Notice how the older, more experienced student is looking after the younger one? (Photo credit: Oakley Originals via Flickr)
Welcome back everyone!
By now I'm sure all of our Freshman and Sophomores are well on their way to a fantastic start to their high school career. But what about those students that have been there and done that? They need just a little more in the way of advice than just, "study hard." Lucky for all of you, in addition to the basics, we here at Omniac have more specialized things that our upper classman can be doing to improve their college applications!
Junior Year!
This is when most people start to really think about college, but you should have already done some of that stuff already, so you'll be a few steps ahead of your classmates. As always though, there's still plenty you can do.
"Study Hard!"
Thought I wasn't going to tell you this? Well, Im sorry, but there's never a time when you can afford to give up on your grades. The first thing you should do as a junior is take a good, long look at your GPA. If you've kept your nose to the grindstone the past 2 years, it'll be just more of the same for you. If not, then this is the time to try to pull that up. Remember! Most applications will have deadlines in the winter of your senior year, so you only have 2-3 more semesters to improve your grades.
"Take the PSAT"
This test is open to all juniors and there's really just no excuse not to take it. I know it's a long, boring standardized test, but if you do well enough, your college prospects will greately improve. Let me repeat that for emphasis. If you do well enough on this single test (the PSAT), colleges will literally fight each with big handfuls of money to get you to go to their school. And if you don't do very well...then you've only lost about 3 hours. Like I said, there's really no reason not to at least try it out.
"Take the ACT/SAT. Take them early and take them often"
On the subject of tests, when spring rolls around, you should be trying out your first ACT or SAT. These tests are only held 6 times every year; so the earlier you take it, the more time you'll have to
fix any problems you find. And if you get the score of your dreams now, then that's one less thing to worry about next year.
Senior Year!
Here it is! This is what the past three years have been all about. More than any other year in high school, your senior year is all about what you've made of it. If you've had your eye on the prize this whole time, you'll largely be able to sit back and enjoy yourself this year. But if you've slacked off as an underclassman, there'll be no enjoyment to be had as you work your butt off trying to play catch up.
"Avoid Senioritis"
The first and most important thing you can do during your senior year is AVOID SENIORITIS!!! One F or major discipline problem can destroy all the hard work you've put in over the past 3 years. The party that everone is going to or the class that's so easy to skip...is just not worth endangering your future. This is the last year of high school and the end is so close, just a little more work and you'll finally be done!
"Dot your Is and cross your Ts"
You've done all the work already. You've kept a good GPA throughout high school. You've experienced different clubs and activities and lived life outside of the classroom. You've taken your tests.
You've picked your colleges. Now all that's left is to put all that hard work together and wow colleges with your tremendous application.
That's all there is to it. If you can stay on top of everything, you can almost just coast this last year. You may have to take a test again, but at least you know what you need to do to prepare for test day. You will have lots and lots of applications to fill out, but since you've spent the past 3 years building towards this, it should be relatively easy. This is the reward for all the previous years of hardwork you've put yourself though, so enjoy it!
Do you think they made any part of the donation in coins? (Photo Credit: Flickr via Theiving Joker)
Several universities (including Purdue, UC Colorado Springs, and UNC Asheville) have recently received very large donations from a mystery donor! Chronicle of Higher Education
California is facing a 6% shortage of college trained workers by the year 2025. Yup, a college degree is more important than ever. Los Angeles Times
Do you have an unusual passion like solving Rubik's Cubes or collecting free stuff on the Internet? Weird hobbies can look very good on an application if framed correctly! About.com
Admissions officer from U of Georgia talks about some of the reasons applicants are denied. He strongly suggests reapplying as a transfer student if you still want to attend. AJC.com
Credit Card applications are everywhere on campus and college students are racking up more debt than ever before. WISTV.com
NYU changes it's testing requirements...one step closer to an SAT-free world! Now all you need to take is the ACT. Inside Higher Ed
National Association for College Admissions Counciling wants National Merit Scholarship to move away from PSAT, claiming that the Scholarship focuses too much on one day of testing. Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Even Princeton is starting to question the effectiveness of the SAT!
The GW Hatchet
New law makes it easier for students to earn financial aid through volunteer work. San Fransisco Chronicle
It's easy to underestimate how complex the University of California admissions process can be for students. While the UC system has a reputation for excellence even among the best public colleges, it's shocking to look over the actual requirements that students must meet to apply. Many parents and students I work with assume that the UC application is much like the application to Arizona State or University of New Mexico and are shocked to find out how detailed their child's submission needs to be to even be considered!
This last month, however, the UC Board of Regents took a massive step toward simplifying their application process by eliminating the requirement that students take the SAT Subject Exams. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
"UC was the only public education system in the country that made students take two SAT subject tests. The result: 22,000 high school graduates in California were disqualified in 2007 from applying to the university who otherwise would have been eligible." - SFGate.com
The change in UC admissions policy will be effective for the graduating class of 2012, but already speaks volumes about the role that testing is going to play in the UC system far beyond the next few years.
First and foremost, it's clear that the UC's interest in testing has declined dramatically. While rumors swirled that the changes to the SAT made in 2005 were largely the result of the University of California's influence and sway, it appears that the Board of Regents has focused their attention on GPA and college prep courses rather than expanded testing requirements. If they've already forced the SAT to redesign the test to suit their needs, they don't seem to think more forced dealings with College Board were a worthwhile use of their time when it came to the Subject Tests.
Secondly, it's widely believed that the Subject Tests are actually better indicators of college success than the original ACT or SAT themselves. The fact that the UC system opted to drop these test doesn't bode well for the future of the ACT and SAT. I wouldn't be surprised to see the primary tests continue to decrease in importance over the next few years. The dropping of the Subject Tests means that the UC system might even go test-optional at some point!
All in all, I think it's a massive victory for proponents of a smart, balanced application process. Some observers like Thomas D. Elias are even arguing that the changes reflect "an affirmation of higher standards combined with greater opportunity for students who have dealt with hardships and received poor counseling in high school."
It's hard to see anything but good in that!
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Got something to say about the SAT Subject Tests? Miss them already? Let us know in the comments!
Hey all!
Over the past few months, Omniac has been proud to help the Carnival of College Admissions by supplying blog posts and even hosting! We love how awesome all the links are that Mark Montgomery collects!
This week the 13th edition of the Carnival was released and we were once again proud to be a part of it. Here are a few highlights:
- The current recession has made many students re-think their college
choices and even transfer to a more affordable school. Student blogger,
Ally Demos from myusearch.com, presents a video blog about how the
economic crunch is affecting college students. Elizabeth Kudner
presents College Students Feel the Economic Crunch posted at myUsearch blog.
- Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Awesome Open Courses and Lectures for Digital Artists posted at Online Universities.com
- Eric Perron, the host of our last edition of the Carnival of College
Admission, likes to talk back to the television. He offers his
critique of a recent program on college admission, aptly titled Come On “CBS Early Show”, This Is The Best Advice You Have To Pay For College? posted on his blog, Dream Strategy.
Go check the whole thing out! It's definitely worth it!
As you may recall, College Board announced over the summer that they would allow students to pick which SAT scores would be sent to colleges instead of forcing students to send a cumulative record their scores. I pointed out at the time that this policy change was a pretty cynical move on College Board's part, since they killed a program in 2002 that did the exact same thing because it "hurt more students than it helped."
At the start of 2009, several colleges weighed in on the issue as well, choosing to either accept or reject the College Board's plan. Some influential schools like Harvard accepted the new reporting standards, but others chose to reject it and have demanded that students send all of their scores. Stanford was especially public and vocal about rebuffing the Score Choice program. The Stanford Director of Admissions, Shawn Abbott noted:
"We want to discourage students from taking the SAT more than once or
twice, and believe that programs like Score Choice encourage applicants
with resources to take the SAT excessively to improve their scores. [...] I wouldn’t agree with the notion that Score Choice relieves pressure or
stress,” he said. “I would argue instead that such programs only
encourage students to take more tests to improve their scores at all
costs." - The Stanford DailyTo some degree, this development totally caught me by surprise.
The SAT Score Choice program is supposed to let students choose the score they want to send to the schools. If the program isn't universal, then they aren't really choosing anything! Instead, some schools are promising to ignore the scores they would probably chose to ignore anyway.
Look at Harvard's statement concerning Score Choice:
"Students applying to Harvard are free to use the College Board's new
Score Choice option and/or a similar option already offered by ACT.
Score Choice rests on the same principle that has supported our
admissions process for decades — that applicants should be free to
present their own best case. We have always counted an applicant's
highest test scores and have allowed students to decide whether they
wanted to send all their test scores." - Harvard's WebsiteIn short, they are accepting Score Choice because they already counted your highest scores and ONLY your highest scores. Stanford is rejecting Score Choice for the same reason that Harvard is accepting it. They already counted ALL your scores and want to continue counting all your scores.
How should you respond to all this? Take the ACT.
The ACT allows you to send your single highest score to any school in the country. It's a significantly shorter test than the SAT, clocking in at nearly an hour less with the optional essay. Students enjoy that the ACT is direct and to the point, lacking many of the "tricky" question types that make College Board and the SAT famous. And more importantly than anything else, the makers of the ACT aren't involved in the backroom shenanigans that surround all of this Score Choice nonsense.
So unless you fall into the small category of students who naturally test better on the SAT, now is the best time to avoid College Board (and the SAT) altogether.
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Still planning on taking the SAT? Tell us why in the comments...
How many skulls do they have on file? (Credit: Marynno via flickr)
Yale's Skull and Bones society is being sued for having a set of Skull and Bones...Geronimo's to be exact! - The Paper Trail
A high school in Florida is trying to graduate students with an Associates Degree as well as a diploma. - MSNBC
Worried about finding a good job after college? Several universities are improving their ability to help students find work after graduation. - NY Times
The story of two College Board employees drive to desegregate SAT testing sites in the south is being told now for the first time. - Fox News
The Roanoke Times takes a strong stand against a push by Virginia lawmakers to designate more spots for in-state students - The Roanoke Times
Don't you just hate that guy who's always correcting people's grammar? Well, sometimes it pays to be that guy. - Kansas City Star
Go College has a new guide on debt that's a must read for any student preparing for life after high school - Go College
Hunter High in Utah finds out that continuing their IB program is more challenging than they thought - Salt Lake Tribune
Let's say you are throwing a party for your closest friends. You arrange for everything at your house, buy chips and drinks, and plan fun games, hoping to impress everyone who shows up. Soon after the party gets started, a friend of a friend corners you and promises that he can make your party "even better!" He tells you about new fun games that will make entertaining easy, chips and drinks that will dazzle the tastebuds of every guest, and new ways to arrange furniture that will "totally get you noticed."
You agree to try his stuff out. What do you have to lose? It's not like he can make the party worse...
So he moves in all kinds of new toys and proceeds to take over pretty much everything. Your food gets pushed to the back to make room for his dishes. Your games get put aside to focus on his activities. After a few hours of this you look around and realize that all the stuff your new friend supplied isn't supplementing your party, it's swallowing it whole. And worse, everyone seems to be having a terrible time!
And then you realize that while you wanted your party to be awesome, you never needed this guy. Sure, he's got charts and graphs showing that some people sort of like his fancy chips and neat toys, but you can easily look around and notice that you aren't throwing a better party than the ones you've thrown in the past. This guy just scammed you by promising to help when he had no intention of helping at all...
This week, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors came to the same stunning realization about standardized testing. They note:
Although many colleges find benefit in using admission tests in admission decisions, it is the view of the Commission that there may be more colleges and universities that could make appropriate admission decisions without requiring standardized admission tests such as the ACT and SAT. The Commission encourages institutions to consider dropping the admission test requirements if it is determined that the predictive utility of the test or the admission policies of the institution (such as open access) support that decision and if the institution believes that standardized test results would not be necessary for other reasons such as course placement, advising, or research.
Let's sum that up: The NACAC, a widely respected group of college admissions officers, is advising all colleges to drop the SAT and ACT unless they have a specific reason to continue to require them.
I can't tell you how big this announcement is for the world of college admissions. For the last few years, I've continually stated that I believe colleges will be able to move past the ACT and SAT and focus on the parts of the college application that have been proven to matter (GPA, Extracurriculars, etc). Even as the score optional movement has gained momentum and continued studies proved that the SAT is worse at predicting success than GPA, I never believed the NACAC would take such a strong stand against standardized testing.
Mark this day on your calendar. Whatever domination the SAT and ACT have had on the world of college admissions is starting to slip. The NACAC isn't the first to criticize the testing industry, but this report is a devastating blow to the belief that every college needs standardized testing.
Someone finally pointed out that the SAT and ACT are ruining the party...
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What do you think? Is this the beginning of the end for standardized testing? Let us know in the comments!
Earlier this month, the LA Times reported that The College Board will be launching a new PSAT in 2010 for 8th grade students. Currently only 10th and 11th grade students take the PSAT, a standardized test that has no real bearing on college admissions for the majority of students. The addition of the 8th Grade PSAT will bring the wonders of the SAT into the middle schools and junior highs of America for the first time.
To which I say "Blech!"
The public director of Fair Test sums up my feelings quite well:
"Now we're going to have a preadmission test to get ready for the
preadmission test? Get ready to get ready to get ready?" said Robert
Schaeffer, public education director of Cambridge, Mass.-based
FairTest, which is critical of standardized testing. "To believe you
need an eighth-grade test on top of the PSAT and SAT is just insane."
College Board is claiming that the new test will help to identify students who should focus on college preparatory classes during high school. I think it's far more likely that they want to compete with the ACT and generate additional revenue.
By their reasoning, students who will score well on the 8th Grade PSAT
will score well on the actual SAT and should be on a college bound
track. That relationship will probably hold up to scrutiny, but only because they are designing both exams. In addition, success on other standardized tests is plenty of notification already for parents and students to arrange for college prep classes.
ACT currently has a middle school test titled EXPLORE. I personally don't find the test to be particularly worthwhile, but it doesn't advertise itself as any sort of signal for future ability on the ACT. Instead, it's one of many diagnostic tests that administrators can give to help students understand their future choices by focusing on students interests, abilities, and values.
The new PSAT, however, is already being marketed in a way that makes parents and students who don't plan on taking the exam feel behind. It's not a diagnostic exam that will help students understand their choices. It's a marketing ploy designed by College Board to attach kids to the SAT brand while charging schools for tests that mean nothing.
Sound crazy? Here's what the LA Times says one administrator is already doing:
Cortines said he welcomes the new test, as it will focus families and
teachers on what students need to succeed. The deputy superintendent
said he has asked the board to budget $125,000 for eighth-grade PSAT
tests in the coming school year.
That's right. $125,000 of taxpayer money is going to go toward a test that is completely unproven to test anything. Just because College Board, a company that has no official relationship with colleges beyond supplying the SAT, says the test matters.
Blech.
Every summer colleges and counselors debate the usefulness of the SAT and ACT to the college admissions process. With students gone for the break, everyone involved feels that they can ask a few tough questions, suggest a few alternatives, and generally poke and prod at the whole process. And, of course, College Board always chimes in with sunny but useless data that continues to try to convince everyone that the SAT can determine everything about your future success.
Yet when summer ends, everyone goes back to the business of telling students in no uncertain terms that the SAT and ACT are super important regardless of their usefulness in determining college aptitude.
This leads to an unpleasant situation by the time we meet with a student for the first time at the beginning of the school year to discuss the ACT. They know that standardized tests are part of the college process that shouldn't reflect on their overall intelligence, but they are still convinced that their score reflects poorly on them. Many are sure that they are the worst test taker they know. Some students are even convinced they have test anxiety, doomed to fail every version of the ACT ever constructed.
Yet, while most students need help preparing for the ACT, I've never met a student with actual test anxiety.
Gay Brock over at the Miami Herald published an excellent article at the end of July about a student who did have test anxiety. Here's how he describes the plight of his own daughter:
The morning of her first SAT test, my daughter Cate Falkowski left our
Weston home with a No. 2 pencil and a predictable amount of
apprehension.
With
a 3.8 GPA and all the required credits, she was poised for admission to
her college of choice, Purdue University. Her only hurdle was a
respectable SAT score -- or so she thought.
She had been gone about an hour when the home phone rang.
''I couldn't do it,'' Cate said. ``I threw up and left.''
In
the weeks and months that followed, we realized Cate's biggest
challenge was no longer the SAT; it was full-blown test anxiety.
Cate suffers from a condition that is extremely rare. Real, actual test anxiety
is characterized by physical and mental symptoms that go beyond simply
being scared and struggling a bit. Students who are suffering an onset
of test anxiety are prone to vomiting, fainting, and hyperventilating.
Needless to say, it's hard to take a test when you're in the restroom
for the first thirty minutes throwing up.
If these symptoms describe you...then you've got full-blown test
anxiety and you need to consult a psychologist. Cate conquered her
symptoms with a combination of Xanax and psychotherapy; it's likely you
will have to do the same.
But as I said earlier, you probably don't have any of these
symptoms. Most students we work with describe the test as a scary
obstacle and we are all too happy to help them conquer it without
medication. Preparing for the test is usually the best cure for any student who is afraid of the ACT or SAT.
Once upon a time, the makers of the SAT and ACT published a table that showed how scores from one test compared to scores from the other test. They called this a Concordance Table, and it was beloved throughout the land. Students would be able to take both tests and then compare their scores to learn which one they were naturally stronger at taking.
Unfortunately, in 2005 the SAT screwed it all up by adding a new section (Writing) and reworking some parts of the Math and Verbal sections. While recent studies have proved that the new sections didn't really change anything of importance, the previous Concordance Table was rendered out of date. Everyone was very sad and students no longer could accurately compare scores from both exams without guesswork.
This week, the ACT and SAT released a new Concordance Table in an attempt to make students happy again. Guess what? It's not the same kind of table...and very few people are going to be happy with it.
The new tables no longer contain a straight score to score comparison. Now they show you two distinct tables:
- The SAT Critical Reading + Math vs the Whole ACT
- The SAT Writing vs The ACT English + Writing
Le Sigh. As my loyal readers know, I'm not a fan of the College Board or the ACT. They both have a unique way of providing data that is not just useless, but frustrating. This is a classic example. Todd Johnson does a decent job explaining what the College Board has provided, but I think these tables are really just a waste of time.
Students should not be comparing the Whole ACT against just the SAT Math and Reading; it's not an accurate picture. It's also silly to have a separate table to examine how well students did on the Writing section of the SAT alone. Finally, nobody is really ever clear on how to calculate the ACT English + Writing anyway, so understanding that score is really difficult for most students and isn't something they want or need to compare.
A Concordance table needs to provide test takers with a clear picture of which test they did better on, not a confusing algorithm that makes the test seem important.
So, for the good of students everywhere, I submit to you a "Simple ACT/SAT Concordance Table." We use this with our students and it's proven to be very effective at helping them understand their score quickly and easily. It's based on the percentiles provided by College Board and ACT Inc and will help students to understand not just which test they scored better on, but also how college admissions officers will view their score...