The life’s turned a full circle and you see your 18 year old grappling with college admission procedures, much as you were some two to three decades back. If you think the technological tools etc have made the college admission process easier, then think again. Getting into elite colleges has become way more difficult and the participation of admission counselors, SAT preparation companies, essay consultants and financial aid consultants has made the process more tedious and complex.
Many parents are confused as to how can they help their kid in the matters concerning college admissions, what with the academic activists campaigning for student emancipation and the right to decide the college and majors on their own. Though it is important that teenagers take their own career decisions and not give into any kind of parental pressure, still the role of parents in the undergraduate college admission procedure cannot be altogether neglected. Read more…
Many of the same colleges that have ended SAT requirement for college admission, on the pre-text that that wealthy students tend to do well on the exam and that many black and Latino students succeed in college while not doing well on it, still trust the SAT in many other ways. Though the SAT-optional criteria comes as a relief to students who find the standardized test stressful, the fact that the colleges still buy the students names from the College Board and ACT Inc, does little to assuage their condition. These colleges (who claim to be SAT optional) buy the names of high-scoring students from the College Board (and from the ACT) and use those names to recruit prospective students. Read more…
College Selectivity, when seen in purely statistical terms, is nothing but a ratio between number of students accepted and number of applicants. It is often expressed as percentage and every year in the month of April, the education journals, websites and newspaper are deluged with the acceptance rates at various colleges. Obviously, the lower the acceptance rate, the more selective a college is and that means it is very tough to gain admission into the college.
The good news for the students is that not all the undergraduate colleges in the country fall in the category of ‘highly selective colleges.’ In fact, according to a report published by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, the average acceptance rate across more than 1700 colleges in the country is in approximately 67 percent. Now, this is a welcome relief, especially in the midst of colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT etc reporting lower than 10 percent acceptance rates. Read more…
SAT Scores play an instrumental role in the college admission process across the best colleges in the country, despite the effort by many modern age crusaders to do away with the standardized test conducted six times a year by the College Board. The SAT Reasoning Test was introduced to provide a level playing ground to the college applicants from all the sections of American society and if the increase in the median SAT scores at various universities over the years is any indication, the importance of SAT has only been raised several notches higher. Read more…
Now, isn’t it just the thing you were looking for? Solutions to all the 438 mathematics problems from the previous edition of The Official SAT Study Guide, published by the College Board are just a click away. What more, you do not even need to spend a single cent for the SAT math concepts and practice test solutions as the Khan Academy has put them up for the high school juniors and seniors aspiring to get the Perfect SAT scores.
All the solution videos are categorized according to the test and the section, so as to help students find exactly what they are looking for. The users of the new Official Guide need not worry because the people at Khan Academy have taken care to include the specifics of questions of the newer version in the name of the video. Read more…
Many students are perplexed as to whether or not they should retake the SAT exam, if only to increase their score from 2250 to 2300. The case with students with SAT scores in the range of 1500 to 1800 is entirely different because when you are in that range, a raise of even 50 SAT points can increase your chances. Similarly, the transition from 1900 to 2000+ can matter a lot if one is aiming for top ranked universities and colleges.
So, better than just signing up for the next SAT exam, it is better to first look at the things before you and then decide how you can use your present circumstances to your benefit. Read more…
A good number of American colleges and universities, including the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT and other top ranking ones, have reported an unprecedented increase in the number of UK applicants. The reason is not too complex to be guessed: increase in fee as a result of reduction in grants and state funding. Moreover, the UK universities (barring the Oxford, Cambridge and few others) are losing their sheen and status of being hallowed portals of knowledge.
The teachers are even dubious about the current standards at the UK universities and colleges and therefore, do not see it necessary to prevent the students from applying abroad, mainly to US universities. According to the Institute of International Education, the number of British students studying at US universities has increased considerably in 2011, as compared to the last couple of years. The official figures, though, will be available only when the colleges start in Fall 2011. Harvard University reported that it received applications from 500 applicants from UK for admissions to the class of 2015. Other Ivy League colleges also reported an increase in the number of UK applicants. Read more…
Your parents’ legacy is your due and nowhere else these filial bequests more than they do in matters of college admissions. Oh n
o, we are not talking in the financial sense, but in the sense of alumni connections. If your father or mother is an alumnus of your dream university, then your chances of getting in there increases by more than 40 percent. Now, isn’t that grand? This advantage is limited to only the primary legacy students, while the secondary legacy students improve their chances by 13.7 percent at the concerned college. (Secondary legacy connections refer to connections by way aunt or grandparent or any other relative who attended the particular college or university) Read more…
The US State Department of Education is doing its bit about providing important information to the college-bound students and their parents and by the looks of its current endeavor, it is indeed doing a fine job. Why, the Department unveiled a new website just today that enumerates the colleges with the highest and the lowest tuition costs and gives a comprehensive breakdown of all the other costs.
The website was developed under the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and in addition to listing the colleges with the highest and the lowest tuition cost and the overall cost of education, the site also depicts the increase and the expected increase in the tuition rates of these colleges. Similarly, colleges in the for-profit and non-profit, four-year course and two-year course categories will also be reported. Interestingly, those colleges with the highest cost of education will report to the Department of Education and explain the reasons for the high and rapidly increasing cost. Read more…
The terms ‘fit’ and ‘reach’ are very closely associated with the college admission process. As the students try to determine their ‘perfect fit’, they yearn to be accepted at their ‘Best Reach’. What do these terms exactly mean?
‘Perfect Fit’:
A college is a perfect fit for you when you know that it will lead to gratification of your academic as well your personal goals for the next four years of your life. It satisfies all the criteria to be your second home, where you are at ease and eager to learn. The curriculum, after-classes life, the student body, the demographic diversity, accommodation, food, affiliation, the weather and all the important things that are necessary for survival are to your liking or shall we say, within tolerance limits? Read more…
The life’s turned a full circle and you see your 18 year old grappling with college admission procedures, much as you were some two to three decades back. If you think the technological tools etc have made the college admission process easier, then think again. Getting into elite colleges has become way more difficult and the participation of admission counselors, SAT preparation companies, essay consultants and financial aid consultants has made the process more tedious and complex.
