The ACT standardized test is going to be changed greatly this year. ACT (for-profit company) has announced that by April of this year the science section of the online ACT test will become optional. The paper-pencil test will also have this optional science section in September of this year. The composite score will account for only the English, reading and math sections, excluding the science section as a separate score. The math section will also have its answer choices reduced from five answers to four, and the overall test will be shortened so that it takes 125 minutes instead of the current 195 minutes. The point of these and various other changes is to give students “greater flexibility” when taking the ACT.

These many alterations to the ACT test have made its future uncertain. Particularly concerning is how colleges and universities are going to change their consideration of the ACT and how they use it to assess students. While more and more colleges are allowing students to not submit standardized test scores, many colleges still use ACT scores as part of their process of evaluating their thousands of student applicants. Because of this importance that the ACT test has for the future of many young men at Trinity High School, our college counselors have been hard at work trying to figure out how colleges are going to alter their positions on the ACT based on these changes.

During the fall of 2024, multiple colleges visited Trinity High School to give our students the opportunity to get to know their college, how they run, and what both the student and the college can expect of one another. During their stays at Trinity, college counselors Allie Kerns and Matt Manning polled all of them as to how they were going to adjust to the optional science section of the ACT. Only one of the colleges had an answer. “All the others said, we haven’t decided what we’re doing yet because we don’t know anything about when this is actually going to happen and what it means,” said Ms. Kerns. The one college that had an answer was the Rose-Holman Institute of Technology, which stated that if the science section becomes optional, they will not require students to take it as part of their ACT test.

However, Trinity’s administration recently had to make a decision of their own on the science section of the ACT because juniors (current sophomores) will have to take the ACT in March of next year. On March 12, the administration decided to continue requiring the science section for Trinity students next year. This decision was due in large part to the uncertainty that colleges showed during the fall as well as other factors.

Now, while colleges are unsure currently of what they are going to do, they will have to make decisions by August or perhaps even the middle of September. When they do, they will likely state their new considerations of the ACT test on the Common Data Set. The Common Data Set is a “…collection of standardized questions about a college or university’s admissions and financial aid process, graduation rate, student demographics, and more.” Every single college in the United States has filled out the Common Data Set, and anyone can look up a specific college’s set to determine their policies. “…Common data sets can be helpful if students are curious,” about questions like, “…what’s going to be the most important aspect of this application for me,” said Ms. Kerns. If this important aspect happens to be an ACT score or standardized tests scores in general, they can be found in the common data sets of these colleges. In section C7 of every common data set, there is a list of various items a student can put into their application, including this section for standardized test scores. Below are the consideration lists for both the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. As can be seen, the University of Louisville lists standardized test scores as “important” while the University of Kentucky lists standardized test scores as “considered.” Common data sets are updated every year, so all of this information is open to change and likely will change for the ACT depending on the college.

But while all colleges certainly consider the ACT, not all colleges require it. Out of 2,828 four-year non-profit institutions in the United States, only 723 require submission of standardized test scores. This may make people believe that it won’t matter how colleges consider the ACT score because most colleges won’t require it and therefore will not see it. However, while many institutions are test-optional for admission, some strongly suggest ACT scores for maximum scholarship consideration.

With the changes to the ACT standardized test, this strong recommendation for submitting test scores may change along with it. Since the ACT is becoming a more flexible test that is easier and less time consuming for students, colleges will likely deem it to be an overall easier test and change how they coincide ACT scores and their scholarships. It would be logical to assume that colleges might start looking for higher scores on the ACT than usual in order to determine scholarships. However, Ms. Kerns and Mr. Manning disagree. In the United States, amongst colleges that have ACT requirements for scholarships, what’s “…been more standardized across the country is award amounts are shifting rather than requirements shifting,” according to Ms. Kerns. Because of these trends, they believe that it is far more likely that the decreased difficulty of the test will further this trend of lowering award amounts.

In conclusion, the ACT standardized test is a very important test to all high school students who are trying to get into a suitable college. The changes to it will certainly affect how colleges use the ACT standardized test, and high school students will have to be ready for whatever happens. If there are any further questions, our college counselors Ms. Kerns and Mr. Manning are getting all the information that they possibly can about how colleges are adjusting to the ACT and its changes. Personal research into resources like the Common Data Set can also be useful for discovering the changes to college consideration.