You can’t beat yourself up, though – worrying about scarcity of seats is a real thing! I don’t blame you at all for wanting to secure her a spot. I first learned about the test scarcity here on CC – it’s not a thing where we live. I would have probably done the same in your shoes.
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If he pulled his English score from 28 to 30, I think he’d really need to drill down on exactly what he’s missing -and why- if he’s going to pull it up to 34. You know? I would be inclined to let it rest at a 35 composite and call it done.
I think that composite score will serve him well at 95% of schools. It’s only the most selective of schools that might raise an eyebrow at the one outlier score.
That said, if it’s going to bother him, and it doesn’t stress him out too much to test again, I’d let him try – provided he really preps and figures out what’s tripping him up in that section. Why not?
So much of this is based on kid personality, too. My D22 got a composite 36 her first time out on the ACT – 36 Science, 36 Reading, 36 English, and 34 Math. That averaged to 35.5 which rounded up. It made her crazy, though, because it wasn’t perfect – and she wanted to try for the 36 Math. I told her, um, sorry, nope – you won’t be doing that. 
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Thank you for the kind words. I know I was doing what I thought was best, but the whole process was so much more stressful for her than if I just waited until she would have been more ready. I figured she could always take it again not realizing that how it would go down would make her never want to take it again. And, given how it all went and everything she had going on last fall, I get why she felt that way. But, yes I need to go easy on myself about it. What is done is done.
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This is such a stressful time all around. We need to remember to not only give our kids grace, but ourselves too.
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S26 is getting mail from Princeton! He has no interest in applying only because it’s not for him, but yes, crazy amount of mail AND emails from Columbia!
@beefeater when do you think is a good time to run the NPC again to get updated numbers?
@ali-ice yay to finishing the college list! How many safeties/targets/reaches does she have?
@ECCA2026 That is a concern that I have - the lack of diversity, the very conservative area outside of Kenyon/Gambier, and the remote location. I’m glad you got to visit and see and feel the vibe of the area for yourself. Your daughter has a great list! Did you get to visit Oberlin or Denison near Kenyon?
We are picking up my son this coming Saturday from Kenyon (he’s there for their young writers workshop), and we will see what he thinks about Kenyon. We are going to finalize his college list soon.
@co2mom Such a great feeling knowing your kid is doing ok and having fun at their summer program! That’s awesome!
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I wish I knew! I’ll probably start checking again in August to see which ones have been updated. I recall asking this question last year and getting an “every college is different and they might update it randomly” answer. I have noticed that when running them over the past year that I do get different numbers almost randomly. Maybe they tweaked the formula for a while. Maybe there’s a glitch. I mean, at the end we’ll run them right before D26 applies, we’ll take screenshots to use as backup when we invariably get a different number, and then we’ll see what happens!
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Thanks all. I think S26 likes the idea of a 36 superscore—not sure if he will like the work involved in dragging his score up to a 34 in English. That said, he does have some reaches he would love to have a shot at (reaches where a 35 is above their 25-75 percent average), but will the 30 outlier be enough to cancel out the benefit of that composite? The test is also something he feels he still has some control over—especially since other parts of the application are locked/set/out of his control (his transcript, his investment in ECs, his LORs). I think I’d be more excited about the idea of studying for the ACT again if he made more progress on essays, which has not happened yet.
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We did visit Oberlin as well. The school also seemed a good fit generally and we all felt more comfortable with the area being only 30 mins from Cleveland. That said, Oberlin, while still on the list after the visit, did not rise like we expected it to. In truth, she liked Kenyon as a school better, but Oberlin as a location way better. So, compared to the Kenyon visit the day before, Oberlin underwhelmed her as a school. But, she’d be happy enough to go there. As I said before, Kenyon was great but there was no way to
overcome its location for us it turns out.
Whether or not to retest is a very individual decision.
I would like D26 to retest, but she’s so burned out from 11th grade that she has flat out refused to entertain the idea. So her 25 ACT score is it. Not applying to highly selective/highly rejective schools, so that’s not a factor. A couple of the auto merit scholarship colleges she’ll apply to would give her more $$ if her test scores are higher, but the juice is not worth the squeeze because she’d have to raise her score a lot in order to get more $$, and with her current test score, the OOS public university auto merit scholarship places will likely be a smidge cheaper than tuition+room+board in state. AND the in-state option is still #1 on the list for many many factors (an important one of which is undergrads’ success in getting internships in your major/field prior to graduation; the college has a very good track record on this for the 2 majors she’s interested in).
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D26 will be going with a more extreme version of this same scenario - 34 composite with a 28 outlier (Math). She has only taken once and has no desire to try again, and I’m inclined to agree with her. She was getting 28 on practice Math sections also, and improvement would require some pretty intensive prep work on certain Algebra II concepts that she has no bandwidth to handle right now. Her Algebra II course in 10th grade was “taught” by a full-year sub who just passed out simple worksheets and gave everyone good grades - nice for the GPA, but not so much for the understanding of the subject matter.
Anyway, she’s only looking at one school where that outlier could be a significant issue. I’ll let everyone know how that goes.
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The latest “Your College Bound Kid” podcast answers a listener’s question all about test scores. I found it to be helpful and informative!
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Please do tell, the suspense is killing me.
It’s in episode 549.
OMG. I did this one day when I had a light workday. Sat at my desk and ran the NPC for like four hours on every school in the Northeast. Whittled her list from about 20 schools to about four and then she eliminated three of those lol.
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Lol, my daughter received the exact same packet. I think that’s how they keep their admittance percentage so low. Entice all of these students who are above average and amazing people, but definitely not going to Harvard. They convince them to apply only to reject them as predicted.
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I love how they post those but not the individual scores. Ugh. My daughter is not stressed about it at all, but I am. Because I know that a good score submitted to the school of her choice means a better chance of acceptance and that School is the one that we can afford that she likes. She doesn’t particularly like anything else that we can actually afford. Such a bummer that the most selective schools are the ones that meet need. 
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What is she interested in studying? State school or smaller/liberal arts?
This book is currently serving as my laptop stand on my desk. Glad it’s being put to good use.
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That figure definitely includes acceptances to Oakland, London and NYC and NU In.
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We have to leave at 6:45 a.m. tomorrow to get D26 to the airport for her flight to camp, but listen to this – SHE FINISHED HER COMMON APP ESSAY. I’ve been nagging her for two days straight, and she finally listened and just dumped it all out.
We then went back and forth today editing it down because it was 900 words, lol – and when it was almost there, I called in the big guns – my D22. She is a pro. It’s almost as if she’s a linguistics major, lol. Within 20 minutes, she cut another 25 words (with detailed explanations for everything she was cutting) and mentioned one bit of color that she thought was missing.
Anyhow. D26 is pleased with how it’s shaping up so far. We didn’t add anything to what she’d written, just helped her cut it down to make it concise. It’s 100% her voice, but oh I wish it could be a longer essay. But it’s now ready to send to the college counselor for feedback.
Has anyone asked for essay feedback here on CC? I think that’s a service they offer for free?
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