@austinmshauri I meant to tell you, last night I was re reading all of my FAFSA information and I kept waiting to see if ASU posted my award package yet. I have become so stressed about scholarships and what I am going to do for school that I started to cry. My mom asked me what was wrong, and I explained to her about our EFC being high and that most likely I would not really earn anything other than the loans explained here on CC. She told me that she understood, she didn’t qualify for anything because of my dads income when she went to school years ago (She earned a certificate). She has loans out as well, so that’s when I had the idea to retake the SAT ( Or now maybe even the ACT). I’m still waiting to hear about my package. It’s driving me crazy!!!
I forgot that the scores for the first sitting of the new SAT would be delayed until May.
The ACT website says that you can view your scores two weeks after the test but that score reports take 3-8 weeks to be sent. If you take the ACT with the essay, it’s 5-8 weeks for reports to be sent.
Does ASU want the ACT with the essay? If yes, it’s unlikely the scores would get there by May 1. If it’s without the essay, there’s a possibility the score report would get there in time.
Thank you for that @mamaedefamilia
I looked on this page: https://students.asu.edu/freshman/requirements
Under “Admissions Requirements”
I saw this: *ASU does not require the writing portion of these tests.
However, you are correct, the timing of score reporting from ACT itself could leave me even more out of luck.
@Lovenetc – perhaps call and ask if they will accept a screen shot of your scores? I have no experience with the ACT, but I know the SAT does not publish the full downloadable score report until one week after the scores are released.
They should accept a screen shot. It will be verified long before you get the $ paid out, so it is not a veracity issue.
Pls pls pls do lots of practice tests (timed). Dedicate your time until the test to this. If you don’t, you’ll end up nearly the same. If you went in completely unprepared at 19 score, you should improve quite a bit by practicing a lot. Last time I would imagine you were unable to finish most sections, so the practice will help.
So does this mean your parents won’t be able to contribute anything towards college?
@Lovenetc, Please let us know when you get your financial aid package from ASU. Have you asked your parents for a specific dollar amount they can pay without borrowing? What did they say? It doesn’t sound like they can afford much, if anything.
If your parents can’t help pay for college that makes things more difficult. You can only borrow ~$5500/year. And you can probably earn ~$3k over the summer. That means you’d probably need scores high enough to get you a full tuition award. I don’t know if you can raise a ~1300 SAT score high enough in a few months to qualify for one of them. Have you checked any colleges to see how much you’d have to raise your scores to qualify for their merit aid? Are there any schools you can commute to from home if going away to college doesn’t work out?
Does the ACT let you put a college name/code on the test booklet right when you take the test, so the scores go directly to them as soon as they are available?
I would prep especially for English, Reading, math.
The answer to my question is yes. This way ASU will get the ACT scores as soon as possible and you won’t have to pay to send score later.
Hey guys! So I received this email today from someone at ASU when I originally asked about retaking SAT/ACT tests:
“Victoria,
You can submit new test scores through July to be considered for increased scholarships. You will need to take the ACT to increase your scholarship. If you can receive a 20 on the test your scholarship will increase to the University Scholarship which is $3,000 a year, renewable for 4-years. Thank you.”
What do you guys think would be a good option? Go for it or no?
I’m a little stuck because just like another user posted on here, it would be likely that there may not be a lot of money left to go around.
This sounds like a sure thing. If you think you can swing a 20 you should try.
Lovenetc, with your class rank and GPA you actually have the potential to move up to the Dean’s scholarship, which is $6000 per year. I think that you would need to score a 23 on the ACT. The GPA that they use at ASU to calculate your New American Scholarship Award is your core GPA (ie math, science, English, etc…) you can find more details on that on ASU’s site (and play around with the calculator by putting in different ACT scores), but keep that in mind. So for example, PE, wouldn’t count in your GPA for scholarship purposes. This might really be helpful to you (if I am on the right track here) - ASU offers a residual ACT. That means that you can go to their testing center anytime and take an ACT test that they administer. You would need to check with the scholarship department and see if you can use a Residual ACT Score for scholarship purposes. The score is only valid for ASU, but that is all you want to use it for anyway. Please check on this! Now if this works out the next question is how hard did you study for the ACT in the first place? Did you give it “your all” or could you score higher if you really set your mind to it? I am from AZ and have all of my son’s prep materials that he used when he prepared for the ACT (recently). I can give you feedback on what worked for him and what he used to study. I would be happy to help you if you would like to PM me. Also, as for the money - if you got the $6,000 per year Dean’s scholarship and took out the $5,000 loan that would pretty much cover your tuition and probably your books as well. If you were to live with family and commute your costs could possibly be “workable”. Would your parents pay for your food and housing costs if you lived with your relatives in Phoenix? Would they also consider paying your yearly Barrett fee ($1500 I think). Barrett asks that their freshman live on campus for two years, but if you need to live with family due to financial reasons they will allow it. Hope this helps.
I would take @mominaz up on her offer to help with test prep and go for it!
@mommdc Definitely there with ya! 
Thank you so much! @mominaz Hello! So I did study pretty hard for both my SAT/ACT tests. I just don’t have the god given gift for testing, sadly, and it’s going to get me for the rest of my life! It’s mostly the math/science sections I would love aid/help with. My writing essay score came out to a 24, which I was pretty pleasant with, and I believe my English came out somewhere between 20-22. However, I would like to study more for the math/science area! I appreciate your support!!
Good to hear from you. My son has a stack of ACT resources. He has the ACT Red Book for Math that includes “the most effective strategies ever discovered” according to the title. He did go through this book and was happy with his math score. I think the most important thing now would be to find out if the ACT residual would be acceptable and if not, then find out if you have time to sign up for the next national ACT test. I know that some posters mentioned the deadline date above. Also, you would need to find out if you can get the score back in time. Personally I would try to do this by May since that is what the website says. July seems late, but you do have an email from them stating that you had until then if you need to fall back on that. They put it in writing right? So the questions you need to ask ASU are:
- Can you take the residual ACT and use that score for the New American Scholarship? If yes, how many times can you take it should you want to repeat it. If the person you speak to seems confused about the Residual ACT keep trying until you find someone who is knowledgeable about this. The ASU Testing Center has a website and a section about the Residual ACT - you might want to start with them. But definitely confirm with the Scholarship office as well. Ask them to reply back to you in an email as well so that you have a record of whatever they tell you. And as always, be sure to thank everyone on the phone for their help
- Ask them what have they calculated as your core GPA that they are using for the scholarship. You will need this information to input into the scholarship calculator to determine exactly what ACT score you do need to get to move up (especially to the Dean’s Scholarship for $6,000 per year). If I am correct and it is in the 23 range then this may be possible.
- If they don’t accept the Residual ACT then ask about the timing of the next National ACT. Confirm that you have until July to report your score. (Like I said I would aim for the May date just to be safe - and also so you can know where you stand sooner than later.)
If you would like me to help you with any of this please just PM me. If you are interested in ACT strategies and borrowing prep materials go ahead and PM me about that as well.
And something else I wanted to mention about the military in case anyone else is reading Loventc’s threads (there are two going at this time). She is interested in Medicine and the military. Lovenetc, I know that you mentioned the ROTC and you also mentioned keeping your undergrad debt down in case medical school pans out in the future. Something else to think about: it may be more feasible to have the military pay for your med school. They offer the HPSP scholarship in which they pay all of your tuition and fees and a monthly living stipend. You would then owe them back service as a military doc. I know that you mentioned that you were interested in the military so I thought I would throw that out there as well. Of course it is competitive so you would need to make yourself a competitive applicant, but there are three branches to apply to as well so it has potential. If you do ROTC first, you would not be able to do the HPSP because you would already need to fulfill your ROTC obligations.
My understanding is that she mentioned the military (actually, she mentioned ROTC) only as a possible college funding source. I didn’t get any inkling that she has an interest in serving, other than as a way to get money for college. In my opinion, this doesn’t count as “having an interest in the military.” Hopefully OP will correct me if I am mistaken.
Love, I am wondering if you could defer to Spring 2017 admission and raise your scores over the next few months. That would mean only waiting until Jan to start school. I did a quick look and it looks possible.
Best.
Hello, @BelknapPoint! I feel pretty lousy for suddenly stirring up the NROTC idea on here, as I believe it’s an excellent program, and others have said, you can’t just join with all privileges and rights just because you can’t afford college. Yes, I have had interest in joining the military several years now. Around the middle of my Junior year was when I acquired interest in joining the Navy or Marines as an Officer after I graduated from college. My dad actually brought the idea up to me and I come from a military/law enforcement family so I researched the idea. I would still like to serve at some point!