Anonymous wrote:How do you get over 4.0 if grades aren't weighted?

Some schools award a 4.3 for A+ grades, I think. My school only gave out 4.0 for both A+ and A grades.

or that.

OP,
Did she try the SAT? She might ace those.

A 32 on the ACT,an A- average in honors/AP classes, a varsity sport and okay extracurriculars/leadership got my daughter into a top 20 school, wait listed at top 10 schools and rejected from Ivies/Williams/Amherst. My daughter only ended up with one really good option (I guess some would say that that is all it takes!) and her safeties. Remember that the bar is higher for girls because more girls apply to college and the colleges seek gender parity. If she had to do it again she would have applied to more top 20 type schools and fewer of the very top tier.

Some kids do better on the SAT than the ACT so that might be an option. But some colleges, as one PP mentioned (Georgetown comes to mind) require that you submit all scores.

Has your child considered Emory, Vanderbilt or Rice as top choices?

How do you get over 4.0 if grades aren't weighted?

Anonymous wrote:My kid just got ACT scores back. Math 35. English 34. Reading 31. Science 26. Composite 32. She obviously wants to take again, but how does it all work. If she does better, do they take the new scores on the lower sections? What if she scores a little lower on English and Math next time. She wants to go to Duke or Princeton. She has 4.3.

OP -- I am assuming your child is a junior. Your options obviously are to 1) retake the ACT ; 2) prep for and take the SAT; or 3) do number 2, and then decide which of the two tests to retake if the SAT score isn't better As of last year when I toured Princeton, they were definitely superscoring the SAT, but as others noted you need to look on their web site to find out the policy on the ACT. You also should check on the their policy re prior testing. Yale requires that you submit all testing -- ACT, SAT, whatever you have taken however many times you've taken it. I don't think Princeton is like that, but you should check that before deciding which way to go. I don't know what prep your daughter did, but if you can afford it I would strongly suggest doing a prep course or at least some one on one sessions. For what it's worth, my DC did sort of the opposite. He took the SAT first after a group prep class -- did very well, but not as good as DC thought he should b/c he was aiming at very selective schools. Then he did a full blown practice ACT, but without a lot of prep -- and did not do nearly as well (it was not an official ACT, just a practice test, so it did not need to be turned over to any schools).. Finally, he did just a few a little practicing on his own and took a few one on one brush up math sessions with a tutor, and then raised his high SAT a little higher. Also, if that 4.3 is an A+ in a school that doesn't weigh grades, it is great. If it s a 4.3 in a school that does weight GPAs, it is still certainly very good, but won't jump out at Princeton.

Anonymous wrote:My kid just got ACT scores back. Math 35. English 34. Reading 31. Science 26. Composite 32. She obviously wants to take again, but how does it all work. If she does better, do they take the new scores on the lower sections? What if she scores a little lower on English and Math next time. She wants to go to Duke or Princeton. She has 4.3.

What is the unweighted GPA?

If at or very near 4, the I think the 32 won't hurt for Duke. 32 probably not enough for PU. I'm assuming no hooks.

I don't know of any school that super scores ACT scores. Most schools superstore SATs.

OP, since the science section is unique to the ACT and it's your kid's lowest score (by far), your kid will likely do much better on SATs.

She felt like she did horribly on science. Should we have it hand scored?

Anonymous wrote:My kid just got ACT scores back. Math 35. English 34. Reading 31. Science 26. Composite 32. She obviously wants to take again, but how does it all work. If she does better, do they take the new scores on the lower sections? What if she scores a little lower on English and Math next time. She wants to go to Duke or Princeton. She has 4.3.

The ACT asks schools NOT to super score and most (if not all) comply with that request.

FWIW I've never heard of such a wide spread of results on the ACT

Look at the policies for those schools. Top schools are more apt to super score the sat than act for some reason.

My kid just got ACT scores back. Math 35. English 34. Reading 31. Science 26. Composite 32. She obviously wants to take again, but how does it all work. If she does better, do they take the new scores on the lower sections? What if she scores a little lower on English and Math next time. She wants to go to Duke or Princeton. She has 4.3.