The Hidden ROI of a High ACT: Beyond Scholarships and College Admissions
My ACT score earned me half a million dollars in scholarships.
And that was actually the least valuable thing I got from it.
I know that sounds ridiculous. Half a million dollars is a lot of money. But over the past seven years working with thousands of students, I've watched ACT scores create benefits that compound far beyond scholarship checks—benefits most families never even think about.
Jobs. Network. Trust. Credibility that follows you for decades.
The $500k was just the obvious part. Here's the full picture.
Scholarships Are Bigger Than You Think
Let's start with what everyone already knows: a higher ACT score means more scholarship money.
But most families dramatically underestimate how much money is actually on the table.
There are two types of scholarships you need to understand: automatic and discretionary.
Automatic scholarships are exactly what they sound like. Hit the benchmark, get the money. No extra essays. No "saving the world" requirement. Just meet the criteria and the check arrives.
Take the University of Alabama. If you look at their scholarship table, a 32 on the ACT automatically gets you $28,000 per year. Multiply that by four years and you're looking at $112,000—just for hitting a number.
Alabama isn't unique. University of Tennessee, Missouri, Ole Miss—dozens of schools have similar automatic scholarship programs.
Then there are state-funded programs. I'm in Florida, which has Bright Futures. Get a 25 on the ACT and you qualify for 75% tuition at any public state school. Hit a 29 and you get full tuition. That's University of Florida, Florida State, UCF—any of them.
Your state probably has something similar. Missouri has Bright Flight. Just Google "automatic state scholarships" plus your state name and do the research.
Here's the data that puts this in perspective.
Back in 2019, Granite Education studied automatic scholarships and found that each ACT point was worth $8,451 on average. With inflation since then, that number is conservatively $10,000+ per point today.
Think about that. Going from a 26 to a 27 could be worth $10,000. A five-point improvement? $50,000 or more—just in automatic scholarship value.
And that doesn't even account for discretionary scholarships.
Discretionary scholarships are merit-based awards where schools take a holistic look at your application. They consider grades, activities, essays—but the ACT is often the deciding factor.
Ava came to us with a 22. After working through our ACT Hacking system, she scored a 30. That eight-point improvement didn't just earn her $88,421 in scholarships to SMU—it got her admitted in the first place. With a 22, she probably wouldn't have even gotten through the door.
Robert had a 21 and had decided that if he couldn't get significant scholarships, college wasn't worth it. We took him from 21 to 29, which qualified him for full tuition at UCF through Florida Bright Futures. That's over $100,000 in value. College went from impossible to free.
So scholarships are real. The money is significant.
But here's what surprised me: that wasn't even the most valuable thing my ACT score gave me.
Better Schools, Better Everything
My 36 got me into MIT and the University of Chicago.
Both have acceptance rates under 5%. I ended up choosing UChicago—that's the piece of paper on the wall behind me in my videos.
Here's the honest truth: my application wasn't exceptional. I didn't cure cancer. I didn't start a nonprofit. The ACT was the main differentiator that got me through those doors.
And attending a better school creates a chain reaction of benefits that most families never consider.
Is it fair that school reputation matters this much? No.
But it's reality. You can either complain about the system or figure out how to make it work in your favor.
I can't change the rules. Neither can you. So let's talk about what actually happens when you get into a better school.
The Job Opportunities Nobody Talks About
One of my best friends in high school was arguably smarter than me. We had similar interests, similar academic backgrounds. He was more outgoing. Probably more qualified overall.
He went to a lesser-known school even though he had options for better ones. I went to UChicago.
When we both applied for investment banking jobs, guess who got more interviews?
I did. The only real difference was school reputation.
That's not speculation—I lived it. I landed a six-figure investment banking job straight out of college, partly because of where I went.
But here's something even crazier.
Years later, my hiring manager told me something I didn't expect. He said my ACT score itself—not just my school—put me ahead of other candidates. A 36 made them "a lot more open to hiring me."
Your future employer might actually ask about your ACT score. Mine did. And it mattered.
So the ACT affected which school I attended. The school affected which interviews I got. The interviews affected which job I landed. And the job affected my entire career trajectory.
One test. Compounding effects for decades.
Trust and Respect That Opens Doors
Here's something harder to quantify but impossible to ignore.
When someone says "I went to Harvard," you automatically trust them more. You assume they're qualified. You don't question them as much.
That's the extreme example. But the effect scales down. A well-respected school on your resume creates instant credibility in contexts you might not expect—job applications, business negotiations, getting meetings, partnerships.
People just take you more seriously.
Is that fair? No. Should the system work this way? Probably not.
But it does. And I'd argue this intangible credibility is worth more than scholarship money over a lifetime. It affects every professional interaction for the next 40 years.
The ACT opens doors to better schools. Better schools create automatic trust. That trust compounds forever.
The Network Effect
This is the one that matters most.
My friend who went to MIT—the one who still gives me a hard time for picking UChicago—got something from that school that money can't buy.
Within a couple years, he'd built relationships with classmates who were incredibly smart and driven. Some of them started a company together. It became so successful they dropped out of MIT.
Now they're all incredibly successful in the startup world.
Here's the thing: they didn't even graduate. The degree wasn't the value. The network was.
You can actually attribute pretty much all of the value of their successful business to the network that MIT gave them. They found each other because they were in the same place at the same time—surrounded by people with similar talent and ambition.
This isn't just my opinion. Research backs it up.
Studies show the biggest factor in long-term success is the ZIP code you grew up in—but not because of socioeconomic factors. It's because of who you're surrounded by. Kids who grew up around motivated, successful people became more successful themselves, regardless of family income.
You can't change the ZIP code you grew up in. But you can change your network by going to a different school.
Another study found that attending a more well-respected school increases your odds of joining the top 1% of earners by 60% and triples your odds of working at a prestigious firm.
Those aren't one-year effects. Those are career-long multipliers.
The people you meet during those four years shape the next forty. Your ACT score determines which people you get access to.
The Full Picture
Let me add this up.
Scholarships: $10,000+ per ACT point, conservatively. A five-point improvement could mean $50,000 or more.
College admissions: Doors that would otherwise be closed. Schools that change your trajectory.
Job opportunities: Higher-paying roles, more interviews, better career paths. My hiring manager literally looked at my ACT score.
Trust and respect: Lifetime credibility in professional contexts you can't predict.
Network: The people who shape your success for decades. Relationships that compound into opportunities, partnerships, and careers.
None of these exist in isolation. They stack on each other.
Ava didn't just earn $88,000 in scholarships—she got into a school that would have rejected her with a 22.
Robert didn't just get free tuition—he made college possible in the first place.
Griffin got a full ride to Texas A&M—which means the Aggie network, the career opportunities, the alumni connections for life.
A five-point improvement isn't just $50,000 in scholarships. It's a different life trajectory.
I still think it's awesome when students earn scholarships. When Ava got $88k to her dream school, that was incredible. When Robert went from "can't afford college" to full tuition, that was life-changing.
I just want you to see that there's more value in some of the other things as well.
The ACT is one test, taken over a few hours, that creates ripple effects for decades.
Most families only see the scholarships. Now you see the full picture.
The question isn't "is ACT prep worth it?" The question is: can you afford NOT to maximize this leverage point?
If you want to understand exactly what score your student could realistically reach—and what that score could unlock in scholarships, admissions, and opportunities—book a free ACT Game Plan call with our team. We'll look at where they are now, where they could be, and map out the path to get there.
The ACT isn't fair. Neither is the rest of life. The families who get this are the ones who stop complaining about the system and start figuring out how to make it work in their favor.
— Carson
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