What's an average ACT English score?

Hey everyone, I recently took the ACT, and I'm not sure how to feel about my English score. What would you say is an average ACT English score for college admissions? Just wanting to know if I should retake it or not.

An average ACT English score usually falls around 20. However, what constitutes a "good" score depends on the colleges you're interested in and their admissions standards. For more competitive colleges, aiming for an English score in the upper 20s or even the low 30s is ideal, and for the most selective institutions out there, you'll want to be in the mid 30s.

You can look up the ACT score ranges of accepted students for the colleges you're considering on their admissions websites. This data will give you a better idea of where you stand in relation to other applicants. In general, you want to aim for a score that falls in the middle 50% range (or higher) of the admitted students for each college on your list.

Keep in mind that colleges also consider the other sections of the ACT, such as Math, Reading, and Science, so make sure you similarly assess your scores in these sections, as well as your composite score, which can carry the most weight of all. If you want to major in a humanities-related field, your English subscore be particularly relevant, but you still want to show your overall preparation for college-level academics.

Finally, retaking the ACT can potentially lead to an improvement in your score, but remember to weigh the time commitment against other parts of your application like your essays, extracurriculars, and grades, which are all crucial parts of your college applications as well. Improving your ACT score significantly takes a good deal of effort, and there's a chance that effort would be more likely to boost your odds of admission if it was spent on some other part of your application.

Ultimately, the decision to retake the ACT depends on your target schools' expectations and your overall application strength. Good luck!