RE: ACT or ACT Plus for BFA Programs/Colleges

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>I know alot of people are at Unifieds this week and are thinking; auditions, is she/he going to do well, food, sleep, BRRRRRRR, etc., and are NOT thinking about the current topic I need to address and that is ok:)</p>

<p>To those of you that are not at Unifieds, but are still thinking about whether she/he is going to get in, eating what you want, sleeping just fine, and warm, I was wondering the following:</p>

<p>I was just trying to sign my daughter up for the April ACT test, and realized that I am not sure if she needs to take the ACT or the ACT Plus which has a writing component.</p>

<p>Of course if you ask her she will tell you neither:), but that is a whole different story.</p>

<p>Just wondered if anyone knows if many of the colleges require the ACT Plus or can we safely just sign up for the regular ACT.</p>

<p>ALSO</p>

<p>I noticed on the website that if you sign up to have scores released now it is free to up to 4 schools, however, I was thinking what if you want to wait and see what the score is. You may have a child that does not want the scores released and is going to try to increase the score and then have the best one sent to the schools. </p>

<p>If you wait however it is $11.00 per test date per report if you do not. $11.00 is not a lot until you start thinking about applying to 10-15 colleges.</p>

<p>My daughter is a junior so she could take it again in the summer or early fall.</p>

<p>Thoughts and experience in this appreciated.</p>

<p>To all of you that are at Unifieds and took the time to read this please know that I am thinking of you and hope all is going well with everyone:):):)</p>

2

<p>S took the ACT plus writing. We signed up to have it sent for free to 4 colleges. He came back from the test and went right online to remove the colleges because he said the test was crazy - he had a huge science section and he knew nothing!! You have up to about a week after the test to add or remove colleges. So he just used his SAT scores. He took the ACT this fall, when he was a senior, so he really couldn’t take it again. The ACT score is listed in Naviance at our high school (don’t know if you guys have that at your high school, but it is the system that we use to pass all the info from our high school to colleges that the kids apply to).</p>

<p>But for the schools we were going to send it to, they asked that it be ACT plus writing. I bought the sample test booklet for him, but he didn’t really do anything with it. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks Marblehead. Thats good information to know. I didn’t realize you could delete schools. Is it the same with the SAT? Did you son just sign up to send his scores to his top 4 schools?</p>

<p>Maybe I should have been asking SAT vs. ACT.</p>

<p>I did some research and we asked around and it seemed as if the ACT was the best option for my daugter, however, I guess we really have no idea for sure without taking them.</p>

<p>Is your son stronger in a particular subject or was it just the science part of the ACT that “freaked” him out?</p>

<p>My daughter tends to do better in english, history, and the social sciences, and she dislikes the math and sciences.</p>

4

<p>I don’t know about for auditioned BFA programs specifically (my D applied to LACs for BA in theatre, still waiting on those), but in my experience many, if not most, colleges (especially selective ones) seem to require ACT with writing. So if you are going to take the ACT I would recommend doing it with writing.</p>

<p>Also, it seems like the ACT and SAT are very different in style – some kids do better at one vs. the other. Our strategy was for D to take ACT in Feb of Junior year and SAT in Mar and then decide which one to focus on. She decided she liked ACT better (and did slightly better on it) so she studied for that in Aug prior to senior year and retook ACT in Sep of senior year (her composite went up a point but she improved her science by 4 points and said if she had prepared half as much for math, that would have improved as well). </p>

<p>ACT has reputation of being a “speed” test with more straightforward, less tricky questions.</p>

<p>Both tests can be prepared for (depends on your child but self motivated students can just do a lot of practice tests or some might do better with a tutor or a class).</p>

<p>At the very minimum, make sure student at least understands style of questions and format prior to taking. Also, the essay is graded a particular way and they are looking for specific things - there are lots of tips/threads on how to get good scores on those.</p>

5

<p>I don’t know for sure, but your D may be right.</p>

<p>Many BFA programs emphasize the audition and interview much more than they do academic qualifications. (That’s why so many people are at Unifieds this weekend . . .)</p>

<p>I realize that some schools specifically ask for the ACT or ACT plus, but if you are not applying to any school that requires or “prefers” them, you may be better off spending the time preparing for auditions and interviews.</p>

<p>KEVP</p>

6

<p>Daughter applied to 14 BFA programs and considered several others. I did not see one that required the ACT. The SAT with no additional subject tests was fine for all of them.</p>

7

<p>^^same for us, ActingDad; and my son did take the ACT this fall to see if it suited him better, but it came out a mixed bag so he stuck with his SAT scores. I think thise test scores will only end up being a potential issue with one of his schools (other than the scholarship aspect).</p>

8

<p>I like the idea of having my son prepare for the ACT and skipping the SAT. He’s a sophomore and did fairly well on a practice ACT. Do most schools accept the ACT over the SAT? He’s not much of a student, so we went be looking the most academically challenging schools.</p>

9

<p>Schools will consider ACT or SAT. There is no preference for one over the other.</p>

10

<p>GCmom is correct. There used to be a slight prejudice against the ACT, mostly by elite East Coast universities. That is no longer true.</p>

11

<p>ActingDad said: “Daughter applied to 14 BFA programs and considered several others. I did not see one that required the ACT. The SAT with no additional subject tests was fine for all of them.”</p>

<p>I didn’t say the schools required the ACT - I said that the schools asked for the ACT plus writing, if you were planning on submitting an ACT score.</p>

<p>But ActingDad does make a good point! If you go to the general admissions page for some larger universities, it may say applicants should submit the SAT and two SAT Subject tests. But you need to dig deeper and look at the actual admissions directions for individual schools within a larger university - for most of us, the fine arts or theatre school - because most don’t need those SAT Subject tests.</p>

<p>Made S take the subject tests before I discovered that - he was not pleased . . .</p>