In early October 2019, the ACT announced big changes. Beginning in September of 2020, students that have already completed the full 3-hour college entrance exam in one sitting, can now retake each section of the exam separately, if they wish. Students can then combine the scores of the various sections to arrive at their best…
Let’s face it – teenagers make mistakes for all kinds of reasons. Our best hope is that the mistakes they make won’t be life-changing ones. Sometimes, the mistake they make will result in disciplinary action from their high school. And usually, that means that it will wind up on their transcript, which will be sent…
When your oldest child begins high school, you may never have heard of the acronym, “EFC” before. But by November of their senior year, most families of college-bound teens are not only familiar with the term, they likely know what their EFC number IS. In general, most families feel that it’s too high. But what…
It’s time to talk about something that many families don’t discover or understand until it’s college application time. Sometimes, families don’t even realize it then. But application time is often when you discover that your student’s high school GPA (Grade Point Average) is not necessarily the same GPA that colleges will look at for admission. …
Any time I get asked a college admissions-related question more than once, it occurs to me that it’s probably article-worthy. If one student is asking the question, then that means there are others who are also wondering. And in the last week, I have been asked twice about the Common App “Additional Info” section. It…
Recently, a friend shared with me that she knew someone who was planning to let their child skip taking the PSAT. It was the student’s junior year and the student already had a good score on the ACT. So, the parent saw no point. Apparently not all schools do a great job of answering the…
College athletic recruiting is a complicated thing and there is absolutely no way to capture all of the nuances in one article. For one thing, it varies by sport! But, I am going to give you an overview to get you started. And then, I’ll provide some further resources for you. Before getting too far,…
Due to the ease of applying through the Common and Coalition college application platforms, students are applying to more colleges than ever before. And colleges are well aware of that trend. It makes their job more difficult because they want to admit the students who are most likely to attend. Maybe that makes the answer…
Recently, I had an eye-opening conversation with my husband. I mentioned that XYZ Public U would actually cost way more to an out-of-state student than ABC Private college down the road from it would. Since this is what I’m immersed in all day, it seemed obvious to me. But, he reminded me that for parents…
You’ve surely seen the headlines as colleges announced that they are now test-optional for applicants. In fact, lately it seems as though a new college announces this policy is here to stay, every week. According to FairTest, there are now over 1,800 test optional colleges in the US. That means that the vast majority of…