GPAs stronger predictors of college graduation than ACTs

If you’re worried that your teen didn’t score that well on the ACTs, you may want to refocus on their GPA. That’s because a new study from the University of Chicago has found that GPAs are stronger predictors of whether someone will graduate from college than ACT scores. 

The researchers were not only surprised to see that there was no relationship between ACT scores and college graduation at some high schools, but also that the relationship was actually NEGATIVE among students with the highest test scores.

Even after controlling for student backgrounds and college characteristics, the team found that the chance of college ranges from:

• 20% for students with a GPA under 1.5

to

• 80% for a student with a GPA of 3.75 or higher

You can read a summary of the research here:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200128122721.htm