Having just launched my oldest child into college, I have to agree with the advice you are getting on this thread that test scores are more important than grades. The problem is a lot of kids applying to selective colleges have GPA’s near, at, or above 4.0. So GPA isn’t very useful to colleges trying to differentiate one applicant from another. My DD had a 29 ACT and if I could do it over again, I would have put her in a test prep course and had her take it again. 30+ seems like the magic ACT score for both admission and the best merit aid.