My daughter will be applying for college for admission in Fall of 2026 (yes I am early)!
One reason for being early…we know lots of older kids/parents and have been scared by their horror stories of this year’s admission cycle.
Question 1: For those whose kids put in serious study (whatever that means–please describe) I am curious how your kids may have done on their first practice ACT/SAT compared to where they ultimately wound up with actual test results. My daughter took a free practice ACT with a test company and scored a 27. She was disappointed and is motivated to get better (although I am restraining her for now, lol). FWIW, parents told me that many companies give students really hard practice tests to make the situation seem rougher than it actually is in the hope that you will purchase their services. Not sure if this is true.
Question 2: When are students sharing their test scores with schools that are REALLY test optional? For example, if Wisconsin has an 25th percentile to 75th percentile ACT range of 28-33…what do you think your student’s score has to be in order to send it in?
Every student is different. Some improve a lot just by taking a few practice tests and figuring out how to set their own pace appropriately. Some benefit from taking a class or getting tutoring which covers both content and test-taking strategies. Some need to take multiple real tests to really understand where they are and how to improve. And some appear to have sharp limits to how well they can do given the format of the test. My kid was in the first category, and ended up getting a high score on his first real test, but his peers were mostly in one of the other categories. The only way to really know is to go through the process and see what happens.
I personally think the evidence these days usually supports submitting scores down to the 25th, and below that if you are a notably disadvantaged student in some way. Unless perhaps an AO gives very clear guidance to the contrary.
My personal opinion is this is true. My D24 did a practice ACT test from a test prep company and got a 29. On the actual ACT she got 35 - no test prep course or tutor.
When she took the SAT at school, she scored a 1480 - no prep.
Once she got a 35 on the ACT, she was pretty relaxed about taking the SAT a second time and scored a 1560 with no additional prep.
From her viewpoint, the most important factors were taking the test a couple of times, learning to pace yourself, and being used to the type of questions and environment.
I don’t think an actual prep course/tutor would’ve made any difference in her scores. I’m glad we didn’t waste any money on either.
Also, IMO, high SAT/ACT scores don’t really matter that much unless your FGLI.
I’ve taught and tutored teens (including ACT) and have done a little counseling in the midwest. I have a kid that recently graduated from Wisconsin (from OOS) and another kid that was accepted to Wisconsin EA last year (though chose another school). I will also say my 2nd kid was test optional (had 40+ DE credits).
In terms of score improvement, I would expect the average sophomore to junior to comfortably go up 3-4 points in a year with challenging school work and maybe some warm up prior to test day. It’s also another year of brain maturity which can lead to more speed and focus. Could maybe inch up more with focused practice and review. But again, hard to predict. Some students just struggle with the speed and would have top scores given another 10 minutes a section. Some kids just figure it out after an exposure or 2 and fly. I would expect reputable test prep companies are using real retired tests for the most part at least for seated practice exams. You could get the official ACT prep guide, that has a number of retired tests and do a seated exam at home over the summer and see. Unless there is a reason to get testing done early, I wouldn’t start a prep program until after the holidays for a spring exam.
In terms of Wisconsin admission from out of state. I think this is really hard to predict. I think it depends on the program you are applying to and where you are applying from. Like if you are applying from Chicago or Minneapolis area or another large metro with lots of applicants, it’s likely a harder admit and possibly a much harder admit than stats will indicate. Especially if you’re hoping for engineering, business, and I suspect they’ve got their eye on CS interested students. If you are at a school that sends kids to Wisconsin, a school counselor may have some sense of what would work from your area. Wisconsin has a LONG “Why Wisconsin” essay and if you do have a student really interested in that school (On Wiscosin!), I’d encourage your student learn a little about the Wisconsin Idea, about Madison and campus, and be pretty specfic in this essay.
I agree with this too, incidentally. It seems to me like in the vast majority of cases of unhooked, higher-SES, multi-gen applicants, their transcript, recommendations, and test scores align in a way that their test scores are not actually making any significant marginal difference to the academic strength of their application. And to the extent colleges like Dartmouth have released data, their data seems to support that proposition.
And what I specifically do NOT see much of is cases where a high test score really trumped a less-high transcript. I think there are some kids who get a really high test score who are hoping it will, but if they are an unhooked, higher-SES applicant, or an international applicant, it seems pretty rare for that to actually work with the most selective US colleges.
But conversely, if you are a FGLI or such, and particularly if you go to a HS that does not send a lot of kids to highly selective colleges, or college at all, then even a test score below their normal range may really help improve your odds, if it counts as very unusually high in your specific context.
Test scores counting for less certainly shocks me–but also makes me happy. I heard that a few schools (including Harvard) were going back to test required and took that to mean that tests may be making a big comeback.
Tests do a good job of measuring a particular type of intelligence, but there is so much more to a person.
There have been some LOOOOONG discussions here about that. The upshot is test optional did not seem to really be making much of a difference in terms of exactly which professional-class kids going to high-level college-prep high schools were getting admitted to colleges like the Ivies, because again those kids had all sorts of other markers of academic excellence that rendered test scores largely redundant.
But their argument for reinstating is basically they can identify more “diamonds in the rough” kids among other applicant pools with test scores, and to make sure they get as many such kids to consider as possible, they are requiring test scores again.
Although actually, there are also some hints they may also like test scores for quickly weeding down the growing volume of international applicants, but that tends not to be a topic of discussion for them.
I have a HS Class of 2026 kid, too. Come join us on the HS Class of 2026 thread.
My D24 didn’t test well. Highest SAT was a 1200. She applied test optional almost everywhere, got accepted everywhere she applied. But she was not applying to any reach/elite universities/colleges.
We did not spend money on test prep. It wasn’t in the budget and, honestly, it would have been a waste of time for my kid because she’s never been a good standardized test taker. Her highest ACT score was I think a 26.
Our school’s college counselor said re: your 2nd question that if you’re applying to a test optional school, only send in your test score to that school if the score is in the top 25% range.
Pay attention to merit scholarship requirements, though. For example, 2 of the OOS colleges D24 applied to had really great auto merit scholarships for OOS students, but you had to submit test scores. So she sent those in for those 2 schools. The colleges won’t say that on the Common App or on their home-grown online application portals. You have to look it up yourself on their financial aid/scholarship websites and read the details.
Blockquote 1. Our school’s college counselor said re: your 2nd question that if you’re applying to a test optional school, only send in your test score to that school if the score is in the top 25% range.
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
Wow. The college counselor said to only submit test scores if you are in the top 25% range? Did the counselor explain the logic is for that?
Using my (foolish?) “parent logic” I would think sharing a score that is at 25% to anything more than the 75% range would show the school that you belong at the school…at least from a test perspective.
Putting on my cynic’s hat…I wonder if the schools only want to see high test scores so as to pad their admitted student test score statistics?
We had a tutor, two of my kids definitely wanted to go oos, and needed merit, so it was definitely worth it. Both increased their scores, 33 and 34. They really only applied to safety/targets due to needing merit.
D24 went up a couple of hundred points after studying for the SAT. She used Khan Academy.
All juniors in our state take the ACT in spring of their junior year, and she decided she liked that format better so focused on that. She raised her score from 29 to a 33 superscore with self study, using the ACT general prep book and the specific Math and Science books (she recommends the bundle, and to look for a used copy). Her general method was to take a sample test, then work through the stuff she missed. She did a few of those.
D24 submitted her ACT score everywhere, even at the one place where it was closer to 25th than 75th (I discouraged applying any place she was less than 25th because she has no hooks). My thought was that they needed to see as much information as they could about her, and that if the AOs didn’t see a fit I would rather she be somewhere they did.
Last summer for my D25 - i.e., between sophomore and junior year - she began a personal review for the ACT. To that point, she had taken the ACT as a 7th grader for the TIPS program and had taken the PSAT as a sophomore. So she had a little bit of experience with these types of tests, but not a great deal. By end of sophomore year she had completed Alg I and II and geometry.
We got her the large red book that contained 6 ACT practice tests. Beginning at the end of last July, she took one practice test from that book as an assessment and got around 29 / 30 for math and science and 35 / 36 in English / reading. While she continued to do the English / reading when taking a practice test, she did not spend much time at all on those sections going forward.
She then spent the next two weeks reviewing IXL (Khan academy would be as good or better) the topics that she missed most frequently on the math portion. She spent about an hour a day for about 2 weeks or so on reviewing the math portion and practicing the Science questions.
A day or two before the actual test in Sept, she took another practice test and her math / science both jumped a bit to 33 / 34 range and english / reading stayed the same. When taking the live test, she got a rounded up 32 overall with essentially the same scores as her initial assessment.
She then worked with a tutor for an hour a week for a few weeks mostly focused on pacing (she had trouble finishing the math and science portions) and problem topics. She took the test again in either Nov or Dec and her math moved up to the low 30s and her science jumped 5 points. This is where the tutor really helped. Her overall score is now a 34.
So, she did spend some time studying and she was serious about it. However, it was not an excessive amount of hours - probably 30 - 40 hours all in, including a few practice tests.
I do not know the individual scores that made up your daughter’s 27, but I suspect that with some coaching she can increase her math and science scores, especially science. From what I have read, the english / reading portions are more difficult to increase as much of it is based on how well and how quickly you can read and assimilate - skills built over time and the subjects do not lend themselves as readily to coaching / cramming.
I’m solidly in the camp of first looking at the school’s 25% to 75% test range the year or so before covid. That should give you an idea of what they found acceptable then. Now, after 4 years of test optional, the scores have crept up because fewer people are submitting scores than pre-covid and typically only when over the current 25% mark (or higher). I think there will be a resetting of scores and expectations.
The 2019 Univ Wisc CDS is here:
The 2020 Univ Wisc CDS is here:
My understanding is both are pre-Covid years, but test scores went from Important to Considered. In both years, test scores were required. In both years the composite 25% to 75% range was 27 to 32.
All else being equal, from my perspective, if your daughter gets a 28 on her actual test or higher I would submit it. I believe AOs when they say that they look at the test scores as a hurdle to clear and once a sufficient score is provided, they do not revisit the score. Clearly, you can be more confident that she cleared that hurdle if she submits a 35, but based on historical data, my guess is that the hurdle is much lower.
Blockquote All else being equal, from my perspective, if your daughter gets a 28 on her actual test or higher I would submit it. I believe AOs when they say that they look at the test scores as a hurdle to clear and once a sufficient score is provided, they do not revisit the score. Clearly, you can be more confident that she cleared that hurdle if she submits a 35, but based on historical data, my guess is that the hurdle is much lower.
Thank you for the terrific analysis! I had not thought about going back to the test required era to see how schools were admitting.
I am still so torn on this. I am inclined to agree with you 100% from a logic standpoint. Showing a 28 would show that my daughter could easily hang at UW.
What shocks me is so many very credible people recommending that you don’t send scores unless they are at the 75th percentile of what the school admits.
Unless schools are just trying to pad stats (e.g., don’t tell us things unless they improve our stats), hiding a 50th percentile score just makes no sense. But then again, schools are all about padding stats, e.g., the whole ED system which attempts to raise yields.
