Understanding the Costs and Process of Sending Your ACT Scores to Colleges
When applying to colleges, your ACT scores are a critical component of your application. Understanding the process and costs associated with sending your scores is essential for a smooth and successful application experience. This article provides a comprehensive guide to sending ACT scores, taking advantage of score reporting options, understanding deadlines, and ensuring your scores arrive at your chosen colleges.
Initial Score Sending During Registration
During your ACT registration, you have the option to select colleges to send your ACT scores to. If you choose this option, your scores will automatically be sent to those colleges on the score release dates. This is often the most convenient and cost-effective way to send your scores.
While registering for the ACT, you get the option of sending up to four free ACT reports to colleges or scholarship programs.
Sending Scores After Registration
If you didn't select colleges during registration, or if you want to send scores to additional colleges after you receive your scores, you can do so by logging into your ACT account. However, each test date report will cost $18.
- Pros: You can customize each score report to include only the test dates you want to send to colleges. This allows you to strategically send your best scores to each college.
- Cons: Each score report costs $19 (students with fee waivers are not required to pay for additional score reports).
The Importance of Timing: When to Send Your Scores
The general rule for sending your ACT score to colleges is the earlier, the better. Some colleges are strict about deadlines and require scores to be submitted before the application deadline. However, other colleges may still accept scores once the deadline is passed. It's crucial to check each college's specific requirements and deadlines on their website or application portal.
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Scores are posted online as soon as multiple-choice results are ready (and Writing results are added two weeks later when they are finished). Most colleges get ACT scores electronically. The schools themselves determine how often they receive scores.
Generally, if you send scores to a college but haven't applied there yet, the admissions committee will simply save them under your name in a general file until your application shows up.
Archived ACT Scores
Yes, you can! For tests administered prior to September 1, 2020, ACT scores are archived. Finding and sending archived ACT score records costs $30. To ease the process of finding your archived score, you must have as much identifying information as possible. To send ACT scores from any test taken more than three years ago, you have to request them from the ACT archives. To order older ACT scores, your only option is to request your scores online by creating an ACT account.
Understanding ACT Score Choice
The ACT's score choice policy allows you to choose which test dates you want to send to colleges. This is particularly beneficial if you've taken the ACT multiple times and want to showcase your best performance.
Because of the way the ACT score ordering process is structured-you get to pick which score or scores to send to which colleges- their policy ends up being almost identical to the College Board's Score Choice policy for the SAT.
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Send scores with your best section results to colleges that superscore the ACT. now provides an automatically calculated superscore to all students who have taken the ACT more than once.
Verifying Score Receipt
You can verify whether the college to which you have applied has received your scores if they have a portal to check the status. A good rule of thumb is to wait three weeks after your sending date to check whether your scores have been received. Usually, this info will be available on the college's application site.
If you get a notice from the college that your ACT scores are missing, don't panic: it can take a few weeks for received application materials to be logged. Chances are, the school has indeed received your scores but simply hasn't filed them yet.
Important Considerations and Avoiding Misconceptions
- Early Submission and Demonstrated Interest: Sending ACT scores early will not give you an edge or constitute demonstrated interest. In any case, sending ACT scores early will not give you an edge or constitute demonstrated interest.
- College-Specific Policies: You have to be careful and read your target colleges' score submission policies carefully.
- Late Submissions: Some schools have a hard-and-fast rule that late application materials disqualify applicants. In order to apply for first-year admission, you must take the required tests before November 30 for Early Action, and before December 31 for Regular Action. If your test scores are not received by the December 1 deadline, your application will be moved into the space-available applicant pool. Finally, some schools judge each application on a case-by-case basis.
Additional Information on ACT Score Reports
After the ACT score release dates, it takes approximately two to eight weeks to send your score reports to your current high school. All the information on the Student and High School Report, plus the grades you reported for up to 30 high school classes. No, you cannot send only one part of your ACT score report to colleges.
If you registered for the four free score reports, you can check your own score report for the code numbers you put in and confirm they're correct.
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