@VickiSoCal No perfect scores guarantee admission. Same for 4.0s. But there are alot more NMSF and NMF than there are perfect ACTs! A perfect ACT is not as common. “On average, less than one-tenth of 1% of all test takers earn the top score. Among ACT-tested US high school graduates in 2015, only 1598 out of 1.92Million earned an ACT composite score of 36” taken right from my childs letter! I thought NMSF were approximately 16,000 and then 15,000 NMF. I think I read that 1.6M (approx) take the PSAT. So there you have it! It is much much harder to obtain a perfect ACT and definitely newsworthy! And @compmom not sure why you had an issue with the “reputation lingering” and problematic in the future. Both my kids had perfect 36 and they are both humble. But it got out. And so many were surprised and kind and happy for my kids. My kids blew it off, but it was nice to be recognized. No bad repercussions from it being known or publicized.