Five Admissions Tips for High School Juniors
I recently had a chance to speak on the Your Daily Scholarship podcast with scholarship expert Dave Peterson about a topic close to my heart. For nearly thirty years now, I’ve been counseling families on managing different aspects of college admissions and have encountered the same issues over and over again. One of the most detrimental yet easily avoidable mistakes in putting together a competitive college application is waiting too long to address certain influential elements. Consider these five tips before or during but definitely not after junior year if you can: 1. Select Classes Carefully Academic rigor matters, but don’t take on the toughest classes you can just because you have Ivy League aspirations. Make sure you commit to honors classes you are truly interested in, or else you’ll be spending hours a week regretting your choices. By the same token, make sure you think about all the classes…
Testing and Admissions Information for the HS Class of 2025
In October 2023, I had the pleasure of speaking, as I do every year, to the Brighton PTSA about what the SAT and ACT are, why they matter, and what families can and should do about them. This year’s presentation was distinctive because we’re now talking about a digital SAT starting in the United States on March 2024. I’ll be delivering this seminar quite a bit over the coming months and years, but you don’t have to wait for me to come to your school–we have a recording! Enjoy the video and feel free to follow up with questions. Looking for more information about the digital SAT? START HERE
Submit Your College Applications Before Pumpkin Pie
Our friend and colleague Kristin Cocquyt of Cocquyt College Consulting offers student-centered, fit-focused college counseling in Webster, NY and through the Zoom-verse. This guest post promotes the benefits of finishing those college applications early! To procrastinate is to be human, but to tackle the college application process with fortitude and precise planning is…. well, hard. The college search and application process is full of details and deadlines and for most teengers is straight-up intimidating. If you’re in the midst of the college search and application process, it can feel like another varsity sport or AP class (or two) with the required time investment and homework. Your color-coded spreadsheet of deadlines and usernames and passwords is intense, and you have multiple Google Docs going with essay drafts. The college application process can sort of take over and distract you from the other glories of senior year. I’ve coached over 600 students…
Coping with the College Waitlist
It is no easy thing to be a high school senior waitlisted at his or her top choice college or university. Waiting lists create a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Some schools never need to go to their waiting lists to fulfill their desired enrollment numbers. Other colleges may invite a handful of hopefuls from a waitlist of several hundred students. Still others may invite a considerable number of waitlisted students to join the incoming class. Both strategically and emotionally, it can be difficult for students and parents to know how to handle waitlist situations! For the student motivated to attempt to change a waitlist situation into an offer of admission, here are some tips: Firstly, once included on the waitlist, the student should contact the college’s office of admission by phone and by email to express strong interest. If this is the top choice school, by all means say so!…
Who Does College Admissions Serve?
Anyone who tells you that the college admissions process doesn’t involve at least some anxiety and effort probably applied to an open-admit school. Everyone else accepts a risk, no matter how slight, of rejection. Putting yourself out there can be scary. The most constructive way to mitigate that fear and risk is to make sure you meet the highest academic, extracurricular, and testing standards of the institution to which you seek admission. In fact, treating the college application project as a transformational journey designed to clarify your goals for life after high school graduation is the smartest way to approach this crucible. Yet, when all is said and done, your best may not be good enough. My insightful friend and colleague Aly Beaumont has a lot to say about how The Admissions Process Is Not Necessarily About You! At this time of year, social media is filled with posts of…
College Admissions Testing for the HS Classes of 2024 and 2025
What are the SAT and ACT, why do they matter, and what can and should teens and their families do about them during this dynamic moment in college admissions history? The admissions landscape has shifted dramatically over the last five years, so make sure you stay on top of the newest developments: — Why do the SAT & ACT still matter in the test optional era? — Does it make sense to take the SAT or ACT if a student has a strong GPA? — What does test optional really mean? — When is the best time to take the SAT or ACT? — What is the best preparation for the SAT, ACT, or PSAT? — When will the SAT be moving to a digital adaptive test?