New SAT: The verdict is…
May 2nd, 2016If you haven’t heard, there is a new, redesigned SAT. Maybe you’re among those planning to take it this Saturday!
This test underwent many changes before its rollout this spring, possibly the most changes ever made to the SAT. The purpose for these adjustments is to reflect the reading and math content that students learned in high school and will learn in college. In other words, it’s a little more like the ACT than it used to be.
Some of you may have taken the first round of this exam in March, while many of you may be sitting for the exam this coming weekend. Whether you decided to take the SAT or not, we thought it might be beneficial for you to read what the first round of students taking the exam experienced.
In this article, Kelly Wallace breaks down important information taken from the Kaplan Test Prep survey given to those who completed the new SAT. We’ll look forward to hearing from Shrop Ed students about their individual testing experiences this weekend, too.
Article published: March 7, 2016
Written by: Kelly Wallace
(CNN) – If you heard a mysterious sound last weekend, it was probably the collective exhale from nearly 300,000 students across the country, relieved to be finished with the SAT — a new version that had undergone its biggest changes in a decade, maybe ever.
The new SAT test, administered for the first time on Saturday, was designed to better reflect what students are learning in high school and will be required to learn in college, according to the College Board. The changes included eliminating the vocabulary section, making the essay optional, removing the penalty for guessing, and focusing on the areas of math that matter most for college readiness, the College Board said.
Read more at CNN >>Tagged: ACT, Applications, College, SAT
5 Ways to Stay on Track in Summer
April 18th, 2016It’s mid-April already, and we’re all counting down to summer! Quite a few of our students have summer plans solidified but some are still considering options. Can summer experiences affect school and college applications? Maybe. They can reflect initiative, curiosity, willingness to engage in new experiences … or they can show lack of same.
Exciting and productive summer experiences can be expensive if done through a program, but families wishing to save funds for school and college tuition can help their children find equally valuable experiences close to home. Community service in a developing nation is a fantastic experience, for example, but so is helping in a deep way where need exists nearby. Each student will have different options, and the key is making the most of them.
We like the College Board’s simple slide show with ideas about how to spend the summer: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/outside-the-classroom/5-ways-to-stay-on-track-in-summer. Please let us know if you do, too.
Tagged: Applications, College, Summer
Disappointing Admission Decisions Can’t Forecast Your Future
March 28th, 2016Are you nursing metaphorical wounds at the moment, inflicted by a college that denied admission? If so, you’re not alone. Many share and understand your sorrow, this advisor included. Applying to college is a big deal, and even with advance knowledge of a competitive situation we all hope against hope that the dial will spin, and then open the right door.
Please don’t become mired in disappointment. It’s important to move on and make the best of options available to you.
It’s not so easy, you think, even as parents, teachers – and, yes, your trusted college advisor – tell you that you’re still capable of greatness. That all of your amazing qualities remain wholly intact. That your talents will take you far, and when coupled with a strong work ethic will lead to options aplenty down the road.
But, you say, we’re not the ones experiencing what you are at this moment in time. You’re right. We’ve all been there, however.
Every one of us has received a disappointing college or graduate school or employment decision at some point. It’s a little like a friendship or romance that doesn’t work out: painful, but in the end we realize that we still occupy a valuable place in this world. Somehow, after a bit of grieving, we all survive.
Yet that college notification still feels deeply personal, doesn’t it? Well, here’s help. As if on cue, knowing that this is the season for applicants to U.S. colleges and universities to experience disappointment, J.K. Rowling has done something wonderful. We’re not talking about a new book. We’re talking about the way in which she’s sharing a difficult part of her past with the world. Follow the article link to see what we mean, and let us know if your outlook improves.
If J.K. Rowling could find success after experiencing so much disappointment, you can, too.
Article published March 26, 2016
Written by: BBC News
JK Rowling has shared two rejection letters she received for her first novel writing as Robert Galbraith. The author was trying to find a publisher for The Cuckoo’s Calling, which was eventually released in 2013. Rowling posted the rejections on Twitter, saying she was doing so to encourage other aspiring writers.
Read more at BBC >>Tagged: Admission decision, Applications, College
The Waitlist: Colleges’ Safety Valve, Students’ Purgatory
March 7th, 2016Admission decisions from selective colleges will soon be arriving fast and furious, and some students will have a “wait list” decision to consider. Although natural to wonder what one’s chances are, it’s impossible to know. When I sat on admission committees at Tufts University, then Brandeis University and later, Washington University in St. Louis, our wait lists gave us latitude to first see how the enrolling class would materialize from the first round of offers, and then fill in gaps. Too few men, or women? Too few engineers, or Classics majors? Too little diversity, whether geographic, ethnic or racial? Our goal was a well-rounded class with a fairly precise number of students, and the wait list helped us achieve that in some years. In other years, our initial offers produced the enrolling class sought, and we were unable to offer any students admission from the wait list.
Will Dix’s article on the Forbes website shines a bright light on the wait list process; we recommend that students and parents read it if contemplating what to do about a wait list offer. Dix’s article concludes with excellent recommendations about steps to take if you’d like to remain under serious consideration.
Be certain to follow his steps carefully if you’re serious about a college that’s wait-listed you, including that of submitting an enrollment deposit to a college that’s offered admission outright. Why? If you’re not offered admission to your top choice from the wait list, you’ll want to be certain that your place is reserved for fall entry at your next choice.
Good luck to all in weeks to come – we are here for our students and their parents, ready to listen and guide.
Article published February 22, 2016
Written by: Willard Dix
At this moment in the middle of winter, admission officers at four-year colleges and universities everywhere are deep into reading season. They’re combing through hundreds or thousands of applications to find students with the talents and abilities to power their campuses and keep professors happy. Some applicants will be immediate standouts; others won’t have the grades or scores or that “certain something” to be admissible. Many others will fall into a purgatory called The Waitlist , where they hover like the ghosts in “The Others” until June or July.
The waitlist exists because even the most selective colleges worry about “making their numbers.” The incoming class has to be a certain size, filled with the best possible mix of students. If a small college has a target of 500 freshmen, there had better be 500 students showing up in the fall. And it needs to be 500, not 530 or 470. Too few and the budget takes a hit; too many and students end up living in Quonset huts or hallways (or even being paid to wait a year before matriculating). The applicants’ purgatory is the colleges’ safety valve.
Read more at Forbes >>Tagged: Admission decision, Applications, College
