How to Send Official ACT Scores to Colleges: A Comprehensive Guide
Applying to college involves many steps, and one crucial aspect is submitting your ACT scores. Colleges use these scores to evaluate your academic readiness, making it essential to understand the process of sending them correctly. This article provides a detailed overview of how to send your official ACT scores to colleges, covering everything from initial registration to sending archived scores and superscores.
Initial Registration and Free Score Reports
When you register for the ACT, you have the option to send your scores to up to four colleges for free. These selections are made during the registration process, and once your ACT scores are available, they will automatically be sent to those colleges. If you select the colleges of your choice while registering for the ACT, your scores will automatically be sent on the score release dates.
Sending Scores After Registration
If you didn't select colleges during registration, or if you want to send your scores to additional institutions, you can do so after the scores are available. This can be done anytime through your ACT account. However, every test date report will cost $18.
Score Release Dates and Delivery Times
The general rule for sending your ACT score to colleges is the earlier, the better. If you select the colleges of your choice while registering for the ACT, your scores will automatically be sent on the score release dates. After the ACT score release dates, it takes approximately two to eight weeks to send your score reports to your current high school.
Understanding What Colleges Receive
When you send your ACT scores, colleges receive a comprehensive report. This includes all the information on the Student and High School Report, plus the grades you reported for up to 30 high school classes. Note that you cannot send only one part of your ACT score report to colleges; all scores from a test date will be reported together.
Read also: Final Transcript Submission
ACT Superscores: What You Need to Know
ACT offers the option to send a superscore, which is calculated from your best scores across multiple test dates. 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.
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.
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.
Sending 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. The nonrefundable archive fee is in place to cover the additional cost of searching and accessing databases to retrieve and send an archived score.
Verifying Score Receipt and Using ACT Codes
There may be a chance to verify whether the college to which you have applied has received your scores if they have a portal to check the status. 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. We 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.
Read also: Requesting Transcripts from Collin College
What Affects Your Score Release Date?
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.
Retaking the ACT and Reporting Multiple Scores
You can retake the ACT to improve your scores. All scores from a test date will be reported together. Can I combine my writing scores from one test date with my multiple-choice scores from another?
Score Verification
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.
Cancelling ACT 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 us online and we will provide you a form to complete and return to us.
Deadlines and College Policies
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. Verify whether the college to which you have applied has received your scores if they have a portal to check the status.
Read also: College Transcript Guide
The Importance of ACT Scores
When applying to colleges, your ACT® scores can become the biggest highlight, so it’s very important to know everything about sending in your scores. Did you know improving by just a single test point can be worth thousands of dollars in financial aid for your college education?
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