Helpful Hints for the College Admissions Process
Testing
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Take the ACT. Some students may do much better on the ACT than they do on the SAT. All schools accept
both exams. My oldest did remarkably better on the ACT. It is definitely worth a try. A book I liked for
ACT studying is “Up Your Score – The Underground Guide to the ACT.”
A book I liked for SAT studying is “Up Your Score – The Underground Guide to the SAT.” It is written by 6
kids who aced the SAT. It is more of a book on teaching you how to guess, what order to do the
questions, a new method for learning vocabulary words, math tricks, etc but it does it in a very comical
way and in teenager language so the students are more likely to remember what was said.
The SAT will be changing its format in spring 2016. It will be more in line with the ACT. So if your student
is graduating in in 2017 or later, this will affect you. Here is a link about the new SAT:
https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/redesign
Take the mock SAT and ACT exams to determine which is a better fit for your child. Then sign up for the
real exam, preferably in December of Junior year. This gives you plenty of time to retake if necessary. If
your child gets a very good score on the exam, STOP testing. One of my sons got a great score on the ACT
– enough to get into any school. So we though, let’s have him take the SAT to bolster his credentials
assuming that he would do as well on this exam. Well he did not do nearly as well. Then when it came
time to apply to the colleges, many of them require you to send in ALL test scores. So then they not only
saw his fabulous ACT but also his mediocre SAT. If we had stopped after the ACT, there would not have
been any problem. EVERY school accepts the ACT. There is no advantage to taking both.
When we were at the Yale Information Session, the Admissions rep said that they take about 5 seconds to
look at the test scores. If you are in the range of scores for the school, they move on to the rest of the
application. He said it is a waste of time to try taking the test again to add 50 points to an already
acceptable SAT or 1-2 points to an already acceptable ACT. They are not looking for perfect scores. They
are looking for scores in an acceptable range. If you are in that range, stop testing.
Many but not all schools require 2 SAT II. Take any SAT IIs at the end of Sophomore or Junior years. The
best time to take the math is after PreCalc. Look at the list and see which fits best with what the students
has taken this year. I believe there is one on World History so that is good for most juniors since they are
taking that this year. If you are going to study engineering or the sciences in college, you should take a
math and a science.
MCPS Provides a free online test prep that has gotten good reviews. We did not use it as it came out after
my son took the test. Here is the link:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/hsi/testprep.shtm
Visiting Colleges
Take advantage of any days off from school such as President’s Day to visit colleges you can get to in a
day.
Check which colleges have Saturday visit days so that you can do them on the weekend and save the
colleges that don’t have weekend sessions for weekdays when there is no school.
Use spring break to see as many colleges as you can
Juniors and seniors have 3 days each year to visit colleges as excused absences.
Look at the college’s websites as many will be having Junior Days which gives a more comprehensive day
of information
Helpful Hints for the College Admissions Process
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Some colleges require that you sign up to attend info sessions at least 2 weeks in advance while others
don’t require any sign in so be sure to look at their website for details.
Many colleges do not have weekend information sessions. They may have tours as the tours are student
run but the admissions people don’t work on the weekends so they don’t offer the info sessions. I would
try to go when there is an info session offered rather than having to make 2 trips to the school.
Keep in mind that during the summer, there are not many opportunities to visit schools on the weekends.
So if your child has a job or summer activity, it makes it very difficult to visit schools.
If you are interested in Engineering, be sure to check for separate tours of the Engineering Departments.
Sometimes these are posted on the admissions website but sometimes you have to go to the actual
department website to see their specific admissions section for that department. This goes for other
specialties like business or drama but not to as great a degree as engineering needs to show their lab
space, etc.
When you visit schools, be sure to pick up their student newspapers. You can learn a lot about the school
from these!!
Take notes at the Information Sessions. I was one of the few parents who took notes but trust me, you
will forget what they said. All of the school will blend together. You need to have notes in order to
remember one school from another. I keep a spiral notebook to keep all the notes in. Separate pieces of
paper are harder to manage. It is nice having all the info in one place. Just be sure to write the name of
the school at the top of the page!
It is also a good idea to write down the name of the person giving the talk as you may come in contact
with them at a later time.
Bring a large over the shoulder bag to keep all the papers and brochures you get. I have been on many
tours where families are carrying around all the loose papers and pamphlets and trying not to drop them.
If you have a bag, you can just throw everything in the bag.
Take a camera to take pictures of the school. As you go around on the tour, take pictures to help refresh
your memory later on. Trust me, you will forget what the college looks like vs. the other college you saw.
Pictures can really help. I also like to get one of the tour guide as it helps me remember what they said by
putting a face to the tour guide.
Wear comfortable clothes. Unless you are going for an interview with the admissions office, they won’t
know who you are among the crowd of visitors. It is OK to wear jeans and sneakers to the info sessions
and tours. Moms – wear comfortable shoes. There is a lot of walking.
If you have an interview, you need to dress appropriately. If it is an alumni interview, a collared shirt, no
tie, dress pants, no sneakers. For girls, nice pants and top are fine. If it is with an Admissions Officer, it
can be more formal with a jacket and tie. For girls, probably a dress.
Colleges coming to our area
The higher level colleges will come to our area with a few other colleges to give presentations so families
don’t have to travel. I did not find that I got much information from these than I found on the college’s
website. But it is important to get your name on the attendance sheet to show that you have interest.
You want to get your name on as many sign in sheets as possible as it shows interest in the school. Be
sure the student signs in, not the adult!
The schools that hold their own individual college sessions in our area are much better and can give more
detailed information about their school. It is also a good way to meet the admissions rep who may be the
one who is going to read your application.
Helpful Hints for the College Admissions Process
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If a college that you are interested in is coming to your school, go to their info session. Again, it is a good
way to meet the admissions rep who may be reading your application. It is better for them to have a face
to pt with the application so be sure to introduce yourself if possible.
Essays
BE SURE TO DO YOUR ESSAYS IN THE SUMMER WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE SCHOOLWORK,
EXTRACURRICULARS, HOMECOMING, etc.!!!!!!! I can’t stress this enough!!! This is especially true for IB
kids as they have many Internal Assessments in the fall as well as working on their Extended Essay. The
Common App posts its application July 1 so there is plenty of time during the summer to get working in it.
That being said, none of my 3 older children managed to complete their essays in the summer and yes,
the fall was miserable!!!
A book I highly recommend is: “Write Your College Essay in Less Than a Day”, by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross
and “Escape Essay Hell! A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Narrative College Application Essays” by Janine
Robinson
Organization
I recommend setting up a different e-mail address for college stuff. My children get about 20 e-mails a
day from colleges and it is mixed in with their regular e-mail and it gets heard to cipher through to find
the e-mails you need for school. If they are separate it is much easier to manage. Also make sure you
have access to the college e-mail address as the kids tend to forget to tell us that they received certain
things from colleges that we may need to know. So I would advise setting up another e-mail now and
when they take the SAT that they enter this e-mail address as most of the communication comes from the
College Board. Also any communication with any colleges should use this new address.
Get a bin with hanging folders to keep all the information you get from each college. It can get
overwhelming so best to keep organized from the start. Also keep separate filing for SAT, ACT, AP, SAT II,
Transcripts, etc.
Start creating a resume now. Write down all the activities, awards, service, work experience, educational
experiences. There are lots of examples online.