No harm in taking 4th time but prepare well before taking. Without preparation the score range will remain the same. Admissions know very well people come from various backgrounds ; some self prepare like yourself, some get private tutoring and score high in one attempt, and some others even get extended time. Most colleges simply take the highest score and care less how many times one attempts. It’s highly unlikely you will be penalized for scoring high (or even low) in your fourth attempt. In any case make best use of your time.
Yup, as manamanawegi says don’t feel bad about taking 4th time and individual cases vary. Try to achieve your best. Never give up 
The more selective the college, the less likely they are to look kindly upon a 4th attempt.
However if you’re aiming for merit scholarships such as the ones at Miami-Ohio, Temple, or UAlabama, then it makes sense to retake - these universities won’t care how often you took it as long as you meet their guidelines.
@ManaManaWegi I have the same question as you. Most people are saying that you should not retake a 4th time because it is unlikely for your scores to improve, but knowing myself, I do better with practice. I understand how it may look bad to send in four scores, but I have found few colleges that actually make you send ALL of your test scores. Jumping to a 33 would make a significant difference in my chances… thank you for understanding my question.
@Irishcali Do you know if Notre Dame requires you to send ALL of your test scores, or just the ones you choose to send?
Wait until you get the June score back
It seems the discussion generally boils down to if you genuinely think you can improve.
1.You should really never retake without putting in practice time, and seeing improvement (or evidence that you may improve).
2.Taking more than 3 times is not inherently bad, and will not matter at many schools (those who do not require all tests).
3.A better score is objectively better.
4.A standardized test score is generally not what decides admission decisions (especially at top schools who rate things like “personal characteristics” and “extracurriculars” as very important or important in decisions. For example, MIT, Princeton, Stanford etc.)
5. If you can improve and are willing to commit the time, go ahead and test again (bearing extreme circumstances like having a 35 or 1570)
6.Do NOT take time from other ,usually more important, parts of the application to study for and retake an act score that is “in range”, you can probably increase your chances more efficiently by doing something else.
These points, I think, are generally agreed upon and correct. Discussion is still open.
@dnstudent26 Okay, I get it back on Tuesday. I am just not overly confident because I almost didn’t finish the reading which has never happened to me before.
wcm-Notre Dame only wants what you choose to send. You do not have to send them all.
"Yup, as manamanawegi says don’t feel bad about taking 4th time and individual cases vary. Try to achieve your best. Never give up "
Platitudes make better fridge magnets than they do advice in real life. The reason is that there is almost always a platitude that counters the original one but sounds as good, like “know when to fold”, "Time spent on one activity is unavailable for another. "
Minor improvement from one test to another is probably attributed to and attributable to error. Test-retest reliability for the test is high but by no means perfect. People taking the test multiple times are often capitalizing on error when it is favorable to them. Without some sort of intervening event (like immense studying), scores are likely to be slightly different over two test sessions but usually not significantly different. Given regression to the mean, very high scores or very low scores are less apt to get much lower or much higher due to chance factors. That means that the chances are greater (favor) that “luck” will add less to improving already high scores. As a result, raising already unusually high scores (and scores 1SD+ above the mean are such scores) is probable only with immense studying so that there are reliable differences in skill level (the ability the test score serves as proxy for) as it pertains to taking the test. At that point the decision making should involve consideration of the cost-benefit ratio of spending that amount of time on acquiring a skill that is useless beyond this particular test.
As others have noted, the so called “top schools” (most competitive) are not concerned with the difference between a 33 and a 35 ACT score. Some less competitive schools may be more interested if they can’t attract high scoring students in ways aside from paying them to get certain scores and paying them to attend their school.
{No need to object, I know that is a blunt way to express a common practice among less competitive schools but those colleges give “merit” to keep their published score ranges high to keep/improve their standing on the US news rankings, an unfortunate gaming strategy that colleges engage in- which then encourages applicants to engage in similar meaningless activities like taking tests over and over again-just calling it what it is). I call it what it is because that is what we all should be doing to encourage schools to be more transparent and to change their practices to encourage students to engage in adaptive rather than useless activities-something that could bring college admissions back to a reasonable process for the next generation of students.
Bottom line, for the most competitive schools getting a 32 or a 35 makes little difference. But the mentality taken towards college makes a huge difference as does (ad con) judgements about whether a student spent his/her time on meaningful intellectually drive activities or on gaming grades and scores throughout his/her high school career.
I would suggest that you take it again because I heard that you can permanently delete scores so you wont look desperate. Unfortunately your ACT score is a big part of your application and if you are applying to schools like Vandy , a 32 will look slightly weak because their average itself is a 33.
HI @wcmcollege I’m an incoming senior as well and I just took my ACT for the 4th time in June. Yes, I hate giving them my money, but my logic is that I will take it until I do not think I will do any better. I’ve gone from a 25 to a 29 to a 31. I hope that people reading our applications don’t think things like “oh they are just test obsessed” but I guess we’ll never know. Good Luck!
@keurig83 I just got back my June score and I got a 32 as expected. I was really hoping to get a 33 so I could be “average” instead of “below average” in the application pool so I haven’t decided whether or not to take it a 4th time.