Will a small score increase really make that much of a difference in admissions?

<p>Say, from a 32 to a 34?
Because everyone keeps yelling at me about retaking it, that it wont even make a difference.</p>

<p>Nah, focus on more important stuff. You won't get rejected because of a 32...</p>

<p>It depends what for. To get admitted somewhere, it probably won't make much of a difference. But for certain scholarships, there are minimum ACT requirements of 33 or 34, which in that case it would make a difference.</p>

<p>I know that a two point difference may not seem like much, but I think there actually is a bit of ground between a 32 and a 34, and if you are capable of scoring a 34, that <em>is</em> a significant increase. On the SAT 1600 point scale, a 32 is a 1420 while a 34 is a 1520, and I think most people would agree that a 1420 and a 1520 are rather different scores.</p>

<p>32 and a 34 would probably make a little bit of a difference</p>

<p>but a 34 and a 36 probably wouldn't</p>

<p>I don't think it would. Both are 99th percentile</p>

<p>^ Agreed, both scores are in the 99th percentile. A retake would only make sense if you need a higher score for merit scholarship consideration or if there is a stated score cutoff for a particular program that you are considering. Otherwise, focus on strengthening your application in other areas.</p>

<p>Do you have to self-report all your ACT scores on college apps? Or can you choose which dates to put down?</p>

<p>I think it depends on which schools you are applying to.</p>

<p>how about on the common app?</p>

<p>well a 32 and 34 is a big difference.</p>

<p>Certainly you won't be seen as mediocre for getting a 32 at a top school. But a 34 makes you actually competitive. (for instance, if applying to harvard or something, it is much better to get a 34 (high end) than a 32 (averageish for harvard)</p>

<p>BIGTWIX: Do you know that standardized tests are probably the last things on your resume that a college looks at?</p>

<p>Actually, you would be surprised. Judging by most of the admission results threads, scores have been emphasized more than the GPA sometimes. A 3.8 uw will usually do, while a 2100 is sometimes not good enough for top schools. (This will depend on which school you're applying to, but still. It applies to a lot of schools to some extent.)</p>

<p>tetrisfan- I wouldn't be too sure of that. It's not as if schools will go through every part of the application before looking at gpa and act/sat scores. Those standardized scores are easily seen anyway.
Although they say that they don't have cutoffs, an application from someone with a 26 is going to be looked at VERY differently from a 34...</p>