Score At The Top Blog

 

Topics: College Admission, FSU, Florida State Universities, SUS

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Ranking, selectivity, major, location! Is this college too big, too small? Can I even afford to go to college? Many students and their parents are overwhelmed by the number of decisions they face when choosing a college. Indeed, the process seems mystifying, and families wonder how they can wade through the data -- from national rankings to “best of” lists to college affordability tools. In today’s post, we’ll tackle some of these common questions to help you break free from the endless lists and get a better understanding of the selection process.

Topics: College Admission, College Counseling, College Planning

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Before we tell you what colleges are likely looking for in your list of activities, we’ll say this: their importance has not diminished in any way. In fact, it has probably increased in the face of so many colleges going test-optional because of COVID-19. Admissions officers will scrutinize your activities list and read between the lines to understand the true nature of your involvement to each activity. That brings us to activity “fundamentals” – what you must strive to include in your list.

Topics: College Admission, Common Application, College Application, College Counseling, Essay, College Tips

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It’s a new school year that brings us a completely unanticipated college application environment: for one thing, more and more colleges are temporarily test-optional in the face of Covid-19; for another, it’s impossible to demonstrate your interest in a college by visiting its campus for a tour and information session. According to NACAC’s 2019 State of College Admission report, almost 83% of all colleges surveyed last year indicated that test scores were of considerable or moderate importance in making admission decisions. Additionally, 40% of the surveyed colleges said that demonstrated interest (a visit is part of demonstrated interest) was of considerable or moderate importance. That the pandemic has affected these two key factors, among others, and so has changed college admissions would be quite the understatement! The health crisis has upended the admissions evaluation process, redistributing the weight associated with the most important factors that have always been considered in admissions.

Topics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, COVID-19

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Topics: College Admission, UF, FSU, UCF, COVID-19

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In an April blog post titled Recommendation Letters In the Era of Covid-19, we noted that “LORs [letters of recommendation] were important in admission decisions even before the Coronavirus made in-person interviews problematic, and they’re likely to increase in importance now.” Nothing that we’ve learned since then has changed our minds about that…

…but there’s another dimension to recommenders and recommendations about which you might not be aware: whoever completes your Common App School Report (often conflated with the “counselor recommendation”) is going to be asked to rate you in terms of the following factors and in this manner:

Topics: College Admission, College Counseling, Common App, Letter of Recommendation

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Topics: College Admission

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One of the four STEM fields, engineering, is in vogue these days as a career destination for high schools students. Maybe you’ve already selected it or are leaning that way, but do you really know how you’re going to respond to the undergraduate regimen – what’s needed to make it through college from both an academic and mindset point of view?

Topics: College Admission, Course Selection, Summer

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Most of the Common App is pretty straightforward to complete, but one question we hear quite often from our students is “How should I complete the Testing page?” Unfortunately, the answer isn’t straightforward.

You should fill in your test scores and dates on the Common App Testing Section based upon the type of scores you wish to self-report.

Topics: College Admission, Common Application, Test-Prep, College Application, Educational-Consulting

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In our recent blog, Covid-19 Has Infected the Common App!, we discussed the Common App’s Covid-19 essay prompt. Since then, the Coalition App released its own Covid-19 essay prompt:

Topics: College Admission, College Application, Application Essays, Supplemental Essays

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