I followed that the 29 was her real score. She should not freak out about a practice test being lower was my point. My daughter went where the money was and she loves it. We would never have been able send her there without her award. I do feel like with a 29, they would have been generous with her since she would have been in their top 20%, but a 31 put her in their top 10%. That is where the money is. Our goal was never to get her into the most selective school she could get into. Our goal was to get her into the best school school we could afford. Even at the cheaper state schools and the OOS that offer reciprocity, they would give her between $2500 to $3000 off their tuition because of her score - even with a 29. That made a lot of reasonable schools especially good deals. We viewed her ACT score as a big coupon that not everyone gets. We knew she wouldn’t qualify for financial aid so it was a big deal for her. I think you’ll feel pretty good about it as you research schools.