How Important Are SAT and ACT Scores in College Admissions?

The following excerpt is from a U.S. News & World Report article authored by Sarah Wood:

Should I Still Submit My Scores?

College admissions experts encourage students to take a practice SAT or ACT.

For those who decide to take an official test – which experts often recommend, barring significant access barriers or test anxiety – fee waivers are available for eligible students. Those who qualify may also receive waived application fees at certain colleges.

"We definitely don't advise students to pursue both tests, but to pick the one that's going to best display their potential," says Lindsay Tanne Howe, founder and CEO of LogicPrep, a global college admissions consultancy.

Based on how well you perform, you can decide whether to submit your scores. Both the SAT and ACT have an option to cancel scores if the test didn't go well, such as if the student filled out the answer sheet incorrectly or didn't finish the exam.

If a student takes the SAT or ACT more than once, some colleges require all of the results on the respective test to be submitted. Others automatically superscore, meaning that a student's highest scores from each section on all test attempts are combined to create a new composite score.

Experts recommend looking up the "middle 50" – the range of scores between the 25th percentile and 75th percentile for the last admitted class – on each college's website to see if your score falls within or above that range.

"If the score falls in that range, for the most part, we encourage our students to share those scores," Howe says. "But like so much else in the college application process, it's highly contextual. We're looking at the broader applicant and their story, their curriculum, their grading system, their extracurricular profile to determine whether testing should be submitted."

Read the full U.S. News & World Report article, originally published on November 11, 2025, here.