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“Test Optional” wasn’t intended to help students

One of the many impacts of COVID19 has meant a drastic change admissions policies related to the SAT and ACT. Colleges and universities have sold it to applicants as "test optional", and students and parents have taken that to mean that they…
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5 things high school Juniors should do right now

The June SAT has been cancelled, as were the March and May tests before it and the April ACT as well. At the time of writing this, ACT is adamant that they will be offering tests in June and July, even adding test dates to both months to accommodate…

5 Steps for Getting Letters of Recommendation from Your Teachers

It's the time of year when high school juniors are starting to look at the long slog between Spring Break and the end of the school year with something between sighing resignation and outright panic. AP and IB exams will take up May with Final…
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What you should know about Test Optional Policies

The typical press release from colleges who make the decision involves statements about how they recognize that students are more than a test score. That the college is committed to taking a look at the whole student. Those platitudes are noble, and in cases like the UChicago or Wake Forest or Bates,  they seem sincere. I'm not entirely convinced that the motives behind some of the recent announcements from Northern Illinois and Lourdes are quite as high-minded.

The problem with student debt

It's a tough conversation, but there are likely other, better options. At first it probably seems unfair. The student did all the right things. Isn't the reward supposed to be going to the school of their dreams? When they graduate with $75,000 of student debt, the dream becomes a nightmare.
a list of Alabama's out-of-state scholarships
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College prep generates an amazing ROI

Spending $700 on a quality course where the student could get that 1160 would mean saving $40,000 over 4 years. That's 5700%.
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The First Step in Test Prep

The first step in planning your test prep is understanding what score you're going to need in order to get into the school you want. The key to getting accepted into a specific school has as much to do with staying out of the “No” pile as anything else. The easiest way for an admissions officer to stamp “Denied” on an application is if a student’s GPA and test scores don’t match what they’re looking for.
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Here’s the only way your SAT or ACT score is important

I get to work with a couple of hundred students every year. One of the most frequent conversations we have goes something like this. "I only got a 1260 on my SAT." "That's a great score." "But everyone else is getting better scores." No,…
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4 ways to prepare for your freshman year of college

As the first day of college draws nearer, here are a few tips to prepare. Orientation This tip is probably the easiest to embrace because for most colleges orientation is mandatory. However, this can be a pivotal couple of days. You get to…

College search services and your data

In exchange for that free account, those sites will be selling data associated with the account to colleges. I won't pretend to know all of the information the colleges are asking for, but you can bet there will be a connection between the college information showing up in your mailbox and that online account you set up.