Score At The Top Blog

When your GPA is NOT your GPA

Topics: AP Exams, IB, AICE, College Admission

Good grades and high standardized test scores help get your application into the room where the admissions committee will make its final decision – and for many years they’ve been the top two criteria for evaluating applicants. As we pointed out in a blog we published in January 2013,

Topics: Common App, Common Application, Coalition App, College Application

The Bright Futures Scholarship program rewards Florida high school graduates for their academic achievements – and isn’t need-based. Money is available for use at almost all undergraduate schools in the state of Florida.

Topics: Bright Futures, Investment, ACT/SAT, Florida Public Schools

Most colleges¹ admit a far greater percentage of students who apply Early Decision (ED) or Early Action (EA) than they do of students who apply Regular Decision (RD). In fact, an article posted on usnews.com in December 2010 contains data on 52 colleges for which that was true. At that time the increased chances of gaining admission to those colleges by applying ED or EA instead of RD ranged from 1.41 to 2.98 – or an average of 1.88. In short, students who applied ED or EA to those colleges were, on average, almost twice as likely to get accepted as were those who applied RD.

Topics: College Counseling, College Admission, Early Decision, Early Action

One thing that you absolutely DO NOT want to do is confuse college admissions officers by presenting contradictory – or inconsistent, and, thus, possibly contradictory – information about yourself in your college applications. And there are multiple opportunities for mistakes in most college applications.

Topics: College Application, College Counseling, College Admission, Activity Resume, Resume

In our recent blog entitled Clearing Up Confusion About the College Application Personal Statement, we explained that “It doesn’t matter in the slightest what you write about for your Common and Coalition Application personal statements — as long as it’s about you. What does matter is what you say and how you say it, because you should have clear objectives, and we’ll provide you with advice on that matter in future blogs.” Here’s the first installment for you.

Topics: Essay, Person Statement, Application Essays, College Admission

At this time of year, it’s typical to see rising seniors agonize over what they should write for their college application personal statement. While some colleges have their own applications and unique personal statement prompts, most schools use the Common Application or the Coalition Application, each with its own set of essay prompts. Here they are for each application for 2018-19:

Topics: Essay, Application Essays, College Admission, Person Statement

While “Demonstrated Interest” (DI) may not carry significant weight for many colleges…it will be important if the school is highly selective with a competitive admissions process.

Topics: Demonstrated Interest, College Admission

Updated July 2017

While there are many schools out there that super-score the SAT, the list of schools that super-score the ACT is much smaller. To aid you in search for information, we have compiled a list (with the help of fellow consultants at IECA) of many of the schools that super-score the ACT. While the list does not cover every single college in the US, it is fairly comprehensive.

Topics: Test-Prep, ACT, superscore, Concordance

SCORES FOR THE JUNE 2018 SAT HAVE BEEN RELEASED AND HIGH-SCORING STUDENTS ARE NOT HAPPY.  THE CURVE ON THE MATH SECTION WAS REALLY UNFORGIVING TO HIGH-SCORING STUDENTS.  THE TEST IS A REMINDER THAT STUDENTS SHOULD BE READY TO RETAKE THE SAT AND ACT AND THAT NO ONE ACTUALLY WANTS AN “EASY” SAT.

Topics: Test Scores, Test-Prep, SAT Test, Concordance