As an underclassman, it can be a challenge to even start thinking about the college admissions process—let alone know what to do! During my recent Facebook Live Q&A, I answered your questions and gave my insider advice on how underclassmen can start preparing for the college admissions process now.
In case you missed it, here’s a recap of this session with a list of the questions I answered live, the full video of my session, and some bonus questions that I didn't get to answer live!
HERE ARE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS YOU'LL SEE ME ANSWER:
- Does the school a student attends affect the admission decision? How do colleges assess the rigor of each high school?
- What can we do (besides the school profile) to highlight the difficult curriculum at my son's high school?
- Should I drop fine or performing art courses junior year to focus on school work?
- My son is applying to engineering programs. Should he take AP Biology/AP Chemistry or Honors Physics?
- For kids that generally do well (honors classes, but not straight A's), what is the single most important thing for them to focus on, knowing they will graduate with a solid GPA, but not stellar?
- How do you decide whether or not to send the transcript of the first marking period for senior year to the schools that you have applied to for Early Decision or Early Action?
- My son is in 10th grade. When should he plan to take the ACT and SAT for the first time?
- If your child’s SAT score falls short of the middle 50% of the desired school’s range BUT they have scored at the top of their peers at their high school and have a very high GPA, is that a story to tell to help increase their admissions chances?
- Can you recommend specific resources to help my 9th grade daughter prepare long-term for SATs?
- My son took the ACT early (September, junior year) and scored very well. Can he send his score to the colleges he's interested in his junior year or does he need to wait until his senior year?
- Do all colleges and universities require letters of recommendation?
- Who should you ask to write letters of recommendation for you? And when should you ask them?
- My daughter participates in many clubs and after school activities and community service. She is not, however, on any athletic teams. How important is this for the admisssions process?
- Should parents let students write their own college essays or should they help with the editing process or have an English teacher or college counselor help?
- When should students start visiting college campuses?
- How can a student best prepare for a college interview (whether in person or via Skype)?
- When should a family start thinking about financial aid?
BONUS Q&A- BIG QUESTIONS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE VIDEO
1. Do universities remove electives from a high school transcript when determining a student’s true GPA?
That's what most of the highly selective colleges will do. It's not that gym, health, religious courses, and non-academic courses don't matter, but they're much more focused on what they deem to be academic courses. They'll still see them on the transcript. So if the student got a low grade in one of those other classes, they would take note even thought it wouldn't be a part of the recalculated GPA.
2. What do you recommend a student concentrate on in high school to grab an admissions officer's attention?
When a student does something that no one else is doing, they tend to stand out as long as their record, test scores, recommendation letters, and essays are really strong too.
3. Do all students who want to attend college have to take the SAT or ACT?
There are now hundreds of test optional colleges in the US, but I always tell students to take the SAT or ACT at least once just to be safe even if they plan to only apply to test optional colleges because plans tend to change.
