College Admissions Help Blog

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week we are talking about everyone’s favorite subject: standardized tests! Recently I was asked, “what are the differences between the SATs and the ACTs?”  I realized that this is probably a question that a lot of high school students going through the college admissions process have.

The truth is that the SAT and the ACT are very different tests. Typically the ACT is described as a content-based test while the SAT is a test of critical thinking and problem solving.

The SAT is the standard college entrance exam and it consists of three sections; math, reading and writing. The first section is a written essay which takes 25 minutes and the last section is multiple-choice which takes 10 minutes. There are also six 25-minute sections and two 20-minute sections that can appear in any order.

The ACT is an entrance exam that covers English, math, reading and science. There is a multiple choice test for each subject as well as a 30-minute writing test.

The good news is that if you feel like you have strengths in one area or another you can choose which college entrance exam to take. However, it is important to make sure that the schools you are applying to accept the scores of the test you choose to take. No matter which test you plan on taking you should not cram the night before the exam. You should learn about how the test is set up and what the different test-taking strategies are, but you are really being tested on knowledge you have accumulated throughout your high school career. Finally, you should make sure you get a good night sleep before the test and eat a good breakfast the morning of the test so that your mind will be sharp and you will have the energy to get through it!

Scholarship Points Bonus Code: AAKWEEK2

If you are currently a senior in high school and applying to college you are probably well into the process by now. November is a month when deadlines slowly start to creep up and it is important to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row.

Early Decision: If you are planning on applying to a school for early decision or early action your application is probably due soon! Most schools have early decision deadlines in November so if you are planning on some good news around the holidays do not be late with your application. If you are applying to schools with rolling admissions it cannot hurt to get those applications out this month too since decisions are made as applications are received.

College Essay: Put down your pencils, time is almost up! You should be finishing up your college essays this month. You want to make sure you have time to proofread them before your applications go out. Also, it is not a bad idea to have your parents proofread your essays too!

SATs: You still have time to take another round of SATs this month if you are not happy with previous scores. Just make sure to have your scores sent to all the right schools.

Letters of Recommendation: This time of year teachers and coaches get a lot of requests for letters of recommendation. Make sure you have your recommendations lined up and that you will have them in hand in time to include with your applications. Also, make sure to thank the people who write your recommendations.

Finally, make sure you keep your school work on track. It might be hard to think about with everything else that is going on, but you are on the home stretch of your high school career and it is important to finish strong! On the bright side November comes with Thanksgiving break so take time to breath and enjoy yourself!

With the current state of the US economy, the task of financing a college education is increasingly difficult. Because of this, many students are forced to let go of their dreams of attending their number one school. After years of picturing themselves writing for the Harvard Crimson or attending UConn basketball games, senior year comes with a dose of financial reality. This is when many high school students realize that getting into their school of choice will not be a problem, but paying for it will be.

After you have passed the SATs with flying colors, received recommendations from the best teachers at your school, and have acceptance letters in hand, settling for the number two or three school on your list can be heartbreaking. However, if you are set on attending your dream school you can, and should, make it work.

First of all, apply for federal financial aid by completing your FAFSA. The FAFASA is the most important financial aid form you can complete. Without it you will not be eligible for the Stafford loan, PLUS loan or Pell grant. Many students qualify for this type of aid; even student who do not think they will be eligible at all. Visit FAFSAOnline.com to find out more about the FAFSA and apply.

Secondly, if you were accepted to your dream school you must have done a few great things to get there. Because of your achievements, there are thousands and thousands of scholarships out there that you are eligible for. StudentScholarshipSearch.com can help connect you with scholarships you should apply for.

Finally, if you need additional funds after federal financial aid and scholarships apply for private student loans. Private student loans can help you pay for expenses beyond tuition including room and board, and transportation. You can also apply for these loans at any time during the semester if unforeseen expenses come up. PrivateStudentLoans.com can tell you more about your private student loan options and even help you apply.

As juniors and seniors in high school you are probably well on your way to planning your college career. Getting ready for college can be extremely stressful on top of everything else you have to worry about, but luckily most high schools have resources to make the search and apply process a lot easier.

Many high schools host college information nights for juniors and seniors, and their families. Information nights give students and parents a broad overview of the college application process. Guidance counselors are on hand to provide direction and answer questions. Sometimes a school will even bring in a college admissions counselor to lend advice from their perspective. These events are particularly helpful to families who are sending their first child to college, but everyone should consider attending since things change so frequently.

The following is a list of topics that are usually covered at college information nights:

SATs and ACTs: All of your questions about when and where to take the SATs or ACTs will be answered. You will find out what the test dates are, where they are being offered, where to send your scores, what scores you should aim for and how many times you should take a particular test.

Visiting Colleges: You will learn how to schedule college visits and when the best times to visit are. You will find out what questions you should ask when you take a tour and how many schools you should visit to make the right decisions.

The Application Process: College applications are more than just pieces of paper. Someone from the guidance department will outline everything you need to include with your applications from the essay to the application fee.

The College Essay: Someone will go over the basics of writing a college essay. They will cover how to choose a topic, how long the essay should be and who should see your essay before you send it off.

Letters of Recommendation: Most colleges require that you submit letters of recommendation with your application. A guidance counselor will explain who these recommendations should come from, how many you should submit, and what they should say about you and your achievements .

FAFSA and Financial Aid: Financial aid can be the most confusing part of applying to college. Someone from the guidance department will go over when and how to fill out your FAFSA, what kinds of federal student loans and alternative student loans exist, and how to search for scholarships.

If it was up to me I would either toss the SAT out of the college admissions process, devalue its weight, or make it optional across the board. There is nothing standardized about that exam.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe tests are a necessary part of life. When I was trying to land a customer service job several years ago I took a problem solving exam so they could rate my competence. In school you take exams to see how well you learned the material. Tests in those capacities serve as appropriate measuring sticks, but the SAT is a different animal completely. My wife Kerri, to this day, kicks herself about how poorly she scored.

First off you should know that Kerri is an encyclopedia of knowledge and can hold her own on just about any topic. In fact she kinda reminds me of Rainman. So how on earth did she score a rather pedestrian 710 on her SAT? Answer, she froze. She felt the weight of the exam and just couldn’t concentrate. Because of that she did not get into UConn. Is that fair? She was ranked tenth in her class of 275, played softball, cheered, and was on the yearbook committee. That one test really hurt her.

The NFL administers their SAT equivalent with the wonderlic test. Future Hall of Famer Donovan McNabb reportedly scored a 14 (19-21 is said to be average). Steve McNair and Dan Marino scored a 15. By SAT rationale they should not have been allowed into the NFL. They would have got their denial letter in the mail just as Kerri did. But a new leaf may be turning over as a handful of schools are now SAT test-optional.

According to the College Board, which owns the SAT, 45 schools are test-optional. It’s making baby steps, but at least they are stepping in the right direction. For the test-optional mandate to really kick into high gear a major school such as Harvard would need to adopt the policy. It’s a different world today and things have changed so much since the 1920’s when the exam launched.

The SAT was devised in 1926 as a merit-based leveler to replace the old-boys pipeline from prep schools to top colleges. The test was promoting equal opportunity for those students who didn’t come from the best schools. But now many view the SAT as the opposite – as an obstacle to opportunity. There are scoring gaps between different racial and socio-economic groups, and concerns that the test is too coachable.

The SAT probably does have a place. I just wish it wasn’t the first thing that schools looked at. The sum should remain greater than the sum of its parts.

How are you holding up thus far? Getting pressure from Mom & Dad to keep those grades up while adding yet another extra curricular activity to impress some college recruiter? Are you working part-time? Do you feel like the world around you is caving in and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day?

It does get easier, I promise. Once you get settled into a college you’ll be able to take a deep breath, but in the meantime let me help you make sense of the tests you may need to take to get into college (I say may need because each school governs its own admissions criteria).  I find seeing something in writing helps focus me. I see the objective and attack it like Jared at a Subway buffet. Hopefully you’re the same way. Let’s take a look at those various admissions tests.

PSAT: A 2-hour practice exam for the SAT focusing on critical reading skills, math problem-solving skills, and writing skills.

SAT: The nations most widely used admissions test among colleges and universities. Areas of focus are critical reading, mathematics, and writing. This 3 hour and 45 minute exam is administered several times per year.

SAT Subject Tests (formerly SAT II): Many selective colleges require you take one of 20 one-hour specialized exams. These exams give the student the ability to demonstrate to the college their mastery of a given topic. Many colleges use this exam for admission, or course placement. Most students take these tests at the end of their junior year or beginning of their senior year.

ACT: A 3 hour and 30 minute admissions test focusing on English, math, science, and reading. Add another 30 minutes if you elect to take the writing component. Almost all schools will accept these scores in lieu of the SAT.

Another thing you may want to consider doing is taking AP classes in High School. Advanced Placement courses can earn you college credit or at least get you out of those boring college 101 classes, assuming you score a 4 or 5 on your exam (your grade is based on a 1 to 5 scale).

For those students who don’t test well, like me, the door is not closed on your future by any means. You can still enroll in a two year community college. Community colleges offer an opportunity to pursue higher education to all students who obtained a high school diploma, GED Certificate, or have demonstrated the “Ability to Benefit.” Then, after you make the marks, you can transfer over to a four year school if you so choose.

Take a look at our College Planning guide which guides you from freshman year to senior year.  You can also sign up to receive detailed college preparation action plans, and our Student Action Plans Newsletter.

Life will present you with many tests along the way. Just always be sure to strive for your personal best. If you can look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day knowing you put your best foot forward you have already passed my friends.

Boston City Council member Michael Flaherty is looking to pass new legislature which would provide Massachusetts students with free online access to preparatory programs. Students would be able to log into the Boston Public Library’s website to access the program if this new piece of legislature passes in December.

Online resources have been a growing national trend recently in trying to close the gap between students from affluent families and those families with fewer resources. These programs have been known to boost students SAT scores by as much as 300 points.

But many feel this is a “Johnny comes lately” piece of legislature. A growing number of colleges nationwide are dropping the test as an admissions requirement and making it optional. Grade point average and course rigor now hold more stock. Some also question how much impact this would really have when the reality is there’s only a handful of kids on the cusp of getting into a better college where the additional points could be beneficial.

Personally the more tools someone is willing to give me the happier I am. Instead of having just a hammer and nails to build a house with I’ll gladly take a buzz saw, a nail gun, and whatever other tools you want to give me to get the job done. Perhaps this piece of legislation will only help one Massachusetts student if it goes through, but that one student may be you.

Personally I bombed the SAT’s. I don’t do very well with standardized testing. I mean, whose standards are they anyway? Perhaps my son won’t have to too take them by the time he is ready for college.

Recent debate has been raised over whether the scholastic aptitude test (SAT) is really necessary.
William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, conducted a year long study and found that standardized testing can not possibly measure someone’s true worth or ability. He cited backgrounds and the contrast in opportunities that some students are granted in upscale suburban high schools.

Furthermore, parents continue to pay a lot of money for students to take prep classes which are only preparing them for the test and not teaching them how to learn Fitzsimmons said.

A growing number of colleges, including Smith College in Massachusetts and Bates College in Maine, have made the SAT and ACT exams optional.

The revamped SAT, expanded three years ago to include a writing test, predicts college success no better than the old test, and not quite as well as a student’s high school grades, according to studies released Tuesday by the College Board, which owns the test.

“The changes made to the SAT did not substantially change how predictive the test is of first-year college performance,” the studies said.

College Board officials presented their findings as “important and positive” confirmation of the test’s success.

“The SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform,” said Laurence Bunin, senior vice president of operations at the board, and general manager of the SAT program. “The 3-hour, 45-minutes test is almost as good a predictor as four years of high school grades, and a better predictor for minority students.”

But critics of the new test say that if that is the best it can do, the extra time, expense and stress on students are not worth it.

“The new SAT was supposed to be significantly better and fairer than the old one, but it is neither,” said Robert Schaeffer, the public education director at FairTest, a group that is critical of much standardized testing. “It underpredicts college success for females and those whose best language is not English, and over all, it does not predict college success as well as high school grades, so why do we need the SAT, old or new?”

The reports, called validity studies, are based on individual data from 151,000 students at more than 100 colleges and universities who started college in fall of 2006.

Plans to revise the SAT were announced in 2002, the year after the University of California president, Richard Atkinson, threatened to drop the test as an admission requirement.

“Given the data released today, what was the point of all the hoopla about the SAT’s revisions beyond preserving their California market?” Mr. Schaeffer said. “This is all spin. It’s been a marketing operation from the get-go.”

Since the new SAT was introduced, Mr. Schaeffer said, 41 colleges and universities have dropped their requirements that applicants submit standardized test scores to be admitted. The College Board reports found that for black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian students — and for girls — SAT scores are slightly more predictive of college success than are high school grades. They also found that scores on the new writing section predict students’ college grades slightly better than scores on the other sections, reading and math.

The revised SAT costs $45 and has a possible top score of 2400, 800 on each of the three sections. The writing section includes a 25-minute essay, which counts for a quarter of the writing grade, and 49 multiple-choice questions on grammar and style, which count for the rest. Until 2005, the College Board offered a separate writing subject test, but only about 75 colleges required it.

When the new test was introduced, many colleges said they would not use the new writing section in making their admission decisions until validity studies showed it helped them make better admission decisions. But College Board officials said Tuesday that they hoped the new studies would encourage almost every university to use it.

By Kang Shin-who, Sa Eun-young, Staff Reporters

The first five minutes are the most critical for writing the SAT essay test for U.S. college admission, James Herron, 39, head lecturer in expository writing at Harvard University, said.

“Many students start to write immediately without planning because they have just 25 minutes for the essay test. It’s very important to take the first five minutes to think about the thesis because it is crucial,” Herron said in an interview with The Korea Times Friday.

Herron visited Seoul last week to take part in the U.S. college admission strategy seminar and workshop, “2007 AHEd Edu Summit” and gave lectures on how to write a good SAT essay to 90 hopefuls for top U.S. colleges.

In the workshop, he discussed samples of their writing efforts and said that many of the problems he encountered were identical to those of U.S. students. He explained as follows.

First, they present an unsupportable thesis that isn’t really a thesis at all. It’s not arguable and not actually taking a position, which is a common mistake among U.S. students.

Second, students present evidence that they don’t fully analyze; so they drop information into the essay but don’t show how the information supports their argument.

Third, for some students, English as a second language is an issue. But students worry about that more than they need. Many students who have very good English ability still worry about little problems in their English that aren’t important. Their writing is perfectly clear but they still worry _ it’s a kind of insecurity.

The writing professor also advised that according to his research a longer essay usually yields better results, although the college board says the length of essay is not important.
“Dr. Les Pearlman at Massachusetts Institute Technology analyzed SAT essay answers and scores and found that there was 90 percent correlation between length of essays and the scores,” he said.

In regard to essay evaluation, the professor said test graders are instructed to give scores only after reading entire essays rather like evaluating a painting. “The tests are graded holistically, meaning that the scores are not broken down for each section, but the test as a whole is given a score. When you see a painting, you like it a lot, or not like it. You don’t like some part of it, but it’s the whole thing that you like,” he said.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

Original post by College Admissions Partners