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
Read MoreTopics: ACT/SAT, College Application, Test Optional
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
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, College Planning
“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
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, College Planning, College Tips
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
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Application, Financial Aid, Scholarship
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
Read MoreTopics: College Application, Letter of Recommendation, Going to College, Coronavirus
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 10th Grade Teachers?
Topics: College Application, Letter of Recommendation
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More schools than ever in the State University System of Florida are requesting the SSAR (Self-reported Student Academic Record) in lieu of an official transcript as part of the application. This self-reporting process is fairly straightforward: Students create an account with SSAR and, using a copy of their transcript, enter courses, schedules, grades, and course weighting (AP, Honors, etc.). Following submission of a college application, students will link the SSAR to their applications, typically through their applicant portals − or as part of the application itself, depending on the university. Currently, seven SUS schools require the SSAR: FAU, FGCU, FL Poly, FSU, New College, UF, and UNF.
Topics: College Application, SSAR, SUS
Read MoreTopics: College Application, SSAR, SUS
College application personal statements and application writing supplements are entirely different, have entirely different purposes, and should be approached entirely differently.
Topics: College Admission, College Application, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Application, Person Statement
According to UF admissions, if you’re applying to become a freshman, you must submit a personal essay that allows admissions to get to know who you are. The word count limit is specified in the two application platforms – either the Coalition or Common Application, the latter of which UF is accepting for the first time this year. Here are the essay prompts from which to choose
Topics: College Application, UF, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Application, UF, Person Statement
They read hundreds − if not thousands − of application essays, morning, afternoon, and evening. They are the people in college admissions looking for the good read, the applicant’s essay that will make their day. That’s why getting the reader’s attention right from the start goes a very long way toward making you stand out from a long procession of students.
Topics: College Application, Application Essays, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Application, Application Essays, Person Statement
