As I’m trying to find a few more schools to apply to, I want to know what are some of the best schools that really take ACT scores into heavy consideration.
I’m aware that Vanderbilt does this and I will be applying there.
My GPA is not horrid, 3.7, I just have a great ACT score of 34 and want to find great schools that would think highly of that.
Congrats on your score.
What do you consider “top schools”? At Vandy, a 34 is good, but not great. Vandy’s upper quartile has an ACT 35+, which means at least 25% of their students have an ACT 35+ or SAT equivalent.
WashU and USC like top scores, but again, they consider top scores at perfect/near perfect.
As good as an ACT 34 is, it’s mid-range for many top schools.
If you want good schools that will thinking highly of an ACT 34, look at schools around top 50-100
I’m not necessarily looking for the “elite” schools. I’m looking for LACs and universities that take heavy consideration, particularly those who take a lot of early applicants.
thanks for that tip
The super-selective schools heavily consider test scores and grades/GPA and various other aspects of your application.
WUSTL, definitely. They loved my test scores 
@ucbalumnus has it correct – WUSTL and other schools look at the total package. 34 is a great score but don’t rest on that…for example, WUSTL likes demonstrated interest (e.g., a visit, completing scholarship essays, being proactive, etc.) Good luck!
Off the top of my head, I would suggest Wash U, Vanderbilt, Tufts and Northwestern. Those schools certainly seem to emphasize standardized test scores more strongly than grades/class rank or ECs, at least vis a vis their peer schools.
At the opposite end is UC Berkeley, which definitely cares much, much more about high school grades than it does about standardized test scores.
@ThankYouforHelp I don’t think Northwestern emphasizes it more than its peers. You can’t even find its scores on its website; it just never market with test scores, unlike most other peers. Also, the increase in its test score over the past decade or more has always been very gradual, unlike some of its peers. You can see how some school actually changed their practice by how the increase accelerated all of a sudden. I actually think Chicago is more like one of them. Its test scores had increased more than most other top schools in the past decade, seemingly after they adjusted the way they reported to USN when they made the leap from #15 to #9. But now its scores are so high that 34 is just very average.
I heard that Notre Dame was big on stats
I was going by what I saw on Naviance for my kids’ school, and what I have read elsewhere. I wasn’t saying that Northwestern markets its test scores, but that the 4 schools I listed seem to emphasize test scores in admissions decisions more than other schools. Particularly Vanderbilt and Wash U. Maybe Northwestern shouldn’t be on that list - I was using a very small sample size.
UChicago always had high test scores - as far as I can tell, what really has changed is that they now get several times more applications from very qualified students than they once did.