34 vs 36 on ACT

micmatt513
Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:52:46 +0000

Are most people here of the opinion that you just need to be in a school’s middle 50% to be competitive, or that it actually is a plus the higher your score is? I feel like there’s a diminishing return if you have an evenly distributed 34 on the ACT or 2250 on the SAT (figure between a 33 and 36 for every score on the ACT and between 730 and 800 for every score on the SAT).

Maybe I just don’t know a ton about how admissions to top colleges works, but I feel like Harvard just simply doesn’t care after a certain point. I’m sure a perfect score is something that any college would like because they can brag about that, but other than that does it really matter? I feel like a good score is a good score, without really any extra consideration to it. I don’t think admissions officers read that deeply into a single afternoon’s worth of testing, regardless of the fact that it’s “standardized.”

I’d say that unless you’re confident you can bring up every single score or get a 36 on the science section, it’s a waste of your time to even consider retaking it. The curves on science and math can be quite unforgiving and I wouldn’t be surprised to see you decrease in those areas unless you’re a very strong math student. Science is kind of hit or miss and you could definitely see improvement with minimal extra prep, but you could also have your score stay the same. I don’t think it’s worth it to retake unless the schools you want superscore the ACT. You’re more likely than not to put yourself into a bad position.