Score At The Top Blog

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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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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Coronavirus-related disruptions of high school education have extended to disruptions of SAT/ACT testing. Colleges are being propelled toward making SAT and ACT test score submission optional. But beware! Just because a school “goes test-optional” doesn’t mean that a student can summarily dismiss submitting SAT or ACT scores. We’ll explain why. And it’s important to know, so here’s some background.

Topics: ACT/SAT, College Application, Test Optional

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In several recent blogs, we enumerated the effects of the Coronavirus on colleges and applicants. This blog will expand and summarize our findings.

Application deadline and decision dates: Despite the pandemic, most colleges are not changing their application deadline and decision dates for next year, at least at present, and the “at present” is an important proviso.

Topics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, College Planning

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“Extracurricular activities? How?” you might well ask. Social distancing has blown apart extracurricular activities as we once knew them — and a return to the old “normal” any time soon seems unlikely.

Topics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, College Planning, College Tips

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It isn’t all bad news: We’ll get through this current crisis, and the sun will still come up tomorrow – and the next day, and the next – but it’s very serious news right now, and the landscapes illuminated by those sunrises are certain to be different from those we’ve known. What follows are some ways in which colleges, students, and their parents will be affected by past, present, and likely future.

Topics: College Admission, College Application, Financial Aid, Scholarship

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Now, with mandated social distancing in our lives for the foreseeable future, all schools, big and small, are faced with the very same issue. While Skype or Zoom-based interviews are likely to increase in popularity and number, it’s also certain that letters of recommendation (LORs) will grow in importance to admission officers when they evaluate applicants. On top of that, a number of colleges will be test-optional next year, so in the absence of SAT or ACT scores, emphasis on LORs, among other factors, will increase.

Topics: College Application, Letter of Recommendation, Going to College, Coronavirus

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It’s clear that for a limited set of colleges, the set that a student is likely to assemble as possible application targets, gathering needed information on letters of recommendation requirements isn’t onerous — colleges’ web sites and applications are almost certain to include that information — but it’s far less easy to obtain information on specifically from whom – what “recommenders” – letters of recommendation can come. This blog is going to discuss the one in its title: Do Colleges Accept Letters of Recommendation from 10^th Grade Teachers?

Topics: College Application, Letter of Recommendation

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