The Problem with Grade Inflation

By |2024-03-06T00:01:50+00:00March, 12, 2024|College Admissions, College Admissions Tests, College Grades, College Preparation|

Remember the movie The Incredibles? I’ll never forget the scene where Syndrome, the villain, is holding the superheroes hostage. He says, “When I’m old, and I’ve had my fun, I’ll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes, everyone can be super. And, when everyone’s super, no one will [...]

What You Need to Know About the Digital SAT

By |2023-05-09T23:01:53+00:00May, 10, 2023|College Admissions Tests|

No more answer sheets and #2 pencils. Starting in March 2024, students in the U.S. who take the SAT will take it digitally, and international students began taking the digital SAT in March 2023. Additionally, the PSAT will go digital in October of this year. In this blog post, I’ll [...]

Upcoming Changes in College Admissions

By |2023-01-08T23:05:57+00:00January, 4, 2023|College Admissions, College Admissions Tests, College Essays, FAFSA, Financial Aid|

As 2023 begins, there are several major changes that will impact the college admissions landscape this year and beyond. Below are descriptions of four of them, along with one wildcard. Pell Grant Increase For students and families relying on need-based financial aid, the Pell Grant increase is welcome news. The [...]

Test-Optional Admissions: A Deeper Look

By |2023-03-17T17:08:24+00:00September, 13, 2022|College Admissions, College Admissions and COVID-19, College Admissions Tests|

Guest blog post by Scott Moser, Moser Educational Services The considerable growth in the number of colleges offering test-optional admissions has led many students and parents to question whether the ACT/SAT are necessary or relevant. Unfortunately, the answer is not simple, and whether a student should take these tests and [...]

Should You Submit Your Test Scores?

By |2021-11-09T20:00:28+00:00November, 9, 2021|College Admissions and COVID-19, College Admissions Tests|

With the majority of colleges continuing to be test-optional this year, many students are wondering whether or not to submit their scores.  When advising students on this, I look at specific colleges' data.  Colleges typically publish the middle 50% of scores for either admitted or enrolled students, meaning that 50% [...]

Test-Optional Is Here to Stay

By |2021-03-11T21:26:54+00:00March, 16, 2021|College Admissions, College Admissions and COVID-19, College Admissions Tests|

On March 8, Inside Higher Ed reported that through February 15, only 44% of students who applied to college with the Common Application had submitted ACT or SAT scores.  In contrast, 77% of Common App users submitted test scores last year. As discussed in a previous blog post, the pandemic [...]

High School Juniors: Should You Take the ACT/SAT?

By |2020-11-10T18:53:53+00:00November, 10, 2020|College Admissions and COVID-19, College Admissions Tests|

Recently, several high school juniors and their parents have asked me whether they should prepare for and take the ACT and/or SAT.  As described in another blog post, due to COVID-19, multiple test dates were canceled during the spring and summer, leading more colleges than ever before to become test-optional. [...]

What Does Test-Optional Really Mean?

By |2020-11-08T23:37:54+00:00September, 9, 2020|College Admissions, College Admissions and COVID-19, College Admissions Tests|

For this year's high school seniors, taking the SAT and ACT has proven to be even more challenging than expected.  Beyond the difficulty of the tests themselves, the cancelation of multiple test dates in the spring and summer has added to students' anxiety.  Some seniors took these tests for the [...]

How College and College Admissions Might Change in the Next Decade

By |2020-08-24T15:52:23+00:00January, 14, 2020|College Admissions, College Admissions Tests, Paying for College|

Since the New Year, several articles have been published that have reflected on the accuracy of predictions for the year 2020, while others have speculated on what will happen in the coming year and decade, in areas ranging from politics to fashion to technology. College and college admissions are another [...]

University of California System Sued Over Use of ACT/SAT Scores

By |2020-08-24T15:52:23+00:00December, 31, 2019|College Admissions, College Admissions Tests|

In a recent blog post on the role of standardized test scores in the college admissions process, I mentioned that a group of  organizations had threatened to sue the University of California system due to its requirement that applicants submit ACT/SAT scores.  Earlier this month, those groups did, in fact, [...]

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