I am a high school student going into my senior year. I’m already on the hunt for colleges and I’m becoming more discouraged as my search goes on. I have a 20 on my ACT and I have a 4.27 GPA ( I’m going to take 5 more college classes in the fall so it will raise quite a bit.) I’m involved in a lot of activities and have started clubs at my school and have done some pretty cool and unique things but I am super worried about my ACT score. I wanted to try for an Ivy League at first but now I don’t have faith that I’ll get in anywhere. I’m taking classes on how to up my score but I’m just a terrible standardized test taker and I feel like that’s going to ruin it for me.
Realize that the Ivy Leagues are 8 schools out of thousands and you will definitely get in somewhere. If you can’t raise your ACT score/achieve higher on the SAT, explore test-optional schools and see which ones pique your interest.
Your standardized test score will definitely destroy your chances of going to a top school. I’ve never heard of anyone going to an Ivy League caliber school with a 20 ACT. You might also want to consider taking the SAT if you perform better. Such a large difference in your GPA which is top tier and your ACT which is below average could also mean there is grade inflation at your school and good grades are easy to get. I would suggest looking at the Naviance graphs for your school or consulting with your guidance counselor to see what students with your scores can do. I also don’t know if you have taken any AP tests or SAT subject tests. Those will also help your chances and demonstrate that you are a strong student if you have good scores. However, if you have poor scores or have not taken classes of that level, it could be another sign that classes at your school are easy and you high GPA is inflating your hopes in terms of colleges. With a 20 ACT, you could look at your local state schools but not any public ivies and top tier publics such as UMich or UNC Chapel Hill. A more realistic option would be like a newer or less prestigious school in your state system where your ACT score is closer to the average. However, if your extracurriculars are as strong as you say and you write a good essay and have good rec letters, a lower end state flagship is a possibility if you are in state.
Sounds like you’re an interesting student!
What do you think you want to study? What state are you in and how far from home are you interested/willing to go? Have you talked with your parents about how much they can pay per year? Aside from Ivies, what type of college environment do you see yourself in? Large or small? Urban or small town?
Also, can you tell us more about your background and high school, such as are you a first generation college student or underrepresented minority? Are your parents or guidance college involved in your college search? Do you have an idea on why there’s such a gap between your grades and your test scores other than being a bad test taker (though, of course, that is is thing)?
There’s a lot of expertise on this board and answers to these questions will help you get more focused suggestions! Hang in there – there’s LOTs of great colleges out there looking for dedicated students like you!
It is good that you are taking a test prep course, but you also should get yourself screened for undiagnosed learning differences that could be affecting your test results. Top class grades and poor test scores can be an indicator for slow processing speeds and other issues in the dyslexia family. They also can be mostly a result of poor test strategies and testing anxieties. Each of these has a different work-around, and it would be good to get them sorted out before you are in college because they can still trip you up there.
You do not have to give up on ivy and ivy-peer institutions just yet. Read through the no test and test optional list at www.fairtest.org to find places where your proven track record is more important than your test results.
There are several test optional schools as well.
The better test-optional schools tend to be liberal arts colleges (like Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Holy Cross, Skidmore, and some of the top women’s colleges) or a few not-so-large universities (like Brandeis and Wake Forest). So if you aren’t able to get above, say, a 24 ACT or 1200 SAT, you might need to look at some of these smaller schools that are excellent schools but not as generally well known. There are hundreds of less selective schools you could get into with lower test scores, of course.
The University of Chicago just announced it’s test optional, though so far I think it’s the only top 20 university like that. You certainly could apply there, though it is extremely hard to get into.
The ivy league is a distraction. Put it aside. It does more harm than good when selecting schools because it removes all detail from your thinking, takes most of your better choices off the table, statistically it isn’t a realistic option for almost everyone, and in the end it isn’t even a very good grouping of schools (there’s a huge variety within just that set of eight. I digress.)
Think of all the cool extracurriculars you would have missed if you’d confined yourself to the handful you’d heard of in eighth grade. Then think about how much less fun high school would be right now if you’d invested all your time in one or two clubs where your best skills weren’t used but the top kids participated, let’s say rugby and mock trial for someone who hates public speaking and athletics. Would you feel like a success?
Work on your testing skills, keep doing interesting things, and for goodness sake don’t settle for the schools you’ve heard of. Look around and find some place that really resonates with you personally. The goal isn’t simply getting into a school, it’s to continue living your life and growing and learning and all that stuff. Don’t over-simplify the decision.
I echo what others have said about looking into test optional schools. There are so many excellent ones out there now. If you give us some information about your goals – intended major, location, size, financial restraints, this forum will give you some great suggestions. Some people just don’t test well. If thats you, there are still fabulous options out there.
Here is the list of test optional colleges sorted by state https://www.fairtest.org/university/optional/state
Did you study hard for the ACT? If not I suggest you do so and try to raise that score.
Consider studying for and trying the SAT as well – some people do better on one test than the other.
You should absolutely have a choice of schools-- IF you apply to schools where your scores place you into the middle 50%.
You should really retake the ACT in my opinion or even try the SAT. Your score seems really low in comparison with your GPA so if i were you I’d look into some tutoring if you are having issues with it.
The ACT of 20 is at the 50th percentile of test takers across the USA.
There are many colleges where you can get in with that score. An Ivy League school is not one of them.
I’ve seen a lot of people suggest competitive “test optional” schools such as UChicago, however, unfortunately I don’t believe this is possible for you. These “test optional” schools are not truly test optional for most people. This is a tactic used by colleges to increase the number of applicants and lower acceptance rates and rise up rankings. Most students who get in submit standardized tests. These competitive test optional schools all have high average standardized test scores for a reason. Without standardized tests, it is difficult to compare students because a 3.5 at a tough high school is often harder to achieve than a 4.0 at an easy one. While standardized tests are by no means a perfect measure of how good a student is, colleges require them for a reason because they show how good of a student you are to some degree. However, you may be able to get away without an ACT or SAT score if you have good scores in APs or SAT IIs to demonstrate you are a good student compared to students in other schools, not just in the context of your own. However, without SAT IIs, APs or truly exceptional ECs, the most competitive test optional schools are not a reality but less competitive test optional schools can be.
Try UChicago. They dont require tests
@Sejoonjp I literally just explained in a post above why I do not believe he is a competitive applicant at UChicago.
Felt like there needed to be a bit more info about me so, I am a classical ballet dancer, a classical pianist ( I’ve competed in both numerous times.) I am half Native American and half African American, public speaking is a passion of mine and I go places and speak on behalf of my tribe. I am heavily involved in politics and I’ve paged senators multiple times and I volunteer on the campaigns of candidates. I have also won multiple awards in speech and debate. I intend to major in biology because after college I hope to go onto med school.
You sound like a student who will do great applying to test-optional schools. And no, I don’t mean super-elite, under-10%-admit-rate test-optional schools like UChicago; I mean smart and intellectual test-optional schools with strong performing arts, where your GPA is above their median.
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Wesleyan might be a good reach for you. Pitzer could also be a great reach to target - their Redford Conservacy does a lot of collaborative environmental work with the Native American community… and there are excellent dance and music programs available through Claremont Consortium,and excellent sciences through the shared Keck Science department.
Colleges like Connecticut College, Skidmore, and Sarah Lawrence are excellent schools where performing arts are pervasive and high-quality. Their demographics are skewed toward women, so you’d get a “bump” for being male as well as for racial/ethnic diversity. Your prospects at schools like this are excellent, and the education is top-notch. Ithaca is another in this vein that I think would be a safety for you.
Schools like Lawrence U and Bard, test-optional schools with music conservatories, would be great bets too.
And then there’s U of Minnesota Morris. This public LAC was founded on the former site of a Native American boarding school, and offers tuition waivers to Native students as one of the terms of its charter. Its student population is 19% Native. It’s an excellent school - your ACT would be in the bottom quartile there - but your GPA is in the top quartile so I think you’d have a good shot even though it isn’t test-optional. As you’d expect, with the “critical mass” of Native students, there are top-notch Native American Studies and related programs. Once in, you might well want to complete your whole undergraduate education there, but if you wanted to use it as a stepping stone to the top-tier UMinn Twin Cities flagship, transfer between campuses is through a straightforward internal application.
None of these suggestions are made, of course, with any insight into your financial resources, and they vary in terms of the generosity of their need-based and merit aid… but fwiw.
I don’t want to be a naysayer, but you do need to realize that getting into medical school is heavily gated by MCAT scores, and the MCAT is an even more grueling standardized test than the ACT. It was recently expanded to be six hours long, which means that with section breaks the elapsed time to sit for the MCAT is 7.5 hours. Also, once you compete your medical education, the boards are yet another layer of difficult testing. If this is a mountain you want to scale, you are going to need to start investigating now, what is keeping you from performing better on standardized tests. (Or, choose one of the many career paths that isn’t predicated on this aptitude.) To me, you sound like someone who could be using his considerable gifts to make a difference in the public sphere… but you have plenty of time to figure that out.
When you say “@Sejoonjp I literally just explained in a post above why I do not believe he is a competitive applicant at UChicago.”
According to the clock, you posted that within 3 minutes of the previous post. It’s entirely possible that it hadn’t appeared yet in the thread-- or that the new poster simply hadn’t seen it. You might consider giving a break to someone trying to help you.
@confusedkid02 Being Native American and African American will boost your chances tremendously. I also don’t know if you have AP or SAT II scores to submit? If your scores are strong, that could make up for the lack of an ACT or SAT score. However, if you don’t have them it is hard for colleges to compare you to students from other schools based only on GPA since it varies so much from school to school.