so for the SAT, its site says it still requires “all ACT” scores (see link that you gave above). As noted above, I have had email communications with Cornell in which it has confirmed that, despite its acceptance of score choice for the SAT, it is continuing to require all ACT tests if you choose to send any ACT test.