IT can but some scholarships depend on those scores – so you have to understand WHY you need a better score.
VERY true - later in my career I took a test for my PMP, one of my daughters is taking the CPA and another is doing NCLEX for nursing. And there have been many tests along the way in college where it was clear that half the battle was knowing how to read the questions and take the test.
If you are hoping for merit, I think testing should be done a lot earlier than August IMO.
It will take a few weeks for results to come out and then to be sent to colleges she is applying to.
As far as I know, U Albany and Ohio University have good forensic science programs.
Admission to these two schools should be less competitive than Northeastern.
My D graduated from Northeastern 3 years ago. I think she received a quality education and is pursuing her masters now. In my personal option, the school is focusing their money towards high stat kids. One of the perks and also challenges at Northeastern is their co-ops. It requires students to apply for co-ops during their studies and also juggle finding housing. It was challenging for my organized National Merit Scholar. It provided a great learning opportunity but it wasn’t easy
My original post was about the disparity in my daughter’s practice ACT tests and her actual score. I think she (and probably a lot of other kids) put too much pressure on themselves and when the test day arrives some can flourish a lot better than others. Other kids may have a different approach to the test. My daughter said she saw a kid from her school at the ACT test and he looked a little out of it before the test. Very smart kid she said. Apparently he was hung over. So he goes out and gets a 29 on the test and my daughter got a 24. So I’m not going to give that kind of advice to my daughter (joke) but for her next test I think we’ll scale back the one on one tutoring which we did twice a week for about 6 weeks. Hopefully she can do some practice tests, relax, and replicate her practice scores. Thanks for all the advice and kind words.
The main trick is to do actual tests for practice and not tests made up by companies as those may produce a different result. Good luck.
You may want to check out Paul Tough‘s „The years that matter most - how college makes or breaks us”.
There is an interesting section on how affluent East coast kids who “just don’t test well” manage to overcome this hurdle.
The gist: it’s all in their heads and basically he gets them to relax and not take the whole process so dead seriously, by, among other things, showing them how just knowing some little tricks can already improve their scores and reminding them of how questionable the whole “this test shows your true worth and ability” narrative and the entire test industry (on whose backs he is making his living) are.
Maybe you can even afford the tutor? HTH.
Bucknell is now test optional. I am currently a freshman in the Freeman College of Management and love everything about Bucknell. I was extremely homesick the first month, got mono in October but managed (with the help of professors and the assistant dean) to get through the semester. It truly is a work hard (Sunday thru Friday mid day)/play hard environment but there is a place for everyone, Professors are amazing and the campuses beautiful. Very upset that due to the coronavirus, we will be on remote learning for the rest of the semester, Going to miss being on campus but totally understand the decision.