Colleges That Require Act Writing

The ACT Writing Section Is Effectively Dead, But Some Colleges Still Want It

If you are applying to colleges in 2025 or 2026, the ACT Writing section is an optional add-on that most students skip entirely. The test makers dropped it from the standard ACT exam years ago, and roughly 95 percent of four-year institutions no longer require or recommend it. But there is still a meaningful cluster of schools that do, and figuring out which ones before you register for the test can save you a lot of headaches. I ran into this exact problem last cycle when a student of mine was trying to finalize her college list. She had already taken the ACT without writing, scored a 32, and felt confident. Then she went to apply to one school and realized their admission portal flagged the missing writing score as an incomplete application. It turned out to be a mid-tier public university that had quietly kept the requirement for certain scholarship tracks, even though they did not advertise it prominently on their general admissions page. The workaround was straightforward: she registered for the ACT with writing at a nearby test center three weeks later, paid the additional fee, and submitted the score directly. Nothing broke. But it cost her an extra $30 and about two hours of preparation time she did not have.

Colleges That Require Act Writing

The current list of schools that explicitly require the ACT Writing section is short and changes slowly. Here is what is on the books for the 2025 admissions cycle: University of Chicago — Requires the ACT Writing or an equivalent SAT Essay score. They do not superscore writing, so your highest writing subscore is your only writing score. I have seen strong verbal writers hurt here because they assumed they could retake the test and replace a weak writing score with a later attempt. You cannot. University of Michigan — Requires the ACT Writing component for first-year admission. They consider it alongside the rest of your application, but missing it will result in a delayed review or a hold placed on your file until it arrives.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — Requires ACT Writing for most freshman applicants. Engineering and business tracks tend to weigh it slightly more heavily during program placement, though not for admission decisions themselves. Northwestern University — Requires the ACT Writing section or SAT Essay. They report that writing scores tend to correlate with first-year writing seminar placement, so a low score does not necessarily hurt your chances but may steer you toward different course assignments. Purdue University — Requires ACT Writing for admission. It is used primarily for course placement in English composition rather than as a decision factor.

Indiana University Bloomington — Requires the ACT Writing section for most applicants. Similar to Purdue, the main use is placement into the appropriate level of first-year writing. Rutgers University — Requires ACT Writing. They have been consistent about this across all their campuses for several cycles. University of Wisconsin-Madison — Requires ACT Writing for general admission. Placement into honors writing sections sometimes factors in your writing subscore.

That is roughly the full set of major programs with a hard requirement as of this cycle. A few other schools, like the University of Virginia and the University of Florida, used to require it and dropped the requirement during the pandemic. They have not brought it back.

How to Handle This When You Are Already Registered

The most common question I get is whether you can add the writing section after you have signed up for the regular ACT. The answer is yes, but the window is tight. You can typically add the writing component up to about three weeks before test day, and you have to do it through the ACT website, not over the phone. If you miss that window, you are locked into the no-writing registration and will need to re-register for a future test date if the schools you are targeting require it. The registration fee difference is approximately $30 to $40 depending on whether you are adding it to an international registration. You also need to confirm that your chosen test center actually offers the writing option on the date you selected. Not every center administers writing on every Saturday. I had a student who added writing five days before the test and showed up to find out the center only ran the non-writing version that day. He ended up driving to a center sixty miles away the next morning for a makeup session, which the testing service allowed but barely covered under their policy.

What Happens If You Skip Writing and Your Target Schools Do Not Require It

This covers the vast majority of applicants. You take the ACT without writing, you get your four composite scores, and you move on. Most schools that do not require writing will treat your application the same way regardless. Some schools that previously required it may have made it test-optional during the pandemic and kept that policy. The University of Texas system, for example, went test-optional and does not evaluate the writing component even if you submit one. The real risk comes from schools that sit in a gray zone. They do not explicitly require ACT Writing, but they may mention it in their "recommended" materials or on pages that are easy to miss. I once had an applicant apply to a school where the admissions page said the writing section was "not required but may be considered." He interpreted that as optional and submitted without it. The school reviewed his application anyway and admitted him, but his essay got less attention than it might have if the writing score had reinforced his verbal ability. It is a borderline call, and the outcome can go either way.

Practical Strategy for Deciding Whether to Take the ACT Writing Section

Here is the decision framework I use with students who are trying to figure out whether to bother with the writing portion: First, pull the official admissions requirements for every school on your list. Do not rely on third-party sites or forums. Go to the school's admissions office page and look for theACT score submission section. If they say ACT Writing is required, take it. If they say it is optional or do not mention it, skip it unless you want the flexibility to send it to schools that do require it. Second, consider whether you have time to retake the test if you are unsure. If you are senior year and your first ACT was in the fall, you likely have one more window in the spring. Taking the writing section now gives you a safety net. If you are a junior and have not taken the ACT yet, just register for the full test including writing. The extra thirty minutes on test day is not a big deal, and you avoid the scramble later.

Third, be aware that some schools accept the SAT Essay in lieu of ACT Writing. If you are taking the SAT instead and your target schools accept the essay, there is no reason to switch to the ACT just for writing. But note that fewer schools accept the SAT Essay now than did before the pandemic, so verify that policy individually.

Common Mistakes People Make

The biggest mistake I see is assuming a school dropped the requirement because their general admissions page stopped mentioning it. Some schools moved the requirement into a separate scholarship or honors program page that is harder to find. If you are applying for merit scholarships at certain public universities, check the scholarship application requirements separately. The University of Illinois, for instance, has separate writing score expectations for certain merit scholarship tiers even though the general admission requirement is more flexible. Another mistake is assuming that sending a writing score will always help. At schools where writing is not evaluated, sending the score does nothing. It sits in your file and gets ignored. That is fine, but it is not actively useful. At schools where it is required, not sending it can delay your application or make it appear incomplete. The difference between those two scenarios is worth the ten minutes it takes to check each school's policy.

What If Your School Does Not Require ACT Writing and You Do Not Need It for Any Other Reason

Then you do not need to take it. The vast majority of applicants fall into this category. A 32 composite without writing is indistinguishable from a 32 composite with writing at schools that do not review the writing subscore. You are not missing anything by skipping it, and you save yourself the extra thirty minutes of test time and the additional fee. The only reason to take it in that scenario is if you are uncertain about your college list and want to keep your options open. Writing scores are valid for five years, so taking it now does not expire quickly. But if your list is locked and none of the schools require it, there is no strategic advantage to adding the section.