CollegeBasics.com Blog

Blogger Breaks Summer Hiatus with SAT News

jan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:30:33 +0000

This month The College Board finally changed its policy for reporting SAT scores to colleges. The standard procedure is that you name the colleges and they get the test scores—period. If you take the SAT once and your scores are not great, those scores go to the college you are applying to. The, if you take a second SAT and your scores are better, those scores, too, go out to the colleges you listed which you are applying to.
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On-line Education

jan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:43:55 +0000

Justin Pope has written top universities are catching up with the technology revolution and beginning to provide course work on line. The largest initiative is MIT’s “OpenCourseWare.” But Johns Hopkins, Tufts, and Notre Dame also promote open course ware, with Yale soon to come on board.
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Attention, Juniors!!

jan — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:52:58 +0000

If you are ending your junior year of high school and looking forward to a summer off, think again. There are things you need to be doing this summer if you are thinking of applying to college.
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Juniors, What Should You Do This Summer?

jan — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:23:59 +0000

Colleges are looking for passion. If you want to stand out as a college applicant, you have to be more than a great student and athlete. You also have to show your stuff beyond your school and beyond the classroom.
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A Gap Year?

jan — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:59:05 +0000

The Gap Year is catching on. Long popular in Europe, the Gap Year is taking time between graduating from high school and before entering college to pursue personal goals or interests like travel, working abroad, or volunteering. Read more about the Gap Year at Collegebasics.
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August is for Reading

jan — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:46:05 +0000

What do University of Florida, Carleton, Skidmore, University of Vermont, and Syracuse have in common? They all require entering freshman to read an assigned book over the summer.
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The Writing Section of the SAT is Taken More Seriously as It Grows Up

jan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:16:13 +0000

In 2007, Richie Frohlichstein wrote another article about the new writing section in the SATs. He admitted the jury was still out as to the importance of these scores as shown by colleges like MIT that are testing their freshmen in writing in order to compare their results with SAT scores. But, he also noted that half of the 1,000 4-year colleges now use writing scores as a factor for admission. Even those that do not use the scores as an admission factor often look at the SAT essay to check it against the college application essay to evaluate consistency between the two, or they will use the SAT writing score for placement of accepted students in their freshman courses. It is interesting to note, as well, that only .6% of SAT test takers score a 12 or a perfect score in the writing section, meaning only 8,000 from the nation-wide applicant pool do as well, another indicator that could separate out the best applicants for the more highly selective colleges.
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How Important is the New S.A.T. Writing Section?

jan — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:36:26 +0000

In November, 2006, Nancy Hass, a contributor to The New York Times, wrote about the newly instituted writing, or essay, section of the SATs, which were first given in March, 2005. In this article it was clear the scoring on this new test was not going to significantly impact admissions decisions.
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Your Education and Your Career

jan — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:25:19 +0000

Sometimes applying to college becomes more like a shopping spree spurred on by your friends’ and parents’ expectations. Finding a good college match should also involve some thought about the kind of work or the type of career you want as an adult.
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What You Are Up Against as a College Applicant

jan — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:14:37 +0000

It might be worth your reading through the seven pages of the article “Tense Times at Bronxville High.” It follows the exhaustive application process of three high school seniors: Win Rutherford, Maria Devlin, and Alexandra Likovich, all students at the highly competitive high school Bronxville High in New York.
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