The 2 BIG Reasons You Should Care About Your ACT Score
So, what’s the big deal about an ACT score anyway? Why is it something that students (and their parents) get so worked up about? Can’t I just skip the intense studying, take the test once, and go off to my dream college? If only that were the case…
There are actually some REAL reasons to get fired up about working toward your ACT goal. Your efforts can pay off big time down the road — literally! There are TWO KEY REASONS that you should make ACT prep a priority to make sure you hit that goal ACT score you’re striving for.
Not sure what your goal should be? Check out our post here: How to Calculate What Your ACT Score Goal Should Be
#1. Competitive Edge
Stand out against the crowd (or at least fit in) — colleges will make public the average ACT score range of their current class of students. This is incredibly helpful information for you to use for two reasons: 1) to make sure you’re on track to meet the academic standards of a particular college and ensure you won’t be miserable and constantly trying to keep up with the course load when you get there, and 2) to make sure your application will be competitive with other applicants. You should absolutely make sure to do some research and educate yourself on the ACT score range of the students at schools where you intend to apply—you can do this with a quick Google search. This will help you understand what your goal score should be when prepping for the ACT and give you a pretty decent idea of how your application will fare at a given school.
For example, the average ACT score range for students at Minnesota State University, Mankato is currently between 20 - 24. That means that students who intend to apply to the school should aim for an ACT score within or above that range in order to have a high probability of being accepted to the school.
In contrast, the average ACT score of students attending Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota is currently between 30 - 33. This is a much more academically rigorous environment, and a student’s ACT score needs to reflect the ability to handle this level of intensity in order for the school to think the student will be a good fit for their student body.
Take a look at the ACT scores of some other local Minnesota colleges and universities -
Current student body average ACT scores by school:
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
University of Minnesota: 26-31
University of Minnesota, Duluth: 22-26
Minnesota State University, Mankato: 20-24
Winona State University: 20-25
St. Cloud State University: 18-24
Bemidji State University: 20-24
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
University of St. Thomas: 24-29
Augsburg College: 19-25
Hamline University: 21-27
Gustavus Adolphus College: 24-28
Macalester College: 29-33
Carleton College: 30-33
Bethel University: 23-27
University of Northwestern: 21-27
St. Catherine University (St. Kate’s): 19-25
While there are other aspects of your college application that schools will consider during the admissions process, your ACT (or SAT) score holds a lot of weight during the admissions process. While most high schools generally grade students based on a 4.0 GPA scale, there can be a lot of variance with how difficult a 4.0 is to obtain from one school to the next. Similarly, some teachers are just more generous and give generally higher grades than others. Thus, there is no national GPA and grading structure that can be used to effectively compare and contrast applicants who come from different places and different schools. That’s where the ACT comes in. Your ACT score allows admissions teams to compare YOU to EVERYONE ELSE that applied because you all took the same exam — it may not have been the exact same exam version or exam date, but the overall format and ideas tested on the ACT have not changed in many years. This is a score that college admissions teams rely on for comparing applicants. Obtaining an ACT score that fits within a particular school’s student body average will make you competitive with other applicants and also prove to the school that you can handle the level of academic difficulty of their specific school.
#2 Tuition Assistance & Scholarships
The fact that a higher ACT score may correlate with lower tuition costs isn’t widely known amongst parents and students prepping for the leap to college. Schools will often create scholarship packages based on a combination of ACT score and GPA. The prevalence of these merit-based scholarships can vary drastically from school to school, so, again, we encourage you to do your homework and learn about the scholarship setups at specific schools BEFORE you apply to them.
For example, Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota automatically considers first year students for scholarships based on their ACT score and GPA combination. For Winona State specifically, these types of merit-based scholarships currently are set up like this:
$1,000 scholarship per academic year: 3.70+ GPA with ACT 26
$1,000 scholarship per academic year: 3.30+ GPA with ACT 28
$1,500 scholarship per academic year: 3.80 GPA with ACT 27
$2,500 scholarship per academic year: 3.90 GPA with ACT 28
$3,500 scholarship per academic year: 3.90 GPA with ACT 32
$4,000 scholarship per academic year: 3.90 GPA with ACT 28 (this scholarship requires a written essay and interview as well)
Recognize that each of the scholarships above is awarded “per academic year.” This means that the student who attends four years of college during their undergrad could save anywhere between $4,000 to $16,000 on Winona State University tuition because of these merit-based scholarships alone.
And Winona isn’t the only one. You’ll be surprised to find similarly tiered tuition structures at other schools as well. Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minnesota has a Presidents Scholarship of up to $28,500 per academic year that can be awarded to students with a 3.25 GPA and a 30+ ACT score. The University of St. Thomas offers scholarship packages based on high academic performance in high school and high ACT scores, with the amounts varying from $9,000-$30,000 per year. So, no matter where you plan to apply, make sure you’re aware of what potential cost-savings options you have. This includes not only merit-based scholarships, but financial aid and applying for FAFSA, as well as other scholarships offered either directly by a certain school or from an outside organization.
After all, college is EXPENSIVE. For many students, a college education could be the second most expensive thing they will invest in within their lifetime — second to maybe only owning a house. A year’s tuition at Winona State University currently costs about $9,400 — that only includes two semesters of courses and does not factor in expenses for room and board, course materials, etc. With all of these factored in, that total hops to about $21,000 per year. In stark contrast, full tuition for one year at Carleton College, including room and board and fees, costs approximately $71,000 in 2019. So you can see where any scholarships like those noted above could offer a lot of assistance to a young student completing their college education. Every little bit counts—don’t even get me started on student loan interest…that’s a discussion for another time. Just know that any steps you can take to lower college costs on the front end will pay off several times over in the long run. So make sure to go through your list of dream schools and make yourself aware of any opportunities for merit-based scholarships and other tuition cost-savings.