I would submit. A friend who is a CC said her school is encouraging all students to test and for those with corroborating scores to submit. If scores don’t support you as the student you present yourself to be, then don’t provide them. I think a 33 sounds like it supports your application.
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Submit the 33! That is what we have been hearing here for 2026 and even more so for 2027: if it is above the pre-covid 25th%ile of matriculated students, submit, unless there is a very compelling reason not to.
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UVA and Emory place highly within their U.S. News category. However, when considered with all U.S. colleges, their rankings may drop somewhat. This general ranking places them in the 30s nationally (33rd and 36th, respectively), for example:
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I don’t understand. Do you mean when LACs are added? Because UVA is ranked 30 on Forbes and Emory is ranked 20 on WSJ/Times, and both rankings include LACs. I personally have never heard of wallet hub. The poster above mentioned top 20 not ivy+ there’s a distinction there that they did not make. And frankly there are some ivys (Cornell) that are very much Emory’s peer. UVA may not be as close to Cornell but it’s still very close. The point I was trying to make was that a 33 ACT is a good score for Emory and beyond. Trying to make the distinction is silly as a 33 is with the middle 50 of all of these schools.
My D tested in the 99 percentile. Still got WL at 6 schools, some where her score was supposedly over their top score in the 50% range. Your ability to pay and ED will greatly improve your chances.
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Let’s move the discussion off rankings, please.
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Accepted applicants represent students who will often attend college elsewhere.
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The scores for accepted applicants tend to be inflated in comparison to that of the expected student body, a pattern of which colleges are aware.
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The interests of colleges are best served by crafting their expected student bodies.
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Score profiles for accepted applicants may not be publicly available in many cases.
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The OP mentioned U.S. News, which does not consider profiles for accepted students.
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If you go to the latest common data set for a specific school ( google school name and common data set) it will give you range of most recent test scores for “enrolled” students.
If it’s 34-35 range ACT (like Duke) I would hesitate to send a 33 and rely on the strength of rest of application and understand it’s a significant reach.
If it’s 33-35 range, I would likely send the 33 because it’s a great score and consider applying ED to increase chances
However if it’s 28-32 range, I would hesitate to send the 28 if you are unhooked if it does not strengthen your application. I think schools in that range have more reason to look past scores if not submitted based on fact that admission rates are generally higher.
My opinion is not backed up by published research so I cannot argue that … so please don’t reprimand me for providing my opinion.
What I do know as fact is that many AOs have said that you should submit the scores if it strengthens your application - it’s very vague so I applied my own rules with that general rule of thumb. In the end, you need to evaluate your situation and make the best decision after reading all opinions.
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No…the CDS shows test score data only for enrolled students.
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This is a very important message from @BornMe
No one is being rejected for one point below the median. After all 50% are below.
But test is one of many factors. Some weight it more than others.
The 33 will get you considered just like a 36. A 28 might get you non considered.
Considered means they will look at the rest. But there’s still no guarantees….unless a school solely uses a gpa/test score calc and nothing else.
To me submitting is a no brainer unless one section is really low.
But you still have to pass the school’s holistic review. And many parts of the consideration are out of your control whether it be geography, major, ECs (they don’t want 100% athletes, no band people).
Control what you can. A 33 earns you the right to use the score. Have a compelling essay and LORs. And as this astute message informs from @BornMe , safety safety safety. Very important.
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I agree with this. 33 on its own is not going to move an applicant to the reject pile. A 28 in one subsection might, possibly.
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I hadn’t considered that her score breakdown could be important. She’s got 35’s in English and Reading, 33 in Science, 30 in Math. So arguably her math score is on the low-ish side, but she will definitely not be applying for any stem-focused majors and that will be obvious on her applications. My guess is that the 30 in math would be a negative if she wanted engineering/STEM, but since she will very clearly be pegged as a humanities/social sciences kid it’s less important.
Based on that, I’m feeling more confident about the decision to submit scores to schools where the 25% - 75% range is 33-35, and median is a 34. She doesn’t have schools on her list where the range is higher, and she has multiple schools where it’s lower.
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In test optional years, scores are inflated. Even with that, her score is damn near perfect. This is especially true if she is a non-STEM major. I would absolutely send it in.
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A third school of thought is that focusing on the median scores and mid 50% range can be somewhat misleading, and that (where possible) it is far more important to consider your student’s application in the context of similarly situated students applying to the same schools.
- For example, if your student is unhooked and from demographic that is oversaturated with qualified students (highly competitive and wealthy high school, suburb, and/or region with lots of qualified kids applying the same schools, highly competitive magnet, etc.) then there is a good possibility that 33 may pale in comparison to the scores of to many other similarly situated students from the same school/region/etc. In such cases a student may be better off relying on the strength of the rest of the application.
- Alternatively, if you are from a demographic with lower concentration of highly qualified students (such as a rural area) then a 33 may shine compared to students applying from a similar demographic.
In my opinion, while people here have a lot of theories on how things should work, no one here has enough actual information about your student’s circumstance to form a informed opinion on whether or not your student should apply TO. (At least I sure don’t.)
If your high school has competent guidance counselors, they will likely have far better information than those here. Specifically, if possible you should try to find out how similarly situated unhooked students have faired when submitting the same score to the specific schools (or similar schools) that you are interested in. If similarly situated unhooked students with the same score have historically had an extremely low chance of admission, then TO may make sense.
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This is the information that’s getting lost at many HSs, because the counselors are not inputting whether a student applied with or without a test score into Naviance, Scoir, MaiaLearning, or whatever program they are using to track admission results. At many schools the counselors have zero knowledge (unless they open up a students common app) of whether students applied with or without tests at each school, nor do many schools use any program to track admission results.
Some counselors at small schools might have a good handle on results for the past couple of years, but at larger schools I doubt many know the big picture. After all it’s many counselors who advocate for the submit-if-at-last-year’s-median ‘strategy’. Which is not appropriate in all cases, for all applicants, or all schools.
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You are correct. I edited my post. That’s what I wanted to say that CDS has better data because it’s enrolled students.
I think this is true. Hope it is true.
But I’m not absolutely certain of it.
It is obvious that schools are manipulating test optional in order to increase their average test scores.
Take 2 students who are otherwise virtually identical, same background, same GPA, same rigor, similar ECs, etc…
If Student “A” is 1 point below their prior year median ACT, or 10-20 points below their prior year median SAT…
And Student “B” goes test optional…
Which student are they more likely to take?
It’s possible they would take Student A — with the logic of, “in addition to everything else, they got a great test score that fits right in the range of our enrolled students… so in addition to everything else, they proved themselves with their test score”
Or, it’s possible they would prefer Student B – with the logic of, “hey… both students are equally great, they can probably both achieve equally here… But if we take Student A, it won’t help us increase our average test scores… so we are better off with Student B, all else being equal”
I have NO CLUE which logic is being applied in Admission’s Offices. It makes more sense to me for the first set of logic to be applied. But as schools are clearly trying to manipulate the data, I wouldn’t be shocked if the second set of logic is being applied.
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My guess is neither “logic” is being applied, and it is not obvious to me that most "schools are manipulating test optional in order to increase their average test scores.”
I think it more likely that most of the colleges are doing what they say they are doing: While they don’t require the scores, they will be consider scores if they are submitted. But this can cut both ways. Submitting even a solid test score may hurt more than it helps. If one applies from an environment where extremely high scores are the norm, then submitting a score below the median may hurt simply because plenty of other similarly situated applicants will submit much higher scores. A score below the median will pale in comparison.
I think colleges are less concerned with increasing scores and more concerned with taking who they want and being able to justify it - and test-optional helps. I know of an admissions officer who ignores submitted scores if they feel the applicant (with low scores) is a fit and evaluates the student as if they did not send.
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Schools have always been able to admit students with low scores though, especially if that student fits the school’s institutional priorities in some way(s).
For example, U Chicago has historically admitted students with test scores as low as ACT 20/corresponding SAT (prior to TO), which we know because they publish the full range of admitted student test scores.
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