Junior son has taken the ACT three times increasing his composite score each test by one point from 28 to 30. Two state schools offer BIG scholarships and/or entry into prestigious honors programs. The minimum score for consideration (in addition to the usual stellar grades, etc.) to these programs is a 30 on the ACT. I believe S could benefit if the score could be raised to a 31 or 32 at the September sitting for the ACT, but he is "SO DONE WITH THESE TESTS" and wants to enjoy his summer and senior year.
We need as much scholarship/grant aid we can get............like many parents! Will the panels and committees likely want to see all his scores? Will it matter? He is planning to apply to 7 or 8 colleges, including three safeties, three likelies and two reach schools. Some of our best state universities have become uber competitive in the past few years and stingier with merit aid as more talented applicants flock to more affordable schools.
My daughter graduated with honors from the state's most prestigious and most affordable university BUT she did not get as much merit aid as we would have liked. She has a great job and manageable student loans to repay..................I want to give my son a better financial advantage. Thoughts?
Three times is a lot. Has he taken the SAT?
How did he prepare for the ACT? Did you hand him that huge book and say “study”? I tried this and realized I was wasting my time. My suggestion is too look carefully over his score reports. I think you can order these and see where he is weak. If all of his scores are fairly even, it might be tough to raise his score, but if he is low in one area with other high scores, work on that one area. For example, my son’s knowledge of grammar needed some work. You can work with your son or better yet hire a tutor to work with him one-on-one. A few sessions could make a big difference if he is bright. A 30 is a solid score and it may be tough to see a lot of improvement.
I understand your concern about scholarships as I share it.
LOL. He studied from the ACT red book, but not a lot, and only with my prodding and assistance! I have drilled down into the subscores from all the tests and ascertained that math (his weakest) could go up a bit. Science improved from a 24-29-31. We said WOW! Reading was 32 to 34 on all three tests, so I suppose he is a couple questions away from a 35 or 36 on that one. Because son’s PSAT was not great, he did not want to take the SAT, and does not intend to do so.
Do you mind saying which state schools you’re referring to? The reason I ask is that Pitt, for example, looks at only the Math and Reading scores from the ACT when determining merit. They will also (I’m pretty sure) consider the scores across all tests. I think a combined 33 on those two sections is one of the requirements for merit.
South Carolina requires that all test scores be sent so if he takes it four times, they will see all four (but I don’t know how they appraise them). The Honors College there is very highly regarded and offers OOS merit that may put cost in line with (perhaps less than) your state school.
My experience has been with non Ivies, non top 20 schools, so it may or may not apply to your son’s list of colleges. To get the best chance at competitive merit aid, we wanted our D to be in the top 10% of the pool of applicants. You look at each school’s 25/75 percentile scores, and you aim to be as high above that 75 percentile score as possible.
If your score is 30, and the school’s 75 percentile score is 29, then you are in the top 25% of applicants. If this is a large public university with tons of applicants to look at, you will need a great GPA, recommendations, and ECs to get the attention of the decision makers. If you are looking at a smaller, private LAC you might have more of a chance.
My D got good merit with a 31 at a smaller school with a 75 percentile score of 29. She competed for the top merit scholarship but didn’t get it. She took the ACT 3 times, and got a composite of 31 every time. She was done. There was one school on her list that offered Free Tuition for a score of 32. But she told me she was done and we let it go.
Presumably, you have a price limit that you have told him.
You can now tell him that, with his current ACT of 30, colleges A, B, C, etc. are within the price limit, but if he gets an ACT of 32 (or equivalent SAT score), then he can add colleges X, Y, Z, etc. to the affordable list to choose from. Then it will be his choice as to whether he is satisfied with the current list of affordable colleges or if he wants to try again to increase his list of affordable colleges.
Here is a list of scholarships based just on GPA and test scores: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Study the numbers and see where his stats stand against the schools on his list. Run the likely numbers to figure out COA and amount of debt involved. Share this info with your son and help him to understand his likely situation for each of the schools.
You can choose to fight him on this issue, or accept his decision. I felt my D was capable of better score, but her life was so full and she did not make the time to study consistently for the tests. So when she said she was done, I accepted and we moved forward.
Debt may not seem real to a young student, so it may not motivate him to study again. Telling him “if you don’t get COA down to XX amount, then you can’t attend this school” might get his attention. If he is not stuck on one particular school, though, he still might not care.
As parents, you know what your child is capable of, but you also need to see things from his perspective. Senior year is so full, overflowing with stress, college admissions essays, school exams, the pressure to keep that GPA up, etc. In the big picture, are there any automatic scholarships that he would miss out on if he doesn’t retake the test and get one more point higher on his composite?
The stakes are higher now, and it’s hard not to second guess every decision. Thank goodness there are lots of colleges out there, and so there is a good chance to find a fit and a cost that works for your son.
He may be able to raise his math score with a lot of practice. My understanding of the ACT is that speed really counts. If he can’t really go much faster (and keep same level of accuracy), he may not be able to raise his score. Any possibility of a tutor for the math section? If you had one once per week (not cheap, but could save a lot in the long run) and he did the required homework, he could take a practice test at the end of the summer and see if his math score increased substantially. If so, re-take. If not or if he is just not willing to do it, you may have to let it go and hope for the best.
Good luck!!
As to what your son should do, I don’t blame you for encouraging him to boost score if it means more $$$. In my opinion, the reading and science are the harder subjects to improve in because they require fast reading among other things, and slower readers will have a hard time going faster. The more tests out of the red book taken, the better - eg if trying to improve on english and math do all available questions in those sections. To improve in english and math,I think the ACT is fairly straightforward - for english you must know the rules of grammar. Some of the review books have sections devoted to this eg. which vs. that, who vs whom and the many other fairly rote grammar questions that appear on the test. Math also has two or three questions that are very hard even for top math students, but most of the others are doable for top math students. You need to see what questions he is getting wrong e.g. probablilty, combinations and permutations? etc. Most of these require learning the concept and formula, and then the rest should follow. Yes, perhaps much of this is memorization type work, and many don’t excell at that without a lot of work, but the bottom line is those kinds of things are doable.
Ask son, wouldn’t he rather get free money than something he has to pay back? He can still have fun over the summer, no need to study 24/7 if you know what to work on.
Texas Tech has a guaranteed scholarship now. Depending on your son’s class rank he would qualify for $14,000-$16,000 over four years PLUS instate tuition. UT Dallas has a similar program but is it not guaranteed.
Merit is rare at our state flagship so good students sometimes go to other campuses to save money.
I am waiting on my DS scores. Fingers crossed there will be no more tests!
BUT if he needs to retest for merit scholarship purposes, then my plan is to hire a tutor to help him over the summer and retake in the fall.
@LuckyCharms13 We are in Ohio. I was not aware that the colleges like Pitt considered certain individual scores only in addition to the composite. I’ll have to check in to that
I don’t know of other schools that handle the ACT the same way as Pitt; that’s just one we came across that doesn’t use the straight composite score, at least for merit.
Also, some colleges superscore the ACT (a Google search will turn up a whole list but you’ll want to verify with each school he’s interested in). I didn’t see Ohio publics on there but U of Dayton, Northeastern, Maryland, Delaware, and many others do. It’s way fewer than the number of colleges that superscore the SAT, but it may be worth looking into if his individual scores add up to more than 30 (and I mean that kindly; as others have said, a 30 is a solid score).
how much do you want your remaining costs to be?
What is his major?
Alabama won’t care if he took the test multiple times. They’ll just use the highest score. Right now, he has a 2/3 tuition award and honors college.
If he gets a 32, then he gets free tuition.
However, if he’s an eng’g major or CS major, then he already has free tuition.
agree with txtstella. I have my kids take a practice exam, I correct and and see where they need work. I then pick questions and review material for them to work on 10-15 minutes a day. When they master it I move on to next problem area. No sense in studying what you already know.
My personal philosophy is that your son has taken the ACT under “natural” conditions…he has studied as much as he is goign to study and knows as much as he is going to know. So if you find a college that matches his ACT scores, he will fit in because he doesn’t have to study 24/7 to do well there. The problem is that you want him to do better for better merit…All you can do is say “We can only pay $XX,000. If you want to go to a better school, then you have to do better on the ACT so you can get merit scholarships. If you are happy going to the state school, then this ACT is fine and you will get Y,000 in merit.”
Also from Ohio and got asked the other day after D got her 2nd ACT test scores back if she had to take them again. Her scores are good but perhaps not good enough to get her aid to some good match schools (Pitt is one of them). They are time consuming and even with better scores merit aid is not guaranteed. All but 1 of her classes next year will be among the most rigorous her HS offers so I told her it was completely up to her. She knows what her financial constraints will be and what her safety will be so it’s entirely up to her.
My son took the ACT twice. His math score went up 3 points. (from 33-36) He took a course through the high school. (ACT prep course) I think they used the Barron’s book. His composite went from 32 to 33. Even one point after 30 can make a huge difference with scholarships. My son is tired after all the tests and the AP tests. So, I totally understand your son not wanting to do this again. Baylor allows a superscore so that the best score in each section will be used. There are other schools that also use a superscoring system. If your son is interested in one of those then it might be important to take it again. My son only did the ACT with writing once and took the ACT without the writing the second time. He was very thankful he did not have to do the writing section again. 30 is a great score. If he has a good GPA, he might not need to take it again unless he is looking at Stanford or an Ivy League.
My DS is in a similar position. Is there any downside to taking it again? For example, if you are already above the 75% do you risk the school feeling like a safety and not taking your application seriously if you take it again and increase your score by 2 or more points? Do you risk being wait listed or worse?
Taking it again should not be a negative.
I would also look at his GPA and class rank. Even with a very high ACT, a school like Pitt or even in-state schools generally only give big merit to kids in the top 5%-10% or higher and with very high GPA. I know two kids that got admitted to Pitt with virtually identical, very good SATs. The one that was in the top 10% of his class got merit money, the one that was more like the 20th percentile did not.