Should I retake the ACT for top colleges?

Applying to College
1

I took the ACT for a second time in July 2018. I don’t know if I should retake it before regular decision or not. Here are my scores:
Composite: 33
English:36
Reading: 35
Math:30
Science:31
Stem:31

Some of the schools I’m applying to are UChicago, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Caltech, MIT, Dartmouth, Caltech, Rice,and Duke. I have a few safety schools too but for the most part my list is reach heavy. In April the only score that was higher was my essay (10 in April,9 in July) so superscoring with my old test isn’t really an option.
I know extra curriculars and essays and all that matter too, but I just want to know if my score could disadvantage me. My SAT was a 1450 (700 math and 750 English) for reference. I’m thinking of doing a biomedical engineering or statistics major.

2

If you have a ACT study plan and think you will do better, i suggest taking it one more time especially if applying as an engineering or math/statistics major as your lowest scores are in these sections (30 & 31).

3

IMHO. 30 / 750 Math to me doesn’t indicate that you’re someone likely to thrive at MIT or Caltech.

4

GPA matters the most, what is your unweighted GPA?

5

I am going to disagree with previous poster about college success. My son got a 30 Math the 1st time and a 34 the second time, two weeks later. He didn’t study for either test. He took geometry in 8th grade and the majority of questions he missed were geometry related on both tests. He was a comp sci and music major who graduated magna/phi beta kappa. Your ACT score in math is not going to determine your college success.

6

I forgot to mention that, my unweighted gpa is around 3.95 (my school doesn’t really tell us it but I’ve only ever gotten one B) and my weighted is 4.27

7

grades really dont mean anything without context.

8

Thanks, yeah I was worried about my math and science scores since I know for sure I want to do something in the STEM field

9

Thanks for letting me know that! I think if I retake it I can score higher but the reassurance is very helpful.

10

At MIT, the 25th percentile for math is 34 / 770. At Caltech, 25th percentile for math is 35 / 780.

30 / 700 (I misread initially) as the high scores across three test dates and a prospective engineering / stats major is unlikely to be a good fit for those particular schools, which are also not particularly similar to the remaining schools on OP’s list.