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How Much is 1-Point on the ACT Worth in Dollars?

Test Prep Grantly, , ,

How Much is 1-Point on the ACT Worth in Dollars?

Grantly
October 18, 2019
As the founder of Granite Test Prep, a Nashville, TN based education center, I spend a lot of time working with students and families on increasing ACT scores, finding colleges based on these ACT scores, and finally using these ACT scores to pursue merit scholarships and financial aid to make college a little more affordable!
I recently had a family ask me a great question: “how much is one point on the ACT worth in dollars?”
I recently had a family ask me a great question: “how much is one point on the ACT worth in dollars?” At the time, I didn’t have a direct answer for them; however, I was curious and I wanted to find a more exciting answer than “it depends on what you and your family values etc…”
I was curious and I wanted to find a more exciting answer than “it depends on what you and your family values etc…”
Finding an answer to the value of a single ACT point began with seeing what other experts in the field had recorded. College admissions blog “The College Solution” claims that a one point increase in ACT score (given certain situations) could equal as much as $24,000 for students applying to The University of Indiana. While this figure is certainly interesting, at Granite we wanted to know more! We didn’t want to know simply what a 27 to a 28 meant at Indiana, or what a 35 to a 36 meant at Alabama, we wanted to know ON AVERAGE how much a one point increase starting at ANY SCORE meant for ANY SCHOOL.
To calculate the average dollar amount value of a single point increase on the ACT, we went out and built a list of ALL the ACT scholarships we could find, their dollar values, and their ACT cutoff thresholds and we let the statistics magic begin
Without anyone on the internet giving an absolute value for “the value of a single point on the ACT”, I went about using some tricks I learned in my economics degree and began building a data set! Our set began with the college readiness blog “Prep Scholar”. Their fascinating article “Guaranteed Scholarships Based on SAT/ACT Scores” outlined many of the ACT-based scholarships available to college applicants. Still we needed more data, so we went school by school and studied their scholarship and financial aid pages. To calculate the average dollar amount value of a single point increase on the ACT, we went out and built a list of ALL the ACT scholarships we could find, their dollar values, and their ACT cutoff thresholds and we let the statistics magic begin (see the bottom of the article for a description of the “statistics magic”).
Ultimately we calculated that a single point increase on the ACT was worth $8,451 over four years.
Ultimately we calculated that a single point increase on the ACT was worth $8,451 over four years. That means that for ANY score and ANY school we would expect and AVERAGE increase in scholarship of $8,451 for every single point you get on the ACT. Below is a graph of some of the schools we included in our calculations. Along the bottom of the graph are ACT scores, and for every ACT score you can see how many dollars that score would be worth after 4-years.
It should be acknowledged that not all schools give money for ACT scores. Ivy League schools for example (and other “highly selective institutions” like Stanford or MIT), don’t offer any merit scholarships for academics or athletics. These schools prefer to give all of their scholarship money in the form of financial-aid, a package of grants, student work options, and sometimes loans that make these (otherwise very expensive schools) often very affordable. Since these schools typically have acceptance rates in the single digits, the value of an additional ACT point is in your percent chance of being accepted. Look for our next article which will be “Acceptance Rates and the Value of the Marginal ACT Point”.
These schools prefer to give all of their scholarship money in the form of financial-aid, a package of grants, student work options, and sometimes loans that make these (otherwise very expensive schools) often very affordable.
If you are interested in how much more money you could get in scholarships given a certain school and your specific profile please feel free to contact us at: contact@granitetestprep.com. We spend all day helping students and families like you figure out how to raise ACT scores and then how to use these ACT scores most efficiently in the college application process.

Stats Corner:

For our friends who love statistics, want to learn about statistics, or are simply wary of random figures posted in blogs, here are the calculations and methods we used to get our numbers and graphs! If you DON’T like statistics don’t worry! This section just explains how we got to the number of $8,451.

Our data set was an aggregated list of merit scholarship amounts and their corresponding ACT threshold. Merit scholarships were only included if they depended solely on ACT score (so as to reduce risk of bias from unobserved variables like “student GPA” or “student achievement”.)
Our equation was modeled as follows: Dollars= ß1(Score) + C
Regression Results are shown below:
R-squared: 0.634
ß1 T-Stat: 9.174 (p>0.000)

5 Tips for Writing a Great College Essay

College Planning, Events Grantly, ,
prestigious college or university

5 Tips for Writing a Great College Essay

Grantly
August 18, 2019

1.”BE SOCIAL”

 Admission officers look at accepting students as building a class. They want the class they are building to “get along” and build lifelong friendships with each other. Accordingly, sharing stories about your friendships and social life can be very good topics in a common app essay. This certainly doesn’t mean you need to talk about how many friends you have or convince anyone you are “popular”; however, sharing stories about meaningful relationships in your life can show a reader mountains about who you are.

2.TELL A STORY
 
College admissions readers are looking to build a diverse and interesting class of students. The common app essay serves as a critical opportunity for the admissions readers to understand who you are as a real person. One of the best ways to show the “real you” is simply to share a story of your high school experience.
3. DON’T BE SCARED
 
Don’t be scared to talk about hardship, adversity, or challenges you have overcome. No one is perfect, and the college admissions readers know that. Reflecting maturely on something in your life that didn’t go perfectly can result in an incredible essay!
 
4. BREAK ALL TRADITIONS
 
The common app essay isn’t like all the 5 paragraph essays you wrote in high school. It doesn’t need to have a thesis statement, topic sentences and three body paragraphs. It is a personal statement, designed to tell the admissions readers more about you. As long as the essay is captivating and tells the reader about who you are, you can use as many paragraphs and any structure you like.
 
5.LESSON LEARNED
 
Sharing a lesson you’ve learned in the last 4 years can be a very successful essay topic; it shows humility, an ability to learn and maturity. Be careful, however, not to write an essay about how you are now “enlightened” or have “figured it all out”. Many students attempt to write essays about knowing nothing as freshman and now knowing everything. These stark contrasts just sound cheesy.
 
If you still feel like you need some tips for your Common App essay feel free to leave a question below or reach out at contact@granitetestprep.com

What happens when smart kids don’t score well?

Test Prep, Tutoring Grantly, ,
Student Taking the ACT

What happens when smart kids don’t score well?

Grantly
December 19, 2018
“If I am working hard, why am I not getting the score I want?”
As the founder of Granite Test Prep, an education consulting and college readiness company based in Nashville, TN, Grantly Neely spends most of his days talking with students about test scores: what they mean, how to raise them, and whether or not they even matter. It is not uncommon for students to excel in school, yet struggle when it comes to test taking. In these cases, the solution can often be to get a tutor; however, when test grades don’t improve or ACT scores don’t increase, students can become disheartened and lose confidence. Teachers may tell families things like “your student is doing her/his work and understands the concepts, I’m not sure why s/he is struggling so much on our tests.” Or a student will be consistently performing academically, only to perform far below expectation on national standardized tests (PSAT/SAT/ACT), in spite of prep courses, tutors, and practice tests. At this point it is only fair to wonder: If I am working hard, why am I not getting the score I want?
For many students, this unfortunate gap between understanding and “performance” is a product of our preparation methods.
For many students, this unfortunate gap between understanding and “performance” is a product of our preparation methods. Tutors, review books, teachers, and even well intentioned youtubers, typically focus exclusively on the test content, completely ignoring the reality that performance on tests is driven just as much by an understanding of test content as it is by the “intangibles of test taking”. It is likely these “intangibles” are so frequently ignored that you might not even know what I mean. At Granite Test Prep we are fascinated with these test taking intangibles and typically focus on two major intangibles: the ability to stay focused through the entire duration of an exam and the ability to stay calm when an exam is not going exactly as we like. Our focus, calm, and confidence vary naturally from day to day. Accepting these as key variables on test taking success, we often attribute undesired scores to these intangibles. It is not uncommon for parents to sympathetically say: “don’t worry honey – you just had an off day!” Still, this consolation leaves students with a question: why did I have an “off-day” and how can I have more “on-days”?
There are many exercises and strategies that are designed specifically to help test takers have more on-days.
Fortunately the above question has an answer! There are many exercises and strategies that are designed specifically to help test takers have more on-days. These exercises help build up focus or calm, depending on a student’s need. Therefore, if you struggle to demonstrate what you know on exams and tests, practicing mindfulness might be a great place to start. It is important to remember that mindfulness is a skill and an exercise, while some benefits can be experienced in only a couple days, most of them don’t start to show up for a few months. If you want to try a simple meditation one of our favorites is outlined below:
Every time you get distracted and focus back on your breath you have done a “brain pull-up”over four years.

  1. Find a comfortable seat and sit upright

  2. Close your eyes

  3. Take a couple deep breaths

  4. Notice any sounds or scents in the room

  5. Notice the ground beneath your feet

  6. Notice what your breath is doing (don’t change it – just notice)

  7. Begin counting your breath 1 on the in breath 2 on the out breath (again we aren’t trying to control or influence our breath just gently count)

  8. Once you reach a count of 6 start back at 1

  9. If you notice your mind wanders just bring it back to whatever number you last remember being on. No need to feel frustrated with yourself, simply bring your attention back to your breath; you are building the “focus muscle” of your brain.

  10. Every time you get distracted and focus back on your breath you have done a “brain pull-up”

  11. After 10 mins is complete open your eyes and go about your day!
    Source: “Students with Test Anxiety Score 8-Points Higher (out of 100) After 3 Week Mindfulness Course”

Considering what you eat is also very important when thinking about test performance. Cutting-edge scientific research shows the importance of nutrition in supporting the focus and calm needed for academic performance. Many student’s struggle with long tests simply because they don’t bring any snacks. Rapid changes in blood sugar level can wreak havoc on our ability to focus. Accordingly, keeping a steady energy level by eating small snacks during all breaks can be extremely helpful to test takers. These snacks should be high in protein and low glycemic index.
Rapid changes in blood sugar level can wreak havoc on our ability to focus.
High glycemic foods (white bread, candy, soda) can cause crashes and subsequent brain fog. The world of nutrition for academic performance is complicated things like fiber, probiotics, and fat also have critical implications on how our brains work. Learn about how “Medical Students See Lower Cortisol Levels (stress hormone) after 8-weeks of probiotics”
Small changes can have huge impacts on test scores, so just choose a couple intangibles that resonate with you and work on those.

When evaluating how test taking intangibles affect our performance on standardized tests it can be tempting to feel overwhelmed thinking: “I have to change my entire lifestyle just to do well on tests!” That is absolutely not the case! Small changes can have huge impacts on test scores, so just choose a couple intangibles that resonate with you and work on those. If you have any questions about the world of test prep feel free to reach out to us at contact@granitetestprep.com we love chatting with people and sharing our recommendations!

Author: Grantly Neely is a certified KORU mindfulness teacher, founder of Granite Test Prep and Nashville native. For more about Grantly and his amazing team of educators CLICK HERE

Give us a call: (615) 985-5725

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