<p>I live in Illinois, where taking the ACT is mandatory. I have taken the mandatory ACT and a national (April 4, 2004) ACT. When sending score reports to colleges, which ACT score should I send?</p>
<p>I have been thinking that for in-state schools, the mandatory PSAE ACT would work, while out of state schools would prefer the national ACT... but my mandatory ACT was better, so I would prefer to send it to all of the schools. Am I on the right track? Would anyone be willing to help me out?</p>
<p>what's the difference between the two?</p>
<p>As to the difference, for states that require all high school juniors to take the ACT (Illinois and Colorado), the state testing is not done on a national testing date. For the most part that is entirely irrelevant to admission to any college as colleges generally accept either and have no preference. Illinois as part of the information it provides for the state testing date says that there may be some colleges that will require the national testing date score and not accept the state testing date score; however, I have not been able to find a college that does that and that warning may just be something left over from a time when there might have been some colleges that required the national test date score. Nevertheless, just to be extra safe when applying, just check each college's test requirement for admission that they post on their web-sites -- if it does not say the national test date score is the only one accepted, you are fine in sending the state test date score.</p>
<p>Where it does make a difference is if you intend to play college sports, meaning on a program approved by the NCAA. Athletes must register with the NCAA's Clearinghouse to be allowed to play on an NCAA college team. They submit to it transcripts and test scores and then are approved if they meet the minimum NCAA requirements for athletes. The NCAA Clearinghouse does not accept ACT scores from state test dates and thus if you are going to be a college athlete, you also need to take the national date test and submit that score.</p>
<p>Excellent! Thank you very, very much.</p>