Understanding the ACT Score Sending Process: A Comprehensive Guide

Applying to college involves many steps, and sending your ACT scores is a crucial one. This article provides a detailed overview of the ACT score sending process, including costs, timelines, and options for sending your scores to colleges and scholarship agencies.

The Importance of Sending ACT Scores

Submitting standardized test scores is the student's responsibility, not the school's. Most colleges and universities require official score reports directly from the testing agency. That means students need to make sure their ACT scores are on their way to each of the schools to which they're applying. Your ACT scores provide information about your core academic proficiencies, and they can be used by individuals or their high school counselor for academic or vocational planning.

Initial Score Sending Options

When you register for the ACT, you can choose up to four colleges or scholarship agencies to receive your scores for free. These institutions become your score recipients, and they will automatically receive your scores once they are available. This is a great way to ensure your scores are sent to your top choices without incurring additional fees.

Selecting Recipients During Registration

It's common for students to indicate where they want scores sent when they register for the ACT. You have the power to decide which colleges and scholarship agencies receive your ACT scores.

What Score Recipients Receive

Once all scores for a test event are available, they are sent to institutions you elect in MyACT. In addition to the scores, this report also contains the grades you report for up to 30 high school classes and may include predictions of your performance in various courses of study. The delivery timeframe depends on the schools receiving the reports and when those reports were requested.

Read also: Final Transcript Submission

Sending Scores After Registration

If you didn't select your four free score recipients during registration, or if you want to send your scores to additional colleges, you can do so at any time through your ACT account.

How to Send Scores

To send scores after registering, log in to your MyACT account, go to your scores dashboard, and request to send reports. You can pay any required fees by credit card.

Fees for Sending Additional Score Reports

If your four free score reports expire, or if you want to send your scores to additional colleges, there is a fee per college. As of spring 2024, the cost per test date per report is currently $18.50 if the test was taken within the past 3 years. The cost of sending score reports is usually included in your ACT test registration fees, good for up to four score reports.

Priority Reports

ACT also offers priority reports, which are usually delivered within three to four business days. Just like with the SAT’s rush reporting, not all schools necessarily accept the ACT’s priority reports, so it’s important to check with a college before paying for this option.

Understanding ACT Superscores

ACT provides an automatically calculated ACT Superscore to all students who have taken the ACT more than once from September 2016 to current day. You can also send your scores from two or more test attempts to any school that allows you to superscore the ACT. When you request a superscore, ACT will automatically generate the most favorable score, based on your prior test events (you must have scores from at least two test events). Your superscore will be sent along with the highest individual section scores, with all the scores from the test events that make up the superscore.

How Superscores are Calculated

Starting in April 2025, students who choose to take the online ACT test will have their ACT Superscore calculated using a new method that includes only English, math, and reading. For everyone else, this change will take effect in September 2025. We’ll continue to show your highest scores for each subject section along with the test date, but your Composite score on your Superscore report will be based on the new English, math, and reading. This means a student who got their highest English their first time testing and on a legacy administration, their highest math on their second legacy administration, and their highest reading on the new enhanced ACT, would see those highest scores used to calculate their ACT Superscore Composite after the new enhanced ACT administration.

Sending a Superscore

When you select score recipients, you’ll have the option of sending either score reports from the specific test event or you can choose to send your superscore.

Considerations for Superscores

For sending a Superscore: If the scores are the same (e.g., your highest subject level mathematics scores across multiple tests are equal) then the most recent will be chosen for sending your superscore. ACT does not compare your reporting categories when selecting the best score.

Timing and Deadlines

It is recommended to send your scores at least one month in advance of a college’s application deadline. Many highly selective schools will take scores from test dates as late as November, but you must check with each school to verify their policy. The delivery timeframe depends on the schools receiving the reports and when those reports were requested.

Factors Affecting Score Release Date

Scores are usually sent out within two-to-three weeks after a test event, but periodically this may take up to 6-to-8 weeks. Requests are processed after your tests have been scored and all scores for your test option-the ACT or the ACT with writing-are ready. If you take the optional writing test, part of the process of scoring your essay includes review by at least one trained reader. You’ll see your multiple-choice scores, including your composite score as soon as they become available.

Read also: Official ACT Score Reporting

Checking with Colleges

The best thing your son or daughter can do for peace of mind is to reach out to the colleges and universities on their list. Do they need scores by the deadline, or will they accept some score reports a little later? Many schools will allow you to take the October ACT, for example, and still apply for Early Action admission on November 1. How? They wait to review your file until those scores have arrived in their offices.

Potential Delays

Keep in mind that colleges set up their own methods for receiving test scores, so time frames for delivery can vary from college to college - even if the request is made on the same day! Furthermore, giving yourself plenty of time in advance of the deadline is always a smart idea because testing agencies can sometimes experience delays in scoring that delay test score processing times.

Understanding Your Score Report

Your ACT score report provides a detailed breakdown of your performance on the test.

Verifying Your Scores

You can ask ACT to verify your multiple-choice and/or your writing test scores up to 12 months after your test date. For the writing test, ACT will verify that your essay was scored by two independent, qualiﬁed readers and by a third reader in the event that the two scores differed by more than one point in any domain. ACT will also verify that your essay was properly captured and displayed to readers. If a scoring error is discovered, your scores will be changed and corrected reports will be released to you and all previous score report recipients at no charge. We recommend contacting us within three months of receiving your score report. If an error is our responsibility and requires you to retest, there will be no fee.

Test-Optional, Test-Neutral, and Test-Blind Policies

It's important to understand the testing policies of the schools you're applying to.

Test-optional schools: Applicants are not required to submit an ACT/SAT test score for admission, but at highly selective colleges, most students do choose to submit scores.
Test-neutral schools: Schools that adhere to a “test-neutral” admissions policy want applicants to know that test scores do not influence or impact how applicants are evaluated.
Test-blind schools: Test-blind schools do not make any use of test scores during the admissions process.

Additional Considerations

Canceling Scores: ACT reserves the right to cancel test scores when there is reason to believe the scores are invalid. Outside of State testing and District testing, you may request to cancel scores for a particular test date. Contact ACT online and they will provide you a form to complete and return to them.
Fee Waivers: If a student receives a fee waiver for test registration, the waiver covers one high school report and up to six college reports.
Using Valid ACT Codes: Use valid ACT codes only. The College Code List and the Congressional Code List are available online to provide you with the most updated information. ACT can send your report only to the office designated by the college or agency, not to any other individual or office. Reports you request will include the ACT ID currently on your record. You can only request a correction to the identifying information on records for test dates in which the archive fee does not apply. The nonrefundable archive fee is in place to cover the additional cost of searching and accessing databases to retrieve and send an archived score.
Scores from Previous Years: You can currently send scores from test events from September 2011 to current, as well as an available superscore. Scores from September 2018 to current are available to be sent to a high school as an additional score report. If your superscore is from these dates, you may also request to send your superscore. If you created your ACT account originally prior to September 2011, only scores from events you registered for in MyACT will be available.

tags: #what #is #ACT #send #score