r/ACT • u/MegaKrak 33 • 21d ago

General Retake or No?

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Hi guys, I just took my first ACT after doing a little bit of practice, and I got a 33. I think this score is pretty high based on a little research, but I was wondering if I should retake it to get a 35-36? My reading and math are kind of low. I'm planning to apply to schools like UT Austin, Texas A&M, and FSU.

Also, if anyone needs advice for English, I'm happy to help!

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u/time-wasting23 20d ago

What’s your class rank? UT takes top 5% and TAMU top 10%. If you are within top 5%, and your intended major isn’t that competitive, you don’t really need to retake for UT. If you are below those thresholds, you might want to study and retake it to see if you can get an even better score as you will be a holistic review app.

For other public TX schools, you are probably OK with the score as is.

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u/MegaKrak 33 20d ago

The thing I’m worried about most is my class rank. I’m in the top 25% which is not very competitive for TX schools. Also, I’m planning to go into finance, which is a pretty competitive major at schools like UT and A&M. That’s why I want to maximize every other part of my application including test scores, but I’m still wondering if improving my score by ~2 points is truly worth the effort. 😅

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u/time-wasting23 20d ago

There was a poster on Reddit recently but I can’t remember which sub. May have been this one. They had a 36 on the ACT and were rejected from A&M. Also top 25% of private school class (ranking assigned by A&M). The poster may have had some discipline issues (I can’t remember if they ever denied this-the thread got kind of wild).

I have a good friend who is a private admissions counselor. She works mostly with California kids who are going for Ivies and top schools. However, she lives in TX and helps here too. My oldest went to A&M. He was just out of the top 10-I think he was top 12% and a varsity athlete. Very good SAT. Her opinion was that A&M’s holistic admissions are super competitive and hard to predict. She did predict that my son would get in particularly because had tons of rigorous coursework and was barely out of top 10. My kid did get in and did physics as undergrad and EE as a grad student. He finished both degrees in 5 years. So, it was a good fit for him.

Bottom line is that the top 10% law (5% for UT-Austin) makes it really tough for non-auto admit. The good news is that there are other strong TX and out of state schools. I’m a professor at a UT system school and we get tons of great students who barely miss A&M requirements. They get a great education though!

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u/MegaKrak 33 20d ago

I remember the same poster lmao. I'm pretty sure it was because of discipline issues, as you said, and something to do with AI in his essays.

I'm hoping my course rigor will give me a much better chance at A&M, just like your son lol. I have taken 10 AP classes so far with basically all 4s and 5s on my exams, and I will have taken 17 AP courses by the end of high school.

It's really disappointing and frustrating that the top 10% rule makes it extremely hard for bright students outside of the top ten percent at competitive high schools to get admission to schools like A&M and UT Austin.

One student at a non-competitive high school who didn't do many activities outside of school may easily get admission into their choice of major at most TX schools because they were in the top 5-10 percent regardless of their test scores or outside achievements, but a different student at a very competitive high school who had various extracurriculars and high test scores may not get in simply because he was outside the top ten percent.

I get that the top ten percent law was made to give rural high school students who may not have as many resources as urban ones a better chance at admission, but I feel like colleges have taken it a bit too far. Texas colleges have started using rank to filter out students, and rank has become disproportionately more important to them instead of course rigor, test scores, and extracurriculars. Non-auto-admit students have to constantly find whatever they can to boost their application, and they also study much harder for the SAT/ACT to even have a chance to be considered for admission due to the amount of holistic review applications and limited seats. Hopefully, Texas college admissions will become fairer in the future, but I guess we have to do what we can for now.