Withholding Scores at ACT Registration and Using Additional Score Reports

Does Not Secure Advantage for Students in Admissions Decision

As seen in Part 1 of this series, both the number and share of students who choose not to send their ACT scores at time of registration has increased over the past decade. As of 2014, nearly half of all students (48%) withhold their test scores at time of ACT registration. Over the past 10 years, both the number and share of students sending colleges an additional score report (ASR)—i.e., an official score report that students can send to colleges or scholarship agencies after they have completed the ACT registration process—has also increased. By 2014, the share of students who sent an additional score report had grown to more than one out of four students (28%), and the majority of these students (60%) had withheld their test scores from colleges at the time of ACT registration. InPart 1, we acknowledged that these upward trends in both withholding and sending ASRs are occurring in every region of the country and across all student achievement levels.

In this section of the report, we take a closer look at the admission rates of students who applied to college by their score-sending status and their achievement level. Our goal is to examine whether implementing a strategy of withholding scores from colleges at the time of ACT registration gives students any advantage in the admissions process. Previously in Part 2, we noted that a little more than half of all ACT-tested students attended either a less selective college (25%)—i.e., where the ACT Composite score of the typical entering student is 20–23—or a moderately selective college (26%)—i.e., where the ACT Composite score of the typical entering student is 24–27—and that an additional 10% attended a highly selective college—i.e., where the ACT Composite score of the typical entering student is 28–36. In this section, we use admissions data from 45 less selective colleges, 39 moderately selective colleges, and seven highly selective colleges that participated in the ACT Class Profile Service between 2009 and 2015 to look at differences in admissions rates among students with three types of score-sending statuses: 1) those who requested during ACT registration that their test scores be sent to that college—i.e., sent as part of choice set; 2) those who requested during ACT registration that their test scores be sent to other colleges and then subsequently requested that their test scores be sent to that college—i.e., sent in addition to choice set; and 3) those who withheld their scores from all colleges during ACT registration and then subsequently requested that their test scores be sent to that college—i.e., sent in lieu of choice set.

Figures 14–16 show the admission rates of students who applied to less selective, moderately selective, and highly selective colleges, respectively, by the students’ score-sending status and by the highest ACT Composite score that the students sent to the college. As is evident from Figures 14 and 15, the admission rates of students who applied to less selective and moderately selective colleges by score-sending status are comparable between those students who withheld their test scores at the time of ACT registration and those students who did not withhold their test scores. At highly selective colleges (Figure 16), the admission rates of students who sent their test scores to that college as part of ACT registration were higher than the admission rates for students who sent their test scores to the college after registration, and this gap gets substantially wider as students’ academic achievement increases. Although these findings are not definitive given the small number of colleges upon which they are based, they do suggest that a strategy of withholding test scores at the time of ACT registration and subsequently sending an additional score report does not offer the student an advantage in the admissions decision.

Chart Table
Figure 14. Admission Rate at Less Selective Colleges by Score Sending Status and ACT Composite Score Range
Figure 14. Admission Rate at Less Selective Colleges by Score Sending Status and ACT Composite Score Range
ACT Composite Score Range Sent as part of choice set Sent in Addition to Choice Set Sent in Lieu of Choice Set
1–15 33% 28% 27%
16–19 71% 72% 70%
20–23 88% 88% 87%
24–27 92% 92% 92%
28–32 93% 92% 95%
33–36 95% 99% 95%
Chart Table
Figure 15. Admission Rate at Moderately Selective Colleges by Score Sending Status and ACT Composite Score Range
Figure 15. Admission Rate at Moderately Selective Colleges by Score Sending Status and ACT Composite Score Range
ACT Composite Score Range Sent as part of choice set Sent in addition to choice set Sent in lieu of choice set
1–15 17% 14% 16%
16–19 46% 38% 45%
20–23 78% 74% 76%
24–27 91% 89% 89%
28–32 95% 93% 94%
33–36 97% 95% 96%

One negative consequence of an increase over time in the number of students who withhold their test scores at the time of ACT registration and then send an official score report after registration is that colleges will have less information about their relative rank within the students’ college consideration sets. To demonstrate just how much the current trends in withholding ACT scores and sending additional score reports has changed the type of information that colleges receive about their relative rank, we’ve provided the rates at which students send additional score reports to colleges of varying selectivity. This rate is summarized for four different points in time over the past decade: 2005, 2008, 2011, and 2014. The analysis is based on 363 colleges in which more than half of all first-time enrolled students submit an ACT score report to the college. The student sample is limited to students who are presumably admissible to the college—i.e., the students have an ACT Composite score that is no lower than two score points below the midpoint for the college to which they have sent a score report.

Figure 17 provides the rate at which students send additional score reports to colleges by the selectivity of the college and the high school graduation year of the ACT-tested students. As the figure shows, regardless of the extent of selectivity of the college, the share of all official score reports sent to those colleges that is comprised by additional score reports—i.e., those that are sent after ACT registration—has increased over the past 10 years. In highly selective colleges, nearly one out of two ACT score reports that are currently sent are additional score reports, compared to only one out of five official ACT score reports a decade ago. In moderately selective colleges, roughly one out of three score reports sent are additional score reports, compared with about one out of 10 score reports a decade ago. To the extent that colleges are using the information about their relative rank in the recruitment process, in understanding their market position, or in predicting their enrollment yield, the usefulness of this information is likely becoming compromised as fewer students are sending relative rank to colleges by sending official score reports at the time of ACT registration.

Chart Table
Figure 16. Admission Rate at Highly Selective Colleges by Score Sending Status and ACT Composite Score Range
Figure 16. Admission Rate at Highly Selective Colleges by Score Sending Status and ACT Composite Score Range
ACT Composite Score Range Sent as part of choice set Sent in Addition to Choice Set Sent in Lieu of Choice Set
1–15
16–19 9% 4% 8%
20–23 21% 14% 17%
24–27 42% 36% 34%
28–32 56% 47% 47%
33–36 74% 61% 62%
Chart Table
Figure 17. The Percent of Admissible Students Who Sent an Additional Score Report to the College by College Selectivity and High School Graduation Year
Figure 17. The Percent of Admissible Students Who Sent an Additional Score Report to the College by College Selectivity and High School Graduation Year
College
Selectivity
2005 2008 2011 2014
Least Selective (15–19)
(N=14 colleges)
3% 5% 8% 9%
Less Selective (20–23)
(N=212 colleges)
6% 10% 16% 18%
Moderately Selective (24–27)
(N=112 colleges)
10% 17% 27% 30%
Highly Selective (28–36)
(N=25 colleges)
20% 32% 45% 49%