July 14th, 2010 by Joe Connell
Most students who attend college apply by a college’s regular decision deadlines, which commonly range from December through March. Some schools do not have decision deadlines and review students’ applications on an ongoing or rolling basis. Other colleges, particularly community colleges, offer open admissions and allow students to apply and register almost until the time classes begin.
Regular Decision
Regular decision is a non-binding decision, so students are encouraged to apply to several colleges through regular decision. Regular decision deadlines often vary by college (frequently December or January); therefore, students have the responsibility to know and follow them. At some colleges students who have been denied early decision or early action, can be considered again for regular admissions. Students generally find out about their acceptance from regular decision applications from mid-March through April 1.
Rolling Decision
Rolling decision is a non-binding decision and, in a sense, blends regular decision and early action policies. Rolling decision applications usually are submitted from the summer before senior year through spring of the senior year. Rolling decision informs students of their acceptance in a timely fashion after they apply as determined by the college. Students can apply to multiple colleges by rolling admissions.
Open Admissions
Open admissions institutions, often community colleges, can require students to follow application deadlines. However, these deadlines typically are very close to the start of the academic year.
A major difference between these application decision types and early decision/action types is that students have the opportunity to add more information to their admission “portfolio” from the fall of their senior year. For example, SAT and ACT scores taken throughout the Fall Semester, including in December, normally can be taken into consideration, as can a students’ initial senior year grades. Adding these factors together gives students a final opportunity to improve their admission “portfolio” and increase their chances of acceptance. In addition, through regular and rolling decision students have the flexibility to learn more about themselves and their future career and personal plans, before making a college decision.
Joe Connell has been helping high school students transition to college for the last nine years through positions in admissions, new student orientation and retention. Currently, Joe is the Director of Academic Services & Testing at Dutchess Community College (NY); he has previous work experience at William Paterson University (NJ), Marist College (NY) and Miami University (OH). Joe has presented on issues related to college students' transition and success at both regional and national levels and has taught both SAT preparation and college courses for the past eight years.
May 5th, 2010 by Joe Connell
As I wrote in the blog about “College Admission Requirements,” one of the key college admission factors that sophomores and juniors can still manage in addition to their SAT scores is the course schedule they create for their next academic year. Thispost provides some information to keep in mind, when choosing next year’s classes.
Take as many honors, AP, IB and college-credit courses (often offered through local colleges) as reasonable for you to be successful. Many colleges take weighted GPAs for determining admission, so if your high school weights GPAs, a “B+” in AP US History is often going to strengthen your college application more than an “A” in regular high school history. In addition, many competitive colleges provide their own “weights” to courses considered to be college-level. Therefore, taking more advanced courses can help a student twice in the admissions process – i.e., both in the high school GPA and the college admissions review of your high school transcript.
Here’s a breakdown of recommendations by subject area:
- Complete a minimum of four years of English.
- Complete four years of mathematics. (These courses should become more challenging junior and senior year. If possible, move on to trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus, statistics, etc.)
- Complete at least three years of social science (history, government, social studies, psychology, economics, etc.).
- Take three years of laboratory science. (Preferred courses include: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, AP courses in any of the aforementioned.)
- Complete at least three years of a foreign language. (Four or five years will really make you stand out.)
If you are not sure which courses are best for you, talk with family, friends and high school staff, especially your guidance counselor, about your college plans and courses that they recommend.
Joe Connell has been helping high school students transition to college for the last nine years through positions in admissions, new student orientation and retention. Currently, Joe is the Director of Academic Services & Testing at Dutchess Community College (NY); he has previous work experience at William Paterson University (NJ), Marist College (NY) and Miami University (OH). Joe has presented on issues related to college students' transition and success at both regional and national levels and has taught both SAT preparation and college courses for the past eight years.
March 24th, 2010 by Joe Connell
Choosing a college to attend (for seniors who just received those acceptance letters) or apply to (for juniors trying to figure where to send their SAT scores) is all about fit. Just as colleges are deciding if you “fit” based primarily on their academic criteria, such as SAT Scores, GPA and high school courses taken, you should be doing the same thing.
Consider what colleges fit your criteria. Here is a sample two-step process. First, narrow your list by creating minimum criteria that a college must meet, such as cost, location, size, and academic programs (your major). Second, consider what college feels right.
You will get a sense of feel by visiting a campus a few times and spending time with current students. As you consider what college feels right, ask yourself the following questions: Can you see yourself making this college your “first home away from home?” Are these students people that you would want to hang out with? Are there enough activities (campus events, sports games, music/theater performances, culture, clubs, etc.) for you to do here? Do you feel safe? Can you grow into the person you are becoming at this school?
Think about your answers to these questions and the answers of the key people in your life (family, friends, mentors, etc.). Then reflect and decide on what matters most to you.
As an example, when I chose to attend Lycoming College, my final list of pros and cons was very close, but it came down to where I envisioned my next four years. Some key items that I considered were cost, the ability to play college tennis, advising for undeclared students, distance from home, opportunities to study abroad and ultimately, my comfort. Since attending Lycoming, I’ve never left studying or working on a college campus, so I know that finding the right fit changed my life, and I hope it does for you, too!
Joe Connell has been helping high school students transition to college for the last nine years through positions in admissions, new student orientation and retention. Currently, Joe is the Director of Academic Services & Testing at Dutchess Community College (NY); he has previous work experience at William Paterson University (NJ), Marist College (NY) and Miami University (OH). Joe has presented on issues related to college students' transition and success at both regional and national levels and has taught both SAT preparation and college courses for the past eight years.
March 16th, 2010 by Joe Connell
Should I send my SAT scores to colleges or wait to see what they are? Students often ask this question because they are nervous about their results. The good news is that most colleges take a student’s best results from multiple test dates. Hopefully, that knowledge helps a student relax more each time he/she takes the test.
The College Board (the makers of the SAT) through Score Choice, a feature created in 2009, allows students to send only the scores they want to various colleges. I recommend taking advantage of this feature. This feature gives students more ownership over how their scores are used.
Ultimately, the scores a college requires you to submit are up to them. Each college has slightly different requirements. In general, most colleges will combine a student’s best individual section scores (i.e., Critical Reading, Writing and Math) from multiple test dates (e.g., March, May and October) to create their best combined score. This is why it’s often beneficial for students to take the test multiple times and use test preparation services. To find out what a particular college prefers, contact them directly; this list of SAT Score-Use Practices provided by the College Board also provides a good place to start.
Good luck on your Spring SAT tests!
Joe Connell has been helping high school students transition to college for the last nine years through positions in admissions, new student orientation and retention. Currently, Joe is the Director of Academic Services & Testing at Dutchess Community College (NY); he has previous work experience at William Paterson University (NJ), Marist College (NY) and Miami University (OH). Joe has presented on issues related to college students' transition and success at both regional and national levels and has taught both SAT preparation and college courses for the past eight years.
March 8th, 2010 by Marty Rafson
The “Student Produced Response Questions”, or “Grid-In” questions, are unique to the SAT. These 10 questions can be critical in determining a student’s SAT math score. Therefore, it is essential that every student knows the directions perfectly (and not by reading them on the day of the test). Since the answers are recorded in the four-column grid, 9999 is the largest possible answer to any problem. The least possible answer is zero since the directions explicitly state that there are no negative answers. A classic student question is what to do if your answer contains less than four digits. You can place your answer in any column(s) of the grid; the SAT folks only want to see that you’ve got the right answer. The directions clearly state that some problems may have more than one answer. Therefore, a student shouldn’t sit there with a solution such as x > 3 and wonder what to grid. Just pick your favorite number greater than 3 and move on quickly.
Mixed numbers are absolutely not to be bubbled into the grid. This is because a scanner can’t tell the difference between 2½ and 21/2. Use 2.5 or 5/2 if you think the correct answer is 2½. Lastly, be sure you know what to do if you think the answer is a non-terminating decimal. Here again, the SAT folks are trying to be nice. As long as you fill all the columns of the grid, they don’t care if you “truncate” your decimal (a good SAT word meaning to cut off the decimal when you run out of room) or properly round off your decimal.
Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.
March 4th, 2010 by Marty Rafson
One of the 3 math sections of the SAT contains 18 questions. The first 8 are multiple choice and the last 10 are “grid-ins” (more on these later). The 8 multiple choice questions are again arranged in almost perfect order of increasing difficulty – #1 is easy and #8 is quite difficult. The problem on this 18-question section is the fact that the hard questions like #7 and #8 are sitting right in the middle of the section. Once again, the student must be honest about his/her potential score. If you’re a candidate for a 700, you need to attack every question. What if you’re shooting for a 500 which requires about half the questions to be answered correctly? To be candid, you should SKIP #7 and #8. Students are always told not to spend too much time on a problem that they find difficult. Correct. However, #7 and #8 are guaranteed to be difficult, so we say the average student should spend zero time on them. Right after #8, you will find the start of the 10 grid-in questions. They begin easy, then come the medium ones and end with the hardest. You need to preserve time for these grid-ins. If you waste time on #7 and #8, you’re taking time away from grid-ins that you can definitely do if you left yourself enough time. The 18-question math section is the key to your math score and not spending too much time on the first 8 multiple choice questions is the key to handling this section.
Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.
March 3rd, 2010 by Kate Hedman
It’s news to nobody that the environment in which a student takes a test can affect his or her score. That’s why teachers take such care in preventing talking during exams, seat students where they cannot read off of each other’s papers, and make sure desks are clear of materials that would facilitate cheating. So one would expect the SAT environment to be no different - to be a tightly regulated place where students’ scores should be based only on their merits in a standardized environment. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Just as there are variations in environment from classroom to classroom – wooden walls versus cinderblock, rural versus urban environments – there are variations in environment on test day, and these variations can affect students’ scores.
There are, however, ways to mitigate some of the possibly adverse effects of an unfamiliar or unusual testing environment, the best of which is foreknowledge of the particulars of the testing room. If it is possible, arrange to take the SAT in an environment with which you are familiar, preferably where you have sat for an exam previously or where you have at least spent some time. Be familiar with the noise level, seating arrangements, lighting, chalkboards and whiteboards (where proctors may write the time), and visibility of clocks in the room.
If, on the day of the exam, you encounter an unexpected environmental problem, like being seated next to a particularly annoying test taker, then ask your proctor for help. The College Board says that it’s up to the proctor whether, for instance, a student gets to change seats, so by all means be polite when making requests. Your final out if something in the environment causes you problems is the College Board itself. They will cancel your scores if you request that service by the Wednesday after the test day. Remember: be prepared to speak up about problems, or forever live with your SAT scores.
Kate Hedman, MSEd, has been helping students succeed on the SAT for seven years. She has been a verbal teacher with ESC for six years, and taught high school English for three years. She loves reading about new advances in brain research that she can use in the classroom to help her students learn how to achieve higher scores on the SAT.
February 28th, 2010 by Marty Rafson
SAT’s are scored in the range from 200-800. The national average math score is approximately 500. Many students enrolled in SAT prep classes are seeking to improve to a score over 500. Some students are unaware of the fact that a score of 500 is achieved by getting about ½, 50%, of the questions right. If a student scores 50% on a classroom math test, that’s an “F” (and trouble with parents at home). Half right on the SAT is 500, the national average, and quite respectable. SAT math sections are arranged with the questions almost in perfect order of increasing difficulty. Approximately the first 1/3 are easy, the next 1/3 medium difficulty, and the last bunch are downright difficult. Consider the 20-question, 25-minute section. If a student is seeking a 500, s/he would want 10 points out of this section (each correct answer is worth one point). Where will these points come from? A conscientious SAT prep company has to be blunt here – these points are not coming from that last group of hard questions. These are just too hard for the average student. Therefore, your best strategy is to take your time and plan to spend your 25 minutes on the first 15 questions. It is out of this group of easy and medium level questions that you will find the 10 points you are seeking. Rushing to get through all 20 is silly for the average student because those last 5 are guaranteed to be hard every time. Incidentally, you would need about 2/3 of the questions correct to score 600. Even then, all you would need is to get all the easy and medium ones right. To get 700, you need to attack all the questions (about 48 of the 54 points on the full math test is needed for a 700).
Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.
February 26th, 2010 by Marty Rafson
What do the letters SAT stand for? Right now they are just three letters. However, they used to represent the “Scholastic Aptitude Test.” Why isn’t this used as the present-day name of this test? There’s a sensitivity to using the word “aptitude.” An aptitude test is a test of your intelligence, your basic ability. After working hard to compile a solid high school transcript, this single four-hour test helps tell a college what capabilities you have. The Educational Testing Service used to say that you can’t possibly increase your aptitude. This has been dramatically proven wrong. A well-planned program of practice will increase your SAT score. Educational Services Center can help you maximize your score on the reading, writing, and math sections of the SAT. There’s a strategy to approaching the math questions. We’ll review your arithmetic, algebra and geometry. We’ll also show you how to employ other approaches when you don’t see a “pure” mathematical solution to a problem. With dedicated practice, you can definitely improve your SAT score.
Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.
February 24th, 2010 by Kate Hedman
Whether or not you think your admission to college should be governed by your SAT score, there is evidence that it is, and that a mere 30 point jump in your Critical Reading score can get you into college. For more information, take a look at this USA Today article from May 2009. What do you think? Are colleges relying too much on SAT scores?
Share your comments below.
Kate Hedman, MSEd, has been helping students succeed on the SAT for seven years. She has been a verbal teacher with ESC for six years, and taught high school English for three years. She loves reading about new advances in brain research that she can use in the classroom to help her students learn how to achieve higher scores on the SAT.
