What’s a Good ACT Score – Updated 2024

Did you just take the ACT and get your score back? And are you wondering if you got a good score? Or if you need to retake this test? Or if you even need this test? In this blog, I’m going to talk through what a good ACT score is and go through some examples of schools where your ACT score could be a thumb on the scale that could help you get in or could contribute positively to your application. I’m also going to talk out some of the nuances with test-optional and give you some data points on what schools are actually preferring students with test scores versus schools that really don’t care so that you can sort of optimize your test plan.

A Decent Score

Let’s get into this: what is a decent ACT score? A decent ACT score to me is one that meets the benchmark. The benchmark for the ACT is an ACT score that predicts that you have a 50% chance of getting a B or above in a related academic subject to your ACT exam section and a 75% chance of getting a C or above. And that benchmark for English is around 18, but for other subjects, it’s around 22. So, I’m going to go with around a 21-22 as our benchmark ACT score. That at least is what I want to see to be an ACT score that is going to contribute positively to your college application in most cases. Where does that actually move the needle? Well, at these schools, our 50th percentile ACT is anywhere from a 20 to a 25. That’s University of Iowa, University of Kentucky, University of Toledo, University of Arkansas—which is actually test-required—Iowa State, University of Nebraska, University of Kansas, Old Dominion Central, Michigan, Louisiana Tech, Kansas State, Texas State, University of New Mexico, Colorado Mesa University, Georgia State, Wichita State, North Dakota State, and Indiana State University. So these are just some of the universities that a score like this could be helpful to help you get into.

But another important data point that I want you guys to look at is the sum of those who submitted SAT and ACT scores that are enrolled. So what we have is data called the Common Data Set, and almost every college in the United States has the Common Data Set. It’s a PDF of particular data points that almost every college in the United States puts out as public data. And in that, in Section C, we get test score data. In there we see the percent enrolled at that university that submitted SAT or submitted ACT when they applied. We add those two numbers together, and we can approximate what percent of students were able to get in using their test score.

Now, in order to understand this percentile, we also need to understand what percent of students overall are even submitting test scores. So for that, I turn to the Common Application, which publishes data on what percent of students in the past year have submitted SAT or ACT scores with an application. That number is hovering around about 42-43% as of last December. The year before it was about 48%. I’m going to add about 10% to that number, because if you look at the data points, even when we have tests required, like at the University of Arkansas, we have a sum of 104%. Why is it 104? Because 4% of students submitted both SAT and ACT. So we’re going to have that double submission at some schools, and that double submission tends to be somewhere between 5% and 15%, depending on the campus. So here it’s 4%, but I’m just going to average about 10%, just to be generous. I would say on average, 48% is about average. If I’m above that, tests matter to me. And if you submit a test score, it’s probably potentially going to help you get in, or you’ll fit in with more of the students who end up at that university. Below that 48%, I probably don’t need a test score as much. Really far below that, I really, really don’t need a test score. So at Old Dominion University, you really do not need an ACT score. It’s probably not helping you much, because it’s only 22%, and the majority of students there have no test score. If you want to go to a place like Georgia State, it’s partially test-required. So, for students with a GPA below 3.4, you have to submit a test score there. If your GPA is higher than that, you don’t. And that’s also a growing type of policy at some of these state schools, especially in some of these lower-ranked schools, that the test-score-optional policies may be, in some cases, GPA-dependent.

The other thing that I’m going to say is that some of you are probably thinking that you have a decent ACT score, but the college you want to go to isn’t on the list here, so what do you do? Well, what you do is you type in the name of the school and search up its common data set, so you can look up this data yourself too.

Decent ACT Scores

A Good Score

Okay, next I’m going to talk about what’s a good ACT score. To me, a good ACT score is going to be above the benchmark. This is the kind of score that’s going to get you into a big state school that you’ve heard of. Texas A&M, Michigan State, Gonzaga University, Auburn University, Temple University, Marquette University, University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Central Florida, University of Missouri, and University of Arizona. The middle ACT composite is somewhere between a 26 and a 28 at all of these schools. You can see the bottom of the range does vary: it’s as low as a 21 at the University of Arizona and goes up to about a 25 on that 25th percentile with Texas A&M. You can also see here that our percent total at Texas A&M, for example—which is not a very test-optional school—is over 90%. So, probably important there, and probably really important at University of Central Florida, where it’s required. It’s possibly important at University of Missouri, where you have a 76% sum, and also at Auburn, where we’ve got 88%.

But at some of these other colleges, if you don’t have something in that range, it’s quite possible to get into these schools without a test score. So take this with a little bit of salt, but if you have a test score in that range, it could help your application.

Good ACT Scores

A Very Good Score

A very good ACT score is going to be one that averages around a 29 to a 31, right around a 30. University of Florida, UT Austin, Purdue, Ohio State, Santa Clara, Loyola, Marymount, University of Colorado Boulder, Wisconsin, Madison, Pepperdine, Indiana University, Virginia Tech, Drexel, Clemson, University of Georgia, Penn State, Baylor, University of New Hampshire, and University of Delaware. These are the schools where these ranges are pretty much in sync with what gets in.

There are a few caveats. For some of these schools, you know, there’s different majors. Being a computer science major at Purdue is going to be more competitive than getting into the university at large. So if you want to be a CS major, that’s why the top of their range is kind of crazy off the chart. 34 composite is the 75th percentile. And you can see that Purdue is test-required right now, so you need to have the score there.

Ohio State is pretty test-optional, while Santa Clara is definitely test-optional. LMU, definitely test-optional. Clemson probably wants to see your test score if you got it. You can see where these diverge, and that can kind of be a baseline for you to decide whether you really need to get your score up or whether you can just work on something else instead.

Very Good ACT Scores

A Great Score

We’re going to move on to what a great ACT score is. A great ACT score is going to get you into some top 20, 30, 40, and 50-ranked colleges. We’re looking for a composite score that’s around a 32 to a 33. So this 32 to a 33 isn’t necessarily going to be rocket fuel for the most prestigious colleges in the US, but certainly some really good colleges here. Emory, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, Boston, Villanova, Georgetown, University of Rochester, Wake Forest, Brandeis, William & Mary, University of Maryland, Amherst, Colgate, Georgia Tech, Fordham, Tulane, Lehigh, University of Illinois, UNC Chapel Hill, and Miami. Another thing that we want to look at here again is we want to look at the sum of enrolled students who submitted ACT or SAT. If it’s in the 25th to 75th percentile range, most of the time I say submit it, unless the sum is below, say, 48%. And if it is, sometimes I would even go test-optional if you’re at that 25th percentile. For example, the University of Rochester is truly test-optional. 36% is their sum, which means that about 32% of students submitted and two thirds of students probably didn’t. So, you really don’t need it.

And if I’m not in range at all, if I don’t have a 32, 33, or 34, maybe I won’t even submit it. Maybe I will go test-optional. Most of the time, I’m going to submit anything if that sum is 48%; I’m definitely going to submit 25th to 75th percentile. But if we’re below that, you know, I’m going to look at my resume. Do I have too many Bs? Do I need to prove that I can handle this? Where am I at? And of course, all of these numbers where we’ve got sums like 61%, 66%, and 70%, I’m definitely going to submit anything in that 25th to 75th percentile because those are schools where submitting probably impacts my ability to get in.

Great ACT Scores

An Awesome Score

What is an awesome ACT score? Well, you guys probably know what that is. It means 34 plus. Lots of usual suspects on this list, but it gets kind of funny. Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Vanderbilt, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Cornell, Notre Dame, Northeastern, NYU, Tufts, Boston College, Case Western, and Wash U St. Louis.

Now here’s what’s crazy. This is the same list. I know you expected to hear MIT and Harvard, but you probably didn’t expect to hear Boston College, Tufts, Case Western, and NYU, so what are those schools doing in this list? Well, they’re here because they’re playing a game. Look at these percentiles at NYU and Northeastern. Northeastern: 35% is the sum of SAT and ACT submitters. That means two-thirds of the class that’s admitted didn’t submit test scores. You know what Northeastern’s doing? They do not want you to submit your test score if you don’t have, say, a 34 or above. They don’t want to see it. They don’t want to see anything below a 33, probably. So don’t send it, and you may still get in. But if you have a 34 or a 35, maybe that’ll outweigh some Bs on your transcript. They want those scores because they want bragging rights on super high ranges on their ACT scores, but it doesn’t represent the majority of their class. Same thing with NYU. Over 61%, or about two-thirds of the class, isn’t submitting test scores at NYU. And they’re getting in anyway, probably ED. But those who have really high test scores—1500 plus on the SAT or 33 plus on the ACT—NYU wants bragging rights on those test scores. And that could help you get in.

So, that’s kind of what’s going on here. There’s some game playing here at the bottom. But really at the top of the list, there was a study that came out in January of 2024 that basically said at elite schools, or what they called Ivy Plus schools, test scores were far more predictive than GPA in terms of predicting freshmen success academically at these institutions. And so with that study has come a flip. That’s why we see lots of schools going test-required this year. Brown has gone test-required. So have Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale. All these are new additions. Coming the following year, we’re going to see Stanford and Cornell added to that list. Carnegie Mellon is also going test-required after this year. So in this zone, test scores are becoming more important than ever. So if you’re a freshman or sophomore, get ready. If you’re looking at schools in this tier, it’s really strongly recommended that you get your ACT score up and work on it as best as you can.

I hope you guys found this information helpful!

Awesome ACT Scores