Thomas: 28 to 34 on the ACT—Finished Junior Year, Then Turned Chess Into a Dartmouth Acceptance

Thomas was a smart junior who loved chess and did well in school, and none of that was showing up on his ACT. He scored a 28 on his first attempt.

That gap is common with strong students. Doing well in class and doing well on a timed standardized test are different skills, and the second one is the one nobody teaches.

Two sprints, sequenced deliberately

We didn’t try to raise all four sections at once. The first sprint paired math with English, because those were the foundations he was already strongest in and the fastest place to bank points. The second sprint went entirely to science and reading, which were the sections still holding his composite down.

He hit a 34 in December.

The sequencing mattered more than the total hours. Trying to peak everything on a single test date is how strong students stall out in the high 20s.

The part that actually changed his application

Here’s what finishing early bought him: because the ACT was done by the fall of junior year, Thomas had the whole spring and summer free while his classmates were still grinding on test prep.

We spent it on his application instead.

Thomas liked chess. On an application, “chess” is a line on an activities list that a few thousand other students also have. The default path is chess club, then maybe chess club president, and that’s where nearly everyone stops.

Instead, he started recording his online games with voiceover commentary explaining his moves. He posted them to YouTube and eventually started livestreaming on Twitch. He grew past 25,000 followers across platforms.

He wasn’t doing anything new. He was doing the thing he already did anyway, in public, with a record of it.

Why it worked

A reader choosing between the chess club president and the student who built a 25,000-follower chess channel is not making a hard decision. Same hobby, completely different application.

It also gave him something most applicants never have: essays with specifics in them. He wasn’t writing about what he cared about in the abstract. He was writing about something he had built, with numbers attached.

Thomas was admitted to Dartmouth and Columbia, and Emory offered him a full ride. He chose Dartmouth.

He credits finishing the ACT early. Not because the 34 did the work by itself, but because getting it out of the way in junior year is what left time to build the rest.