Which Colleges Don’t Superscore the ACT?
Not all colleges superscore the ACT – and the gap between your student's superscore and best single-sitting composite can cost them. Here's what you need to know.
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Suppose your student takes the ACT three times. In their first sitting, they score 33 in English, 31 in Math, 32 in Reading, and 28 in Science, resulting in a composite of 31. In their second attempt, they improve in Math (34) and Science (30) but lose points in English (31) and Reading (31). Overall, this results in a slightly higher composite score of 32. In their third and final sitting, they manage to combine strong performances in all 4 sections — English 34, Math 32, Reading 34, Science 29 — for a composite score of 33. But when the three sittings are combined into a superscore, they would yield a much stronger 35.
At many schools, that 35 is real and counts just as much as any composite score drawn from a single sitting. At others, this student's score is a 33, their best single-sitting composite, and the higher sections from earlier dates remain irrelevant. At several other schools yet, the picture is more complicated or difficult to interpret: the school might superscore the SAT but not the ACT, or it might have updated its policy this year in response to a major change in how the ACT itself calculates scores.
In short, the ACT superscoring landscape is narrower, messier, and more school-specific than the SAT equivalent. Understanding it before your student tests — not afterwards — is what separates a reactive testing plan from a strategic one.
Why This Distinction Matters
Most families encounter the superscoring question as a footnote in an admissions FAQ. But in practice, it shapes three critical parts of your student's application:
Admissions competitiveness. A superscore can meaningfully raise a student's effective ACT composite at schools that use it, yet remain invisible at schools that don't. For a student whose best sections are spread across sittings, the gap between their superscore and their best single-sitting composite can be two, three, or even four points. That's not a rounding error; it could easily spell the difference between whether a student is an obviously strong candidate for admissions or gets relegated to the school’s waitlist.
Scholarship eligibility. Merit award thresholds are often calculated differently from admissions decisions, and that's especially true for the ACT. A student whose superscore would qualify for a scholarship may find that the threshold is based on a single-sitting composite instead. Always check the scholarship page separately.
Testing strategy. Whether it's worth taking the ACT again, and how to approach each sitting strategically, depends entirely on how your student's target schools evaluate scores. A student applying to schools that don't superscore the ACT should prioritize one strong, consistent sitting rather than targeting different sections on different dates.
The key point: "Does this school superscore the ACT?" is not just a factual question. It's a strategic one.
Five Meaningfully Different Situations
When families ask whether a school superscores, they typically expect a yes-or-no answer. In reality, the answer depends on which of five meaningfully different situations a school falls into, and confusing them leads to costly miscalculations.
One important difference from the SAT landscape is fewer schools superscore the ACT. Roughly 75 percent of colleges superscore the SAT across the board. The ACT number is meaningfully lower, and some schools that superscore the SAT do not superscore the ACT at all. That distinction is significant enough that we have devoted a section to it below.
Test-free or test-blind schools don't consider scores at all, even if submitted. Superscoring is moot here. The entire University of California system falls into this category, as do the California State and Washington State systems, along with individual institutions such as Reed College, Boise State, Pitzer, and Hampshire College. If your student is applying exclusively to schools like these, another ACT sitting isn't a priority.
Test-optional schools that superscore the ACT don't require a score, but if one is submitted, the admissions office constructs the most favorable composite from all test dates. Schools in this category include Columbia, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan, NYU, Vanderbilt, LSU, Ohio State, Bowling Green State, Missouri State, and many others. At these schools, multiple sittings are low-risk, and there's genuine strategic value in targeting different sections on different dates.
Test-optional schools that don't superscore the ACT are the primary focus of this post. Here, the school won't penalize a student for not submitting — but if they do submit, only the best single-day composite counts. Penn State, UW–Madison, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, UAB, Oregon State, and Arizona State all belong in this category. A student who sends three ACT sittings to these schools will be evaluated on their best composite from a single date, regardless of what higher scores appear across other dates.
Test-required schools that don't superscore the ACT are the highest-stakes situation. Scores are mandatory, and the school evaluates only the best single-day composite. Harvard is the most prominent example; its official policy states that it will not superscore across test sittings and asks students to submit the highest composite from a single date. UT Austin and Hillsdale College also belong here.
Test-required schools that superscore the ACT — MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Penn, Duke, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and many flagship state universities — are included here for context. At these schools, multiple sittings are almost always worth pursuing.
The Enhanced ACT: What Changed in 2025 and Why It Matters
In April 2025, the ACT launched its most significant redesign in decades. The changes affect not just how the test is structured, but how superscores are calculated, and families who aren't aware of the shift may be planning their student's testing strategy around assumptions that are no longer accurate.
Here's what changed: under the legacy ACT, the composite score was the average of four section scores (English, Math, Reading, and Science). The enhanced ACT makes Science optional. The composite is now based on three sections — English, Math, and Reading — scored on the same 1–36 scale. Science, if taken, is reported separately and does not affect the composite.
The superscoring implications follow directly. Beginning with September 2025 test administrations, ACT's official superscore report is calculated from English, Math, and Reading only. A student whose Science score was once a strength may find their effective superscore composite looks different than expected. In particular, a student who tested exclusively before April 2025 has a legacy superscore that includes Science. A student who has tested after September 2025 has a superscore that excludes it. A student with scores from both eras stands on complicated middle ground.
For families in that middle-ground situation, two things are worth knowing. First, the ACT has confirmed that cross-format superscoring (combining section scores from legacy sittings and enhanced sittings) is permitted in their official report. Your student's highest English from a 2024 sitting can combine with their highest Math from a 2025 sitting in the official superscore calculation. Second, colleges have the final say on how they handle cross-format scores, and most have not yet issued explicit guidance. The institutions that have are worth knowing about.
Northwestern provides a clear example of a school navigating this change publicly. Before the advent of the enhanced ACT in September 2025, Northwestern independently calculated an ACT superscore based on official ACT score reports, taking the highest individual score for each section. However, beginning with the 2025–26 cycle, Northwestern stopped calculating an ACT superscore. Instead, it asks applicants to report their highest section scores from individual test dates along with the official ACT superscore from their MyACT account. The explicit warning that students “not self-calculate an ACT superscore,” but instead “report the highest ACT section scores and the highest composite score” is there because a self-calculated number might combine sections from the different ACT formats (legacy and enhanced versions) in ways Northwestern won't accept. Indeed, Northwestern’s policy explicitly notes that a composite cannot combine section scores from sittings with and without Science:
ACT testers who sat for multiple tests prior to the rollout of the enhanced test may report composite scores or official superscores inclusive of their Science section, whereas ACT testers who sit for multiple tests after the new rollout will report composite scores or superscores reflective of ACT’s new approach, i.e. a composite based on English, Math, and Reading scores only.
Like Northwestern, Stanford accepts both formats equally and treats the Science section as optional. But Stanford’s policy differs in that they accept only an official superscore from ACT, rather than calculating it themselves, as Northwestern does. The reason this matters is that the ACT's official superscore report crosses legacy and enhanced format sittings. Accordingly, applicants to Stanford should submit the official superscore from their MyACT account alongside their highest section scores from each test date.
The practical import of this discussion is that, if your student has pre-2025 ACT scores and is planning additional sittings, you should verify each target school's cross-format policy before assuming those scores can be combined. For most current students testing under the fully-transitioned enhanced ACT, the question is simpler, since they don’t have any legacy ACT scores to contend with. That said, it is worth checking each school's requirements for the optional Science section, particularly for STEM-focused programs or majors, which often encourage or even require an ACT Science score.
A Key Difference From the SAT: Schools That Treat the Two Tests Differently
It is worth noting a feature of ACT superscoring that has no real equivalent in the SAT landscape: a meaningful number of colleges superscore the SAT but do not superscore the ACT. At these schools, a student who submits both tests will find that the same admissions office evaluates their SAT as a superscore and their ACT as a single-date composite.
This pattern exists for a structural reason. The SAT's two-section format (Reading & Writing and Math) makes combining scores from multiple test dates straightforward. The ACT's composite, by contrast, is an average of multiple sections, and until recently that included Science, which added a layer of complexity. Some schools have found it easier to apply the SAT's superscoring logic to one test and not the other.
Carnegie Mellon, for instance, superscores the SAT but not the ACT. CMU's official admissions page is direct about why: “We are unable to accept superscored results for the ACT exam due to the composite score included in the score report.” Accordingly, students applying to CMU who have taken both tests should be aware that the SAT will be evaluated more favorably if scores are split across sittings.
Other schools fall in line with CMU in treating the SAT and ACT differently: Princeton, Georgetown University, Western Washington University, Howard University, Colorado College, Chapman University, and Drew University all superscore the SAT explicitly but do not superscore the ACT.
For a student who has taken both tests and is applying to one or more of these schools, the implication is straightforward: if their SAT superscore is meaningfully higher than their best single-sitting ACT composite, submitting the SAT may be strategically preferable — even if their highest ACT composite is nominally higher. Run the numbers both ways before deciding which scores to send.
It's also worth noting that none of these schools directly addresses what happens when a student submits both tests simultaneously. The most likely case is that both are reviewed independently under their respective rules and the more favorable is considered. That said, any student planning to send both to one of these schools would be best served by directly asking the admissions office.
Some Policies Are More Complicated Than They Look
As we mentioned in our companion piece on superscoring policies for the SAT, a few additional situations are worth flagging for families who encounter them.
The University of Alabama superscores for admissions decisions but does not use superscores to determine automatic merit scholarships. Alabama's largest scholarship thresholds apply to a student's best single-sitting composite. A student whose ACT superscore clears a scholarship cutoff but whose single-date score doesn't may be admitted with less aid than expected. Contact Alabama's scholarship office directly before assuming the admissions policy applies to aid decisions.
The University of Wyoming provides a clear example of how scholarship type can change the answer even at a single school. The ACT superscore is accepted for the Hathaway Scholarship, available to Wyoming residents. For the Western Undergraduate Exchange award – the primary scholarship for non-residents – superscores are not considered. Out-of-state students should plan around their best single-sitting composite.
What This Means for Your Student's Testing Plan
Your student's testing strategy depends on which of the above situations applies to their college list – and most students applying in 2026 will encounter more than one.
If every school on the list superscores the ACT, multiple sittings are low-risk. There's genuine value in targeting different sections on different dates, and a student with a variable profile across sittings will benefit from the composite being assembled from their best individual performances.
If the list is mixed, strategy becomes more important. Before scheduling another sitting, identify which schools on the list will and won't superscore the ACT. A cross-date superscore that clears a threshold at one school may be invisible at another. In this case, the goal shifts: your student should aim for a single sitting that is competitive across all sections – not just a superscore assembled across dates.
If a top-choice school is test-required and doesn't superscore, testing strategy should prioritize consistency across all sections on the same day. Harvard and UT Austin are the clearest examples. A single strong sitting is worth more than two partial sittings, even if the individual section peaks across those dates are individually higher.
If your student has already tested multiple times, run the numbers both ways. Calculate the superscore and compare it to the best single-day composite. At schools where the gap is significant, the superscore schools have a real advantage; at no-superscore schools, ask honestly whether the best single-sitting composite is still competitive.
If your student has taken both the SAT and the ACT, the analysis gains a new dimension. At schools with confirmed split policies – where the SAT is superscored and the ACT is not – the question is not just which test produced the higher number, but which test is evaluated more favorably given how each school constructs its composite. A student with a 34 ACT composite from a single sitting and a 1520 SAT superscore is in a different position at Carnegie Mellon than a student with the same scores but no split across dates. Identify these schools on your student's list early, and make score submission decisions with the full policy picture in hand.
Scholarship Rules Don't Always Match Admissions Rules
One final note applies to the ACT and SAT equally: scholarship thresholds don't always follow admissions policies. Even at schools that superscore the ACT for admission, merit awards may require a single-sitting composite. Check the scholarship page directly. The admissions FAQ and the scholarship FAQ don't always give the same answer.
The goal isn't just to raise a score; it's to understand exactly how each school on your student's list will evaluate it.
If you're ready to build a testing strategy around your student's actual college list, North Avenue can help. Schedule a free consultation today.
