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Out of State Applicants
Out of state applicants take note! http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecohen/2011/08/29/the-latest-shhhh-secret-college-admissions-trend/
Be a Reader!
The SAT focuses on understanding vocabulary in context. Besides standard test prep to make sure you know how to tackle different parts of the test, understand the directions, etc.., the most crucial thing to do in preparation is to spend the years leading up to the SAT reading vocabulary-rich books (Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, or any other 19th century writers) and keeping a word notebook with a twist: instead of just writing down the word by itself, write down the word and the word it modifies. Thus, “diaphanous gown” with the definition “sheer, transparent.” If you do this often enough, it will be clear that certain words tend to get used with the same word—how many other words can you put next to diaphanous? In addition, students will become better, more flexible readers and will have a better sense of concentration on the actual test. We encourage students to aim for 300 words in context over the course of a two-year or so reading program. Plus, there’s never such a thing as “too much” reading, so you really can’t lose. We try to fit in as many books as we can each week, even with our busy schedules – use summers and breaks to fit in books you might not have time to read during the packed school year.
Happy reading!
Athletic Recruiting
At every high school there are casual athletes, serious athletes, and elite athletes. Almost all selective colleges value athletic experience, and most top high schools have extensive enough athletic programs that almost any student can make their way onto a team. If you’re not immersed in the arts or sciences, there’s no reason not to go out for a team and, if you like it, get serious about it. If you’re an elite athlete, however, you know who you are.
Elite athletes aren’t just starters or team captains. They are league MVPs. They make all-section or all-district teams. They play on high level club teams year round including summers. Some small Division III liberal arts colleges are happy to welcome merely serious athletes on to their teams, but to get recruited at a Division I school, you must be elite. (This is true of every school from USC and Penn State to Columbia and Brown.) For better or worse, these athletes have special avenues to get into college. (Keep in mind, the rationale is that many athletes with lower grades have lower grades specifically because they’ve spent so much time on sports!)
If you are a top-level high school athlete and considering being recruited, there are a number of things you need to do junior year. First of all, sign up on the NCAA website so you are official. Next, identify the names and address of college coaches at the schools which are of interest to you – they are high level in your sport, etc. Then, you will want to contact each coach with a letter and a resume so he/she knows you are interested. It pays to put together a stat sheet that has all the particulars (your height, weight, athletic awards, level of competition) along with your GPA, test scores and any other academic distinctions so coaches can see if you are going to be strong enough to pursue as an official recruit.
SAT I Critical Reading
Skim the passages as quickly and superficially as you can.
It may sound strange, but the best way to address SAT Critical Reading is to read each passage as little as possible the first time around. (In fact, when possible, you should do your best to skip the reading the entire passage altogether.)
There are two main reasons for this strategy: First, reading the passage too closely is either going to bore you to sleep or distract you from your main focus, which should be attacking the SAT in a systematic way. Second, reading the passage is mostly a waste of time anyway, because many SAT questions will refer you to specific parts of the passage (often identified by line numbers) that you will have to read again later.
Your only goal at this point is to get a rough idea of some of the concepts that appear in the passage. That’s all. Once you’ve done that, you move on to the first question.
Make sure you read questions and citations COMPLETELY.
If you miss a word like not or because, you won’t be able to answer the question correctly.
Make sure you read the key parts of the passage.
Even if the question doesn’t ask you to, it’s usually a good idea to read these key parts of the passage:
- the italicized introduction to the passage
- the opening sentence of the passage
- the closing sentence of the passage
These parts of the passage will often contain key information that gives you an idea of the passage, and it only takes a few seconds to read them!
The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges
Read The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges profile of 308 institutions of higher education in the United States and three in Canada that demonstrate a strong commitment to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation.
Insight into Wait List Process
Mimi offers some insight into the wait list process in today’s Daily Beast.
10 College Admissions Trends
At 5 p.m. today, Ivy League schools will notify their lucky applicants—the precious few admitted in the toughest admissions year ever. From soaring waitlists to a Southern boom, Kristina Dell on 10 trends. Check out out here.
What Harvard and Princeton Don’t Want You to Know
Read Dr. Michele Hernandez’s recent article on The Huffington Post
Don’t Cram All your SAT Subject Tests Into One Sitting!
As you know, SAT Subject Tests are very important at top colleges, even more so that SAT’s. They serve as a true equalizer for students coming from disparate high schools. How can college committees compare an A in Biology at a small high school in Kansas with an A in Biology at a top New York City school? The answer is, they CAN’T, so they need to look at the corresponding SAT Subject Test scores. If student A scored a 750 while student B scored a 630, it would be obvious that student B’s grade was inflated compared to Student A’s grade of “A.”
In many ways Subject Tests can be a great help to students at lesser known high schools to prove themselves. By the same token, it can deflate a valedictorian who has high grades but lower Subject Tests. Every time you read about all the valedictorians rejected from Harvard, Yale and the like, they are almost always kids whose standardized tests didn’t match their grades.
Students should aim to get high scores (that correspond to, or exceed, their grades) on three Subject Tests. For this spring, be sure to spread out the tests. Never take three on one day as you’ll end up lowering your score on all of them. It’s impossible to concentrate for that long and to study for three at once. Try to take them in January, or some in May, and then reserve the June tests for the ones that correspond with school courses like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc… Spread these tests out as much as you can, and if you’re good at a subject like math or science, try to get at least one out of the way your sophomore year so you can take them at a more leisurely pace!
Calculate your Academic Index
The Academic Index is a formula the Ivies use predominately for
recruited athletes (not to be confused with applicants who
happen to have played sports in high school; if you’re being
recruited, you know who you are!). It combines SAT scores,
Subject Tests and a student’s class rank. Even for non-recruits, it
can be a helpful guideline to show students how they stack up
among Ivy applicants.
Michele’s book, A is for Admission, was the first one to publicize
the Academic Index and explain how Ivy admissions offices use it.
Normally that wouldn’t be notable except for the fact that the Ivies
publicly denied the existence of the formula for over 40 years!
Please realize that the AI does not take into account the crucial
subjective factors such as love of learning, teacher recommendations,
writing skills, etc., but it will give you a ballpark idea of what your
chances of admission are at top colleges. The correspondence
between high AI’s and high admission rates is very high. So enter
your information and see how you stack up.
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Ivy League Admissions Statistics
Our exclusive data on the Class of 2015 Ivy League Admissions statistics, now updated for Early Action and Early Admissions for the class entering 2011. See exactly how many students applied and how many were accepted to different schools.
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