The Savannah Country Day College Counseling Office

Compass Prep, sponsored by Minnesota Independent Schools, will be hosting another webinar for families on Wednesday, April 15th at 8:00 ET. This webinar will cover important information about standardized testing, both generally and in in this current pandemic. Compass Prep is a company that I respect a lot. While their primary business is test prep, the advice and resources they provide (for free!) are nuanced and ethical. They never try to stoke fear or anxiety to make more money. I expect this will be very informative. https://www.compassprep.com/events/mais/

Since my last post, Williams, Amherst, and Northeastern have all gone test optional for the class of 2021. Southern state universities still remain a question mark, but there are going to be a lot of test optional choices for current juniors who want them.

A list of colleges who have in the past admission year become test optional for at least the class of 2021 (this list is growing by the day): Anderson University (Indiana) Bellmarine University Boston University (for high school class of 2021, then will review)... Case Western Reserve University (for high school class of 2021, then will review) Chapman University Chestnut Hill College Clarkson University Concordia University Texas Davidson College (3-year pilot) Drury University Hamline University Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Fort Wayne Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana University -- Kokomo Lourdes University Neumann University (2.5 GPA) Northern Illinois University (test blind) Oregon State University Pomona College (for high school class of 2021) Portland State University Quincy University Rhodes College (3-year pilot) St. Bonaventure University St. Mary-of-the-Woods College St. Mary’s College of Maryland Scripps College Shenandoah University Suffolk University Texas Christian University (for high school class of 2021) Trinity University (Texas) (3-year pilot) Tufts University (3-year pilot) University of California Berkeley (for high school class of 2021) University of California Davis (for high school class of 2021) University of California Irvine (for high school class of 2021) University of California Los Angeles (for high school class of 2021) University of California Merced (for high school class of 2021) University of California Riverside (for high school class of 2021) University of California San Diego (for high school class of 2021) University of California Santa Barbara (for high school class of 2021) University of California Santa Cruz (for high school class of 2021) University of Missouri Kansas City (2.75 GPA) University of Nebraska Kearney, Lincoln & Omaha (3.0 GPA or rank in top half) University of Oregon University of Redlands University of St. Thomas University of the Cumberlands University of Toledo Vassar College (for high school class of 2021, then will review) Western Michigan University William Woods University See more

I'm going to try to start posting more resources here in the coming weeks to address the challenges relating to college admission that students are facing at the moment. I'll start with this: Compass Prep is offering a webinar Monday night to address standardized testing and other admission concerns. The panelists are excellent and include folks in college admission and counselors at independent schools. I'm attending, and I think it will be worth your while if these questions are weighing on your mind. https://www.compassprep.com/coronavirus-admissions-webinar/

Curious about what the USA's student debt holders look like? This piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education walks you through the stats behind the 1.5 trillion dollars currently held in student loans. https://www.chronicle.com/interacti/who-holds-student-debt

For any juniors starting to think about applications next year (and I hope there aren't many kids in that boat), the Common App announced today that next year's essay prompts will remain the same. That includes the option of "Topic of your own choice." https://www.commonapp.org//2020-2021-common-app-essay-prom

Some fairly significant changes coming to the way students can take the ACT. Students can retake one section at a time, AND have the choice to take the test on paper, as it’s currently offered, or online. The changes will kick in in September, so will mostly impact current sophomores and later grades. https://www.nytimes.com/20//08/us/act-test-superscore.html

Chris and I just returned from the deeply informative National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) annual conference in Louisville. This event brings together nearly eight thousand college admissions professionals (secondary counselors like us as well as college admissions officers) for three days of meetings, sessions and networking. During the conference we attended sessions on a wide range of admissions hot topics including the future of Early Decision, th...e Varsity Blues scandal, how to build effective Profiles, counseling international students and admissions to UK universities among others. I presented to a crowd of about 150 with counselors from Brandeis, Dartmouth, the University of Michigan, and Marymount HS in LA about how to have more productive high school visits. Pictured: On the way to the conference Chris visited the University of Kentucky in Lexington while I stopped in Nashville to see Belmont University and Vanderbilt University.

It's college rankings season. (This is not a cue to head over to US News.) People love to look at college rankings! Colleges love to brag about their rankings! But here's the thing. When you really dig in to what they measure, they're a pretty poor measure of college quality, and certainly a poor way to know which college will be right for you. Our friends at Georgia Tech wrote a great piece a couple of years ago detailing some of the ways in which the rankings are suspect. https://pwp.gatech.edu//09/13/three-cheers-for-the-ranki/

This is a long read but a good one. It digs into the ways different priorities (tuition revenue, socioeconomic diversity, SAT scores, etc.) drive admission decisions at selective colleges. It's one of the most in-depth and accurate portrayals I've seen of the challenges admission offices are wrestling with. https://www.nytimes.com//college-admissions-paul-tough.html

This is a great piece from the Georgia Tech admission blog addressing two common myths that many colleges hear: that colleges set admission quotas for different high schools, and that there are a specific number of courses required for admission. http://pwp.gatech.edu//09/05/thats-not-how-it-works-part-3/

In this brief blog post, the Dean of Admission at UVA clarifies the way they evaluate rigor of curriculum. In my experience this is a very common attitude towards how students take AP courses. The number taken isn't everything, and which AP courses a student chooses to take matters more than the overall number. There are exceptions, of course. For example, some colleges that are very STEM focused may care far more about a student's math/science APs than if they took a balanced curriculum. Still, more colleges prefer a well-rounded academic curriculum. http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com//course-rigor-is-not-nu

Rick Clark, the Director of Admission at Georgia Tech, offers some great advice to parents dealing with the college admission process. He touches on how to be supportive, how to set a good example on social media, how to engage with other friends and parents, and how to build independence in your own child. http://pwp.gatech.edu/admission-bl//hope-for-the-new-year/