Unpopular Opinion: You don’t actually have to submit all of your tests.

 Standardized Test Week CONTINUES!

So schools will tell you that they want to evaluate you in the best light possible. This is absolutely true, because when it comes time to report their admissions stats the higher the boards the better they look.

But sending scores can get really expensive, especially if you did both the SAT and ACT and several SAT IIs. There are times where sending both can look great, and there are times when sending scores may actually reflect badly on you.

It is okay to not send all your scores…

If you did a lot better on one test than another. I don’t mean day-to-day sittings of the same test, I mean between the SAT and ACT.

Showing improvement on the same test is actually a great thing. Showing vast differences between different tests may make one look like a fluke or a result of clever test-taking strategies.

Some people are just better at one test than the other and that may reflect in their scores. This is fine, and to be expected.

My threshold? Go convert your ACT scores into SAT scores. If you did more than a hundred points better on one than the other, send only the better score.

Even if you don’t send your SATs, if you have high SATII scores definitely send those in! Every good score reflects well on your academic potential.

When you should send all of your scores:

Sending multiple tests looks really good, it indicates a consistent student. If you got similar scores on both of your tests, send them.

If the school requires either SAT IIs or ACT with writing, and you didn’t take any SAT IIs or have bad SAT II scores, you should send in that ACT, even if your scores are lower than SAT scores.

If you did better on one sitting of a test than another, send them all in. Showing improvement in your scores is a positive thing. It demonstrates work ethic and you capacity to learn.

The goal of this?
Show them your academic strengths. I’m not saying to lie about your weaknesses, but maybe if you got a 30/36 on your ACT and a 1700/2400 on your SAT, you are better off showing them your strongest day than your weakest day. They’re going to report your strongest scores if they grant you admission, but they will still see your weak scores.

What came first? The School or the Score? The MYTH of goal scores.

Myth: You should match your goal scores to the schools you want to go to

Truth: You should match your schools to your scores.

TESTING WEEK 2013 CONTINUES! Short post today as I have a lot going on in my real life (Life outside of my blog? Who knew?)

The idea of “Goal Scores” on your tests is a really excellent benchmark. It gives you something to strive for, and a quantitative goal to reach.

The issue with goal scores is when people match the scores to the schools they are dreaming about. If you see you need a 2300/33 on your tests to get into your “dream school” you might say that you’ll keep taking the tests until you hit that point. But what if your capabilities plateau you on a 2100/30 score, or a 1800/25? The truth is that these unrealistic goals can be very damaging to a high school student.

I’m all for goals. But a realistic goal is going to be more valuable than shooting for the stars in this case.

This isn’t saying that you shouldn’t aim to improve your scores, you absolutely should. But there’s a big difference between aiming to improve your scores 50-200 points and aiming to improve them 500 points.

With hard work and determination you can pull off huge jumps in score, I know I did. But people have their breaking points, and having unrealistic goals to match unrealistic schools is just going to be a frustrating and disappointing experience.

Here is my suggested Time-Line for score improvement.

PSAT Sophomore Year-PSAT Junior year: Expect around a 100 to 200 point increase just from what you’re learning naturally. That extra year in school helps a TON, especially with math and vocabulary.

Taking the PSAT sophomore year is rough because you probably haven’t covered all of the material you’ll need to know yet. But you can use that as a spring board to see where your strengths and weaknesses are. If you’re scoring a hundred points higher in the critical reading than the math, start working on those math skills now. Keep the reading up (and learn that vocab), but know where you’re stronger and where you’ll need more work. But don’t make goals just yet in sophomore year.

PSAT Junior year will probably be closer to where you want to be. THIS is the point where you should start looking at goal scores. A reasonable amount to try to raise it from this point is 100-200 points. Once again, see where your strengths and weaknesses are and start practicing. Are you doing really well on the critical reading sections, but not the vocab? Devote time to memorizing 20 words a week. Are you scoring 800s in Writing but 500s in math? Get some specific books on the math sections and work your fingers to the bone learning how to do the questions.

This is the time to start figuring out what schools you can really get in to. If you need to raise your scores 100 points to be in range, keep them on as a reach. If you’re already in range, maybe start looking at some similar schools. Its okay to use your dream schools as a goal point, but be flexible with that. Don’t make those scores the end all be all because they might not work out. You can make huge jumps that you’re going to be really proud of, and should be really proud of, unless you’re setting unrealistic goals.

Your first SAT junior year try for a reasonable jump. You’ve practiced, you’ve focused, but you’ve never had to do the stamina part of the test before, and that will hurt you.
This test is where you can start figuring out your final goal scores. If you only have a little more to raise, great! Just keep practicing. If you are still 200 points short of your goal? Maybe adjust those expectations a little bit for the time being.

Your second SAT junior year might be your final test if you do well enough to make you happy. If you hit your goal you have a choice- stop or raise.

MYTH: If you hit your scores before spring of junior year, you should raise your goals!

TRUTH: Stopping is absolutely fine! I stopped after my second ACT because I knew, just personally, that I was never going to score higher in the math section than I did that day. I was done in February! It was glorious!

BUT: You can also, if there’s enough time left, raise your goals. If you can still take the September tests, maybe aim for another 50 points or so on the test. This probably won’t change the range of schools you’re looking at, but it will make you a stronger applicant.

If you never hit your goals? That is perfectly fine. It is disappointing, yes, but sometimes you just have a bad day or you might be overselling yourself. You can only do so much, you’re only human.

But by matching your schools to your scores, instead of the other way around, you will have much more realistic expectations and have a much stronger chance of hitting your goals!

Any improvement at all is something to be very proud of. You are so much more than a board score, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.

Why The SAT and ACT are NOT basically the same thing.

So the two big tests everyone freaks out about Junior and senior year are the SAT and the ACT. Commonly held belief is that one should just prep for the SAT, and then sit for the ACT to see how they do.

The truth is, doing this will be a disservice to yourself. You should train for both if you’re planning on taking both, because there are a few fundamental differences between the two tests that should not be ignored.

Firstly- They are testing different skills

The SAT is a test of reasoning. The goal is to find the solution to the problem using the tools given to you on the test.

The ACT is a test of achievement. The goal is to answer questions similar to the ones you will be answering in school.

This changes how you have to prep for the tests.

You can teach yourself the SAT and how to answer the questions. This is especially true for the math and critical reading. You need to learn how to answer their strange, confusing math problems. You have to memorize lists on lists of increasingly obscure words (my personal favorite: masticate)

 You, theoretically, already know how to do the ACT questions. The trick for the ACT is knowing the answers without thinking too long on them. The real way to prep for the ACT is to practice the test timed. The questions might be a bit easier, in theory, or at least, they require less prep work. But the time on the ACT is a real killer.

Which brings me to my next point. 

The ACT is not an easier test than the SAT. The questions are easier.

 You may find on your first few practice tests that you are doing a lot better on the ACT, or that you know more of the answers on the ACT.

Everyone I’ve ever worked with has found that this advantage goes right out the window when you start taking the tests timed.

The ACT throws a lot more questions at you with a lot less time to answer them. You need to know the answer right off the bat, or you’re losing precious time on other questions.

Another interesting thing to consider:

It’s easier to get a perfect (or near perfect) score on the SAT than the ACT.

If you look at the scoring charts for the tests, you may find that it is possible to get an 800 on an SAT section with up to 3 questions wrong. On the ACT? 3 questions wrong is, at the highest, a 34- and it will probably be a 33. A perfect score on the ACT means that you got nothing wrong. A perfect score on the SAT does not.

On this note:

The SAT super scores at almost every school. The ACT is all about your best sitting.

What does this mean?
Basically… if you take the SAT 3 or 4 times, the scores a school will evaluate you on are going to be your highest scores from every test. So if you took the SAT 3 times and got an 600, 650, and 700 on your Critical Reading? They’re going to use that 700, even if its with a math score from a different test day.

The ACT is all about your best composite score, or the average from one sitting.
Even if your best writing score was a 36, if you did better overall on the day you got a 34, that 34 is what they’re going to use.

And finally, the biggest difference:

The ACT has a Science Section

I’m going to be straight with you here… the science section is more of an applied reading and math section. You will need to be a quick and decisive reader to ace this one. You don’t actually need a ton of science knowledge prior to taking the test, because they can’t assume you know anything (for example, I didn’t take physics until college, and there was a physics section on my ACT science… I still did fine).

It is a test of your science reasoning skills. Can you read a graph and a table? Can you make appropriate conclusions based on given information?

This section is really the reason I will say that you must prep for the ACT if you’re planning on taking it. The timing on this section, if not practiced, will murder your score.

These are all factors to consider when you’re deciding which tests to take.

For example:

I prepped for both tests and took the earliest ones in the year (December and January I believe).

 My first ACT came back much stronger than my SAT and I spent the remainder of my test prep focusing on the ACT (especially the science section). I needed to raise my science and math scores, so I started practicing those sections like a madwoman (they offer books of just those sections, if you’re looking for a cheaper way to practice). I took the ACT one more time and raised my math by 4 points and my science by 5. This catapulted my composite score up the 3 points I wanted/needed for my goal.

Without that focus on one test, I never would have gotten those scores.

So, when you’re practicing, know that you should study with the test you want to take in mind.

I’m ready for my close-up! Tours and Reaction Videos

Since this seems to be “Touring and Selection” week I’m going to give you another tip for touring schools.

The issue with touring is oftentimes you start junior year and can see schools months apart. You might forget your impressions of the school if they’re not fresh in your mind. This can make decisions difficult later on, as they all sort of blend together after a while. If you don’t absolutely love or absolutely hate a school, you might not remember the pros or cons or your feelings about a place.

So after my second tour (driving distance New York liberal arts school on an unexpected day off) I started bringing a small video camera with me on the tours.

I didn’t tape the tours though, I taped my reactions after.

On the way home from the school (or back to the hotel) I would break out the camera and just talk at it for a few minutes about the tour and how I felt.

This helped me capture my “gut feelings” about the schools. I had pages of notes on each school I was looking at, but going to the actual campus gave me much more visceral reactions. The videos really helped me narrow down and rank my schools based on the factors I couldn’t get out on paper.

Some basic things I liked to cover when I talked to the school was:

1.     The weather (warm/cold/rainy/etc). Weather ended up being a huge deciding factor for me, and I applied to one school over another Early Decision because one had much warmer weather while the other was pounded in snow until April.

2.     My feelings about the campus. Was it flat or hilly? Was it beautiful or modern and ugly? As shallow as it seems, I really wanted to go to a beautiful school.

3.     My feelings about the presentations. I hated any school that gave me a whiff of pretention and all of the schools that had uppity info sessions were immediately cut from my list.

4.     My “gut feeling” about the school. If there’s something about the school that puts you off or really attracts you to it, you may not be able to get it down on paper, but your facial expressions when you’re talking about it will tell you a lot. The school I currently attend? I’m grinning like a maniac. The school I thought I would love but ended up hating? I sigh a solid 5 times in the 5-minute video.

5.     My feeling about the students. There was one school I toured that I loved on paper but after seeing the campus I decided the students were a little too counterculture and liberal for me to be super comfortable there. Do you see lots of pierced and dyed students? Or are all of the girls wearing pearls?

6.     How I felt about the programs. Did they seem like the core was intense? Was it easy? How many math, science, and language classes was I going to have to take? Was there a senior thesis required? How did people talk about them? As something interesting and enjoyable, or stressful and dreaded?

7.     How much the guides knew about the extracurriculars I was interested in. While you cant expect them to know about every club or program, it was always a good sign when the tour guide or host I met with said they knew plenty of people who were involved in the things I loved to do. For instance, if they knew a lot about the singing or theatre groups even though they didn’t participate, it meant that there was a lot of opportunity to get involved at that school.

Overall I felt that the videos were really great ways to get my instant and unfiltered reactions of the schools I visited, which helped me be decisive when I was cutting more and more schools from my lists.

Additionally, if there is a school you had a really negative reaction to, but your parents/guidance counselor keeps insisting that you apply; the video can give you a really great reminder of why you hated that school.

I can’t give you an example video right now because A: All of those videos are on my old computer and didn’t transfer over, and B: I don’t want to give all of you my opinions on individual schools because they’re probably different from your opinions. But they’re easy to do. Just turn on the camera and TALK.

So, truly, I recommend doing a short reaction video after each school you tour. They’ll help you more than you think.

Salad as a tour metaphor

Today I will use this salad as a metaphor.

This salad was my dinner last night. It’s piled high with baby corn and chickpeas (my favorites). It also has some spinach mixed in to the lettuce I had to eat around (something can kill me in large enough quantities). It’s on an ugly, yet allegedly eco friendly plate. I ate it at 6:30 last night with some chicken (that was very good) and rice (that was supposed to be with a hint of lime, but actually tasted like it was boiled in Sprite).

This salad is a metaphor for all of the questions you should ask when you’re touring or visiting a school.

There are the general questions that you should ask, but oftentimes you won’t get a straight answer out of your tour guide (if you recall, they’re trained by the schools to make the school appealing to you). Or you won’t get an entirely truthful answer out of the tour guide. So here are some questions to ask that aren’t so easily spun.

Is the meal plan required? Are you on the meal plan? - Ask this instead of how’s the food? They’re going to tell you the food is fine. But if they aren’t on the meal plan, that will tell you a lot more. They might preface it by saying “oh I live off campus,” but places the food is really good they’d probably get a small meal plan for lunch and an occasional dinner with on campus friends. If the meal plan is required, ask them how many meals a week they eat on campus, another tell if it’s less than 2 a day.

Salad as a metaphor: I eat salad several meals a week (by choice usually, I love salad), and this salad was eaten because I hadn’t used nearly enough of my 10 meals that week (minimum amount a sophomore is allowed to have at my school). 

What is your pet peeve about the school? Ask this instead of what is the schools biggest weakness. You know from any interview you’ve ever had that you have to turn your weakness into a strength. A pet peeve is something that really annoys you, and it’s much harder to spin that into a positive.
This will probably be something little and inconsequential, but will give you a real negative about the school instead of a fake one.

Salad as a metaphor: Remember how I said there was hidden spinach? I am (probably the only one in the world who is) allergic to spinach. And I write a comment card about every other week telling the dining hall at my school to stop mixing the romaine and spinach lettuce together. But it’s cheaper and easier to top off a half full bowl of romaine with spinach, so they keep doing it. That is a real pet peeve about my school; the dining services aren’t accommodating to anything rarer gluten or a nut allergy.

How many small classes have you had? Ask this instead of how big are the classes?
Many schools pride themselves on small class size, and yet there are a lot of ways to fudge the numbers to make it look like there are more small classes than there really are. If a school says half of their classes are “15 or under” that means that the other half could all be hundred person lectures. You’d be in a lot more hundred-person lectures even with those numbers. This question is easier to get an idea of the reality, because they might have taken their 20 person freshman seminar, but maybe they won’t get to take another small class until senior year.

Salad as a metaphor: Salad is often my go-to because I hate waiting on lines. I would have gotten stir-fry, but the line was 10 minutes of waiting. Though the option was there, I wasn’t going to be able to take advantage of it until I had the timing right.

How did you meet your friends? Instead of what should I expect freshman year.

I really like asking this question because it will give you a really good idea of the type of environment the school is. Some schools have freshman halls or freshman dorms get really close, while others have a freshman lecture or orientation group that facilitate friendships. Class friendships can say a lot about the environment at a school and how people can learn cooperatively. Some schools have really strong clubs and teams that become like families. If a school is really Greek, you might want to see if people have a lot of friendships outside of their fraternity or sorority. I love this question because they’re not going to lie to you, and it will probably spring board into a different type of conversation.

Salad as a metaphor: I had this salad while eating dinner with two of my friends. One was a girl I met this year in a singing group, and another was a girl whose life and mine overlapped quite a lot (same singing group, freshman seminar, same sorority).

They teased the crap out of me about the quantities of baby corn I put on the salad, but they know that this was actually me using restraint, because we became very close while having twice-weekly dinners for the singing group we’re all in.

What have been some improvements your school has made in the last year? Instead of what is the school doing for the future?

This is a good question because it allows the tour guide to brag about the school, which is always good. They might mention some renovations or additions to campus. They may talk about how the school has made eco-friendly strides, or how the physics department has just gotten some great new equipment, or… anything.

Salad as a metaphor: The salad I had was on a new eco-friendly plate. While they’re not as cheerful as the old colors they used to use, I appreciate the strides my school is making to be green.

You may come up with other standard questions that you ask while touring, but I think those are a few great ones that tell you more than “what was your SAT score?”

Happy searching ladies and gentlemen.

The 1 3 1 List

OR “Match Schools are the best, and don’t forget it”
Conventional advice will tell you to apply to at least 9 schools. You will have a large list of schools to start with, and then narrow it down to 3 Reaches, 3 Matches, and 3 Safeties.
While I think this is not a bad way to do it, I think that there are people who this method just won’t work for.

There are applicants like myself, who were insanely picky and needed to love a school to consider going there. There are students who need a specialized program, and will only have so many options (I worked with a music and business student who needed a school where he could get a quality education in both, which severely limited his options). Then there are the normal applicants who have a long list but have no connection to any particular schools or programs, but they might be stacking the deck a little high and limiting their options unintentionally.
So I’ll break down the method I think is best for creating a list, especially if you’re picky.
First of all, you should, at minimum, have 5 schools. The most common way to do that would be:

• A: Safety School- this is a school you can with the utmost certainty say you can be accepted to and afford. You’re well above the middle 50% of scores and you put effort into the essays and had a good interview. Your classes are on-par with what they expect or exceed their expectations. You’ve toured and expressed interest.

• B: Low Match- This is a school that you’re in range for and at the high end or above the middle 50 percent. You’re very confident that you will be accepted, and can most likely afford it. Its not quite a safety (usually for financial reasons, maybe you need X amount of scholarship money).

• C: True Match- This is a school you’re in range for and while you’re not absolutely confident that you’ll be accepted, you know you will most likely be. You can probably afford the school baring any unexpected circumstances. You’re in the middle 50 percent and sent in good essays, toured, or interviewed.

• D: High Match- On paper you should be fine with this school, and you’re reasonably confident that you’ll be accepted. You will probably be able to afford it. You expressed interest, and while you might be on the low end of the middle 50 percent, or maybe just in a harder demographic, you are  -on paper-  well qualified.

• E: Reach- This is not a high reach. A high reach is a lottery school, and we don’t do that here. This is a school that you are slightly out of range for, but you probably have about a 50/50 chance at acceptance. Also included are any schools with acceptance rates so low that even though you are in range, you can’t confidently call it a match. ALSO any school you would need crazy financial aid miracles to attend is a reach, it doesn’t matter how qualified you are.

While you can increase the amount of schools you’re looking at to whatever number suits your fancy, this formula allows you to maintain a nice balance of where you’re applying.
Too often I see a list that has “3/3/3” where its 1 actual safety (that they hate and claim they would never attend), 2 low matches (that they think are safeties), 3 high matches (which they think are enough matches), and 3 lottery schools (or “high reaches”).

The conventional 3/3/3 plan puts too much emphasis on safeties and high reaches (isn’t the point of a safety that you’re confident you’ll get in, and a reach a school that’s a bit of a stretch, but you have a real chance?) and not enough on matches. You should apply to several match schools because those are where you’ll really have your choices.
Of course, you can apply to more than one reach, if you want to go that route, but remember that application fees add up quickly. You also don’t have to apply to any reach schools (while I only applied to 1 school because I was accepted ED, I had all of my applications filled out before I found out, and I didn’t look at any reaches).
 Personally, of my 7 schools, I had 2 safeties and 5 matches (2 low, 2 true, 1 high).
If a 3/3/3 style is best for you, go for it. But splitting up your match schools into low, true, and high will help you have a better grasp at what you’re really looking at. Don’t do too many high match schools without having a reasonable about of back ups.

If The School Fits, Wear It('s Sweatshirt)

If the school fits, wear it (‘s sweatshirt)

I hope you will all pardon me for a slightly more personal post today.

Today’s theme is about the importance of fit when selecting a school. This one incredibly important factor seems so underrated by many, and I just have to write my personal experience with it.

Today was my first full day back at my university. It was the first day of spring semester, and, as per usual, it was pouring rain. I joked to a friend as we walked from the student center to our dorms, that “[Town my school is located in] is welcoming us back with the song of its people!” He laughed, because he gets my humor, and when you live in a place with weather as inconsistent as [town my school is located in], there’s nothing to do but laugh about it. My joke was dry, sarcastic, and referenced an Internet meme. And I could have said it to pretty much anyone I know at this school, from the nerdiest of the pre-meds to the preppiest of the sorority girls, and they would have gotten the joke too. Because that’s the type of school I go to.

            My school was a total outlier on the list of schools I was applying to. When my college counselor was giving me my original lists, I gave her a short list of what I wanted:

1.     Small in size, no more than 5000 undergrads

2.     Smart students, and great academics, but not “rip up each other’s notes” competitive

3.     A psychology program that wasn’t neuro based

4.     No more than 5 hours of travel door to door

5.     Theatre department that is not a conservatory

6.     About 50/50 male to female split.

And I added in one other thing- “No reach schools.”

This had two reasons; first of all I didn’t want to get my hopes up about a school I might not get into. And secondly, I didn’t want to struggle academically at a school I wasn’t qualified for.

 I narrowed down a list of around 20 options cutting a few because they didn’t meet my requirements (U Michigan was too big, Swarthmore was too small, Smith and Sarah Lawrence had way too many women, Vanderbilt was too far, etc.) and I ended up with about 10 to research and decide on.

There were two schools of that 10 that didn’t meet my requirements exactly (both were too far, one too small and one too big) that stayed on because they interested me.

These schools were Kenyon College (the too small one, which was eventually cut for being way too small and way too hard to travel to) and the University I currently attend.

I loved what I read about the school in books and their website. How the students were quirky and so so so passionate about academics. How they really focus on undergraduate teaching. How the campus is atheistically beautiful.

And then I visited. Spring break of junior year, my family took a flight down to the school (as it turns out, it is about 5 hours door to door if you fly) and toured.

I knew, the second we drove onto the campus, that this school was the one. I don’t know how, but I knew.

And then we toured. And it wasn’t even anything special. The tour guide was an IR major who couldn’t tell me anything about theatre or music. I loved the funny facts and anecdotes, I loved that the library seemed social; I loved the beauty of the freshman dorm we walked through (though in reality I would end up living in a closet sized room in a very ugly dorm hidden away on the far side of campus).

And, most of all, I loved the people.

My school has a bit of a tradition of interrupting the tour guides. If you see your friend giving a tour, you’re (not officially but everyone does it) supposed to run up and try to embarrass them in front of their group. And someone did just that to my guide (his shoes were stolen by a friend, who then said “oh your tour guide is such a mench, he’ll give you the shoes right off his feet” he then continued to give us the tour with the pair of flip flops his friend threw at him as he ran off, cackling into the afternoon). It’s totally in character for my school. We’re friendly, but we don’t take anything too seriously if it can be made into a joke.

I didn’t see anything like that at other schools. They all took themselves so… seriously. This school? Not so much. The info session had the same tone, “We’re old and awesome, but lets make you laugh while we tell you about our application process”

By the end of the tour we stood on the lawn of the school’s oldest building. A beautiful, historic brick monster. A building that, little did I know, would become the place I was initiated into the school by reciting (and not totally botching) the honor code. The place where I discovered my love for religious studies in the oddly shaped attic classrooms. The place where I would be initiated into a sorority I didn’t know I wanted to join until I came to the school. The place I would stand with hundreds of other students before Christmas break and see the president read us “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and laugh so hard I almost wet myself.

I stood in front of that building, a high school junior, and I just held my mother’s hand and cried.

I cried because after so many tours and so many articles and tests and guidebooks, I had found it. I had found the place where I belonged.

Of the 7 colleges that remained on my list come September of senior year, it was the only one with more than 3000 students. The only one not in New York or Pennsylvania. The only public school. The only school with significant greek life (something that, at the time, I didn’t want). And despite all of this, it was perfect for me, and I knew it.

And I applied early decision because I knew that if I didn’t go to that school I would never really be happy.

And I held my tongue when I heard my friends and classmates say, “I’m going to go to whatever the highest ranked school I get into is.”

Because I wanted to say, “No, go to the school that is so perfect you cry. The school that is the only place you want to be. The school where you know you will go.”

And I got in, because it was a match school and I applied early decision.

And I have never, ever regretted my choice. I have never ever said, “Maybe I should have gone to a higher ranked school” because I cant honestly imagine that any place would make me happier than my school.

So, when looking at schools, find the one that makes you cry of joy. Because you found it. You found the school that fit you perfectly.