by David Blobaum, CEO, Summit Prep
The ACT is often seen as a key to unlocking the door to college admissions. This is true; even at test-optional colleges, students who submit higher than average ACT scores have higher than average admission chances. But the ACT is more like a multi-tool, and too often its other uses are ignored.
Equally important to getting into college is being able to afford college. Just like above-average ACT scores increase admission chances, they do the same for scholarship chances. Colleges use scholarships, merit aid, and even greater financial aid to attract students that they believe will enhance their school. Students who bring above-average ACT scores are not just more likely to do well both in and after college (which makes a college look good), but their higher scores directly improve the college’s ACT average – that can improve the school’s perceived prestige and improve its ranking in US News and World Report′ (which further improves its perceived prestige).
In short, colleges want students with higher-than-average ACT scores, and they’re often willing to heavily discount the price of college to get those students to attend. Yet, the ACT still has another tool to save students money: course placement.
It usually comes as a surprise to many students that, even if they got into a test-optional college without submitting an ACT score, they often then have to take a math placement test. If they don’t do well enough, they will have to take one or more remedial math courses that don’t count toward their required graduation credits. A sufficiently high ACT score (typically between 17 and 22, depending on the college) can usually exempt a student from a math placement test and thus from remedial, non-credit math courses.
Beyond admission and affordability, ACT scores can provide students with valuable information. Students come from over 20,000 different US high schools with different grading scales and take different classes from different teachers, so it’s difficult to accurately compare grades across transcripts. But ACT scores are a universal measurement. Students know how their English, math, reading, and science scores compare to those of students nationwide, which can help them pick the best colleges to apply to so they are not applying to colleges that might challenge them too much or too little.
For instance, in 2020, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) went to test-blind admissions. Since then, the percentage of its incoming students who have been required to take a remedial math course has jumped from 1% to 12%. A quarter of these students had 4.0 GPAs in high school math, so even perfect grades in math did not accurately signal whether they were prepared for the math at UCSD. Far worse, however, is that very few of the students placed into remedial math at UCSD are able to later pass the final required math course in their desired STEM majors. In fact, it appears that zero students who have taken remedial math at UCSD have been able to graduate with a degree in engineering. These students waste time and money taking courses in majors they are later forced to switch from.
However, when tutors and educators use tools such as the ACT Benchmarks, which are reliable predictors of a student’s first-year college success, targeted ACT scores can serve as indicators not only of math readiness but also of overall college preparedness. This, potentially, supports higher matriculation and graduation rates for colleges.
An ACT score, in conjunction with ACT’s Benchmarks, could likely have prevented the unnecessary remedial course requirements because it tells not only the college but also the student how well prepared they are to succeed at a given institution. If a student knows from their ACT score that they are far below the school’s average ACT score, they should consider whether that school will be a good fit for them. If a given college is too challenging, then they are more likely to do worse, switch majors, and thus spend more time and money in college.
The ACT is not used to distill a person down to a number. Instead, it’s a multi-tool that provides colleges and students with valuable information, helps students skip non-credit remedial math courses, and decreases the cost of college through scholarships and merit aid. With so much to gain and nothing to lose, all students should take the ACT.
David Blobaum is the CEO of Summit Prep and serves as the director of outreach for the National Test Prep Association, a nonprofit that works to support the appropriate use of testing in admissions.