I agree in general, but if he is hunting for scholarships-for-stats at certain forum favorite schools, a 36 ACT may get a better scholarship than a 34 ACT.
https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships
https://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php
Probably related to showing a high level of applicant’s interest at those schools, particularly if he appears to be “overqualified”.
JHU does not consider level of applicant’s interest, according to
https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1509
An 800 on the Math 1 Subject Test puts him at the 99%. By contrast, an 800 on Math 2 is only the 81%. In other words, lots more people get 800 on Math 2 than Math 1 - Hopefully, he’ll do well on the next two subject tests, too - which together with his AP score and score on Math 1 will put him in fine shape. No need to retake ACT.
@ucbalumnus thanks for that. @ucbalumnus is correct, the CC says the school won’t think he’s seriously interested in them if he doesn’t bother to visit. Pretty sure proximity to us in NJ is the reason for schools like Lehigh, Syr, UoR (she also said being double legacy could work against him without a visit).
He really liked WUSTL after we visited for their recent “Engineering Day”, but was ambivalent until I literally forced a conversation with a student who happened to represent their Formula SAE club at a club fair the school had. Before that my son was ready to go get lunch and go to the airport early. We’d seen Northwestern the day before and he said all the schools said the same thing and seemed not all that dissimilar (summer visits are the pits!).
After spending 1.5 hrs with an enthusiastic, super-smart young engineering student who ADORED the car the students built and took us to their working garage, took parts out to show my son, let him sit in the car, etc.,WUSTL came to life for my son and he said he might consider applying there ED! Blew me away bc I was thinking he hated it before that.
Visits are so important beyond whether the school thinks the student is interested or not. Our “trouble” is that my son was voted one of the football team and lax team captains this year, so he shouldn’t miss any practices this fall. He’d also rather visit more schools before deciding to apply anywhere ED, which makes a lot of sense.
First world problems, right?
Mainly because those taking math level 2 are self-selected stronger students in math (at least one year advanced in math compared to the normal sequence).
And, @ucbalumnus - good point about testing scores improving merit awards at those schools. After reading those and other discussions on this board we added UAlabama to his list when it was not on his radar at all before. Luckily for our kids, while merit scholarships would be awesome, college funding is in place. That said, my son does hope to apply to most of his schools by 11/1 so he will be considered for any merit awards.
I hear you on that. We always want to sheild our kids the best we can. But breakups disappointments and some rejections,though rough at the time, do add to character and resilience. These are strengths and attributes that go a long way in our jobs as parents to give them skills to lead independent and productive lives.
It is entirely possible that he can get a lower score on a retake. I’m a test prep tutor and I’ve seen it happen. I’ve read articles which claim that up to 40% of already-high scorers will fare worse on a retake. And many very competitive schools will require all test scores. I would exercise caution before retaking a great score.