Four WCS Students Earn Perfect Score on ACT

Published January 12, 2017

The collegiate options for four WCS high school students may have just gotten even better after each student earned a perfect score on their October ACT.

While all four students finished with the same score, each one had different routes on their way to perfection.

Independence senior Liam Spoletini started with a high score then took the test five more times before finally reaching his goal. He said once he found out he aced the test he had trouble containing his excitement.

“I checked at midnight,” Spoletini said. “I stayed up and I freaked out. I went and woke my mom up.”

Spoletini said his goal is to attend Stanford and major in engineering. Northwestern University and the University of Michigan are his backup options.

For others, like Franklin senior Musa Subramaniam, the perfect score wasn’t a goal, but the result of having to take the test one more time.

“It wasn’t really a goal,” Subramaniam said. “I just needed to take the writing again so I had to take it one more time. I had to sit for everything else so I thought I might as well just do it. I was a little surprised.”

Subramaniam has applied to eight schools and hopes to pursue a degree in law or humanities.

The last senior of the bunch, Brentwood High’s Sarah Dillender, said a perfect score was her goal, but more for the sake of competition than personal gain.

“It was more kind of a competition for me,” Dillender said. “A lot of other kids in my grade got a 36, so I wanted to try and get it too.”

Dillender was recently accepted into Princeton where she plans to major in chemical or biological engineering with a final goal of practicing medicine or doing medical research.

While the four seniors have some gameplan of what to do next with their education, the fourth student with a perfect score on the ACT will have plenty of time to figure out what is next for her.

Ravenwood sophomore Gabrielle Liu also earned a perfect score on her October test after taking it for third time as a high school student.

“It was really surprising because I think I had a harder test version,” Liu said. “It was really hard.”

As just a sophomore, Liu said she doesn’t know where she would like to go to college, but she does have an interest in computer science and may consider pursuing a degree in that major when she graduates from Ravenwood.