SINCE 1959, students have been taking the ACT. Throughout all these years, schools have been telling students that the score they get on the ACT could determine their college opportunities.

Recently, a lot of students have been questioning the necessity of taking the ACT and getting a good score. Since 2020, a lot of states and colleges have been suspending the requirements of ACT/SAT scores to let students apply.

Many seniors have been applying and getting accepted into a lot of their dream colleges without needing to submit their scores. However, not all schools are telling students about this and are putting a lot of pressure on juniors.

With the ACT Bootcamp that happened in February, and the ACT in March, many juniors are diligently preparing for the test, but all students seem to have different plans on what to do with their scores.

Aimy Maples (11) is currently in the ACT Bootcamp to get ready for the test. However, she’s not really aiming for a specific score and is not sure if she will submit them to colleges. “If it’s a score I’m happy with then I would submit it to colleges, but I’m not really sure if I’m going to college yet. I’m trying to set myself up just in case I do,” she said.

A lot of the students that are planning to score high on the ACT aren’t doing it for college submissions but instead they’re doing it for scholarships. “The ACT is very important to me because I see it as a chance to possibly qualify for and attain scholarships,” Owen Hopkins (11) said.

Although the ACT scores aren’t necessary for colleges anymore, scholarships are still very important for students, and scholarships sometimes look at ACT scores. However, students should know that their opportunity to obtain scholarships does not depend solely on their ACT scores, it simply opens more options.

“I don’t think the ACT should be mandatory, I feel like it should be an option for those students who feel like they’ll do well and want to impress colleges,” says Hopkins.

Many juniors and underclassmen are still stressing over the ACT. Grace Leota (11) says that if a student doesn’t think they’ll benefit greatly from an ACT score, then they shouldn’t worry.

Although she says that the score is important, she doesn’t believe that it should define a student’s academic potential. “There are many different factors that can affect your ACT score, so people shouldn’t take it to heart,” Leota said.

At the end of the day, the significance of the ACT score truly depends on the students and what they plan to do for the future. However, all students should notice the current change that ACT scores aren’t required for college applications.