Worth retaking ACT (34) SAT (super score 1500)?

Test Preparation
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My son just went through the admissions cycle this year. Fortunately, he was happy with a state school as he was interested in going somewhere with a large campus and D1 athletics. He was an unhooked applicant with very similar scores to your daughter. He threw in applications for a few reach schools but was rejected or waitlisted to each one. He was a D3 level athlete with all-conference accolades in one sport, a varsity starter in another sport, student council officer, and had several other activities/volunteer work. Grades were in the top 10% of his class at a high level school. His essays were strong, and I suspect his letters were very strong. I think this is a pretty typical story for this past year though. He didn’t have any national level awards, hard-core research, etc…

If my son wasn’t happy with the state school, I would have encouraged him more to retake the ACT. He did consider it, but already knew his scores were good enough for merit aid and being accepted to his major program at the state school. His superscore was 34.25, the same as your daughter’s. Getting 1 more point on any section puts it at a 35 as the superscore is rounded up. Is a 34 good enough? Possibly. Will it keep her out of a school? Doubtful, but a 34 is at or below the 50% for both Northwestern and Dartmouth - not where I would want to be as an applicant without a hook. Is a 35 better? Yep. Will a 35 get her in to either of these schools alone? Doubtful. If she is serious about CS, I suspect the 32 could stick out. I wouldn’t want to give the admissions officers anything that might make them hesitate if she truly wants to go to one of those schools. I also suspect average scores will increase even further as those with scores at or below the 25% from 2021 likely did not submit them this past year. My son did not apply ED anywhere, so applying ED could make a difference.

I would encourage finding a back-up school that your daughter is highly likely to be admitted too that she will also be happy to attend. I think even if my son got into his reach schools, he would have still chosen the state school route as it had more of the other stuff he was looking for. Good luck with the process - it can be a long year!

4 Likes
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There’s actual data showing that Asian Americans have higher scores, the question that’s hard to answer is to do they need higher scores? The Espenshade book is the one that came up with the term Asian penalty, I think, referred in the Inside Higher Ed article. Apparently he doesn’t think there’s a bias, because of other factors in admissions that correlate with acceptance.

Anyway for the OP, I think you’re totally fine with the three tests, usually 4 or more tests may make the college wonder if applicants are too interested in testing.

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Welp, just saw test scores for this past cycle. Through the roof for the highly-rejective schools and cascading down from there. Suspect it is due to TO and only kids w/super high scores submitting. Question is, will this continue, or will scores at schools that again require test see scores come down to pre-pandemic levels?

Makes me wonder about ACT of 34 being adequate…