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<p>I’m assuming you’re using those numbers because they’re just below the ranges for the mid-50% of applicants to the two colleges you mention, but those ACT scores are certainly not an app killer. There is a slight bit of a disconnect between an ACT score of 29, and a straight A average with a high school percentage rank of 98+%. Was this your child’s first time sitting for the ACT? If so, I’d take it one or more times and consider taking a prep course, or getting a Barron’s or Kaplan ACT review book. Taking the SAT is an option too, and some applicants find the SAT is the easier of the two tests to take for them. Also, taking the test earlier in the Junior year is not recommended for most students, since you actually learn material presented in the test during your junior year. That’s why most HS Counselors recommend taking the test near the end of the junior year in April.</p>
<p>But assuming the applicant can’t improve the ACT score, the other two criteria for admission to either college are at, or above the high end of the mid-50% stats that you quote, so there’s a very good chance of obtaining an offer of admission to either. I know that Engineering looks at the Math subscore very closely too. No one is going to be able to say with certainty that statistics of x+y+z=admittance. It unfortunately doesn’t work that way. When they say it’s a holistic process, they mean that a certain level of non-quantifiable subjective review goes into the final decision. I’ve heard of applicants with perfect ACTs, or perfect GPAs being rejected, but that scenario is quite rare.</p>
<p>So, as I said before, have your child apply to the college that he/she wants, and then go through the excruciating process of waiting for the decision release date like I had to do before my son was luckily offered admission.</p>
<p>P.S Pepto-Bismol and religion may aid you during the wait.</p>