Updates Since Original March 18 Post: -8/3/2020: Fall 2020 ACT registration is open. -6/23/2020: The UAA Testing Center has confirmed that the July 18 ACT is happening at the UAA Social Sciences Building, 2nd floor. Additionally, ACT has announced three additional fall 2020 test dates: September 19, October 10, and October 17. Registration will open the last week of July. -6/2/2020: The College Board has suspended plans to roll out online SAT testing in fall 2020 and has publicly asked colleges to extend testing deadlines for applicants in the high school class of 2021. See full announcement -5/28/2020: Priority registration has opened for fall 2020 SAT test dates. Regular registration will open on June 3. See full details -5/26/2020: According to the UAA Testing Center, the June 13 ACT administration at their Anchorage testing center has been cancelled. -4/23/2020: The College Board has announced that a new SAT date has been added for September 26, 2020. -4/15/2020: ACT will offer home-based testing beginning in late fall/early winter 2020. See full announcement -4/15/2020: The College Board has cancelled the June 2020 SAT, but notes that they will add an official test date in September, meaning there will be an SAT test date every month from August through December. Students who had been registered for the June SAT, as well as current juniors who have not yet taken the SAT, will receive early access to registration for the August/September/October SAT dates. |
The rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation is affecting every facet of our lives, and SAT/ACT testing is no exception, with the May 2 SAT having been cancelled and the April 4 ACT having been rescheduled. Frontier Tutoring is continuing to operate all of our programs, including SAT/ACT prep, via online delivery until Anchorage School District resumes in-person courses (see here for our latest operational status updates). We want to help Alaska families decide how to approach their SAT/ACT testing during this unprecedented situation, so in this post we are answering the following questions for 11th graders (Class of 2022) and 12th graders (Class of 2021):
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Topics:
ACT,
SAT,
11th Grade - Juniors,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Test Well
Of everything you include in your college applications, the essays are the single element over which you have the most control—make the most of this opportunity to define your narrative. You know you’ll need to write a variety of essays for your college applications. The real question: How will you craft effective messaging that demonstrates your talent and character in order to maximize your chances of admission? In this post, we will provide an overview of the college application essay planning and writing process, including:
- What kinds of college application essays you will need to write
- The Frontier Tutoring essay planning formula for strategizing your topic and planning your structure, regardless of the prompt
- Keys to success for essay planning and writing
- When you should start planning and writing—including how to get a head start during junior year
- Actual draft essays—from first draft to final—from Anja L. and Sam L., two Frontier Tutoring college admissions consulting students. Anja was admitted to Middlebury (17% acceptance rate), while Sam was admitted to Georgetown (11.7% early action acceptance rate).
Ready to write? Let's begin!
-Kimberly Hewitt - Business Unit Manager, College Admissions Consulting
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Topics:
11th Grade - Juniors,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Apply Right,
Anchorage
After three grueling years of academics, senior year has finally arrived! Of course, there's important work still to be done. Now is time for rising seniors to roll up their sleeves and lay the foundation for a successful college application season. In this post, we’ll run through a checklist of five college admissions priorities for rising seniors to work on starting now. Specifically, we’ll discuss how to:
- Finalize your college list—the single most important factor upon which nearly all of your other decisions over the next four months will depend
- Identify and achieve your target SAT/ACT score before application deadlines
- Begin essays and applications
- Identify financial aid and scholarships
- Determine whether you need to take SAT Subject Tests
The checklist includes links to many of our other resources, including our College Essay Planning Formula, which many of our students have used as the basis for highly successful college application essays. Let’s get to work!
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Topics:
Financial Aid & Scholarships,
ACT,
SAT,
College Admissions: Explore Early,
College Admissions: Excel Academically,
College Admissions: Build Your Application Assets,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Apply Right,
College Admissions: Test Well,
Anchorage
Updated January 19, 2021 - The CollegeBoard has discontinued the SAT essay. At this point, only a handful of schools schools require or recommend the ACT Writing (essay).
Updated May 22, 2020 - Over the last two years, a variety of high-profile colleges have announced that the SAT/ACT essay will now be optional for applicants to their schools because they believe a single essay cannot reliably predict a student’s college writing capabilities. As of this posting, only a few colleges require or recommend the SAT/ACT essay. Finally, Princeton, in a move mimicked by Brown (and likely other colleges soon), has made the SAT/ACT essay optional, but instead requires all applicants to submit a graded writing sample. Should YOU plan to take the SAT/ACT essay? Here’s how to decide.
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Topics:
ACT,
SAT,
College Admissions: Explore Early,
11th Grade - Juniors,
10th Grade - Sophomores,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Test Well,
Anchorage
Developing a working college list no later than junior year, and finalizing it before senior year begins, is what sets the most competitive applicants apart. If there's one thing about college admissions that high school students should learn upfront, it's that all roads in high school lead from where you intend to apply to college. The colleges on your list will determine the minimum GPA you should aim for, which standardized tests you need take (and the scores required to make you a competitive candidate), how many essays you will need to write, what kind of scholarship opportunities may be available, which other application deliverables you may need to prepare, application/testing/scholarship deadlines, and much more.
Whether you're a sophomore or a senior, it's never too early to start thinking about where you aspire to attend college, and how you can start building your application assets to be a competitive candidate by the time you apply. In this post, I'll explain our five-step process to identifying your colleges of interest. I'll also describe how I work with my college admissions consulting students to professionally guide them in developing their preliminary and final college lists.
Step 1: Start Early
Step 2: Consider Your Assets and Preferences
Step 3: Research Colleges
Step 4: Develop Your Preliminary College List
Step 5: Finalize Your College List
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Topics:
College Admissions: Explore Early,
9th Grade - Freshmen,
College Admissions: Excel Academically,
College Admissions: Build Your Application Assets,
11th Grade - Juniors,
10th Grade - Sophomores,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Apply Right,
College Admissions: Test Well
While everyone hopes they'll be able to take the SAT or ACT just once and be done with the process, the reality is that about half of all students take the official test again—even if they had completed an SAT/ACT prep program before their initial testing attempt. If you’ve taken the official SAT or ACT, and your score has left you wondering whether you should retake the test, what should you do next? We'll help you answer that question in this post.
"When Anna got a great practice test score after her prep class, then her real test was a drop from that score, yes, it was a little disappointing. But you have to know that you could have a bad test day any given day, right? There's no downside to retaking the test...so just keep [trying] until you've got a good test [score]." -Ransom J., parent of student at West Anchorage High School who
- took the official ACT three times, ultimately earning a 94th percentile score
- is matriculating at Washington and Lee University
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Note: This article is for students who have already taken the official SAT/ACT at least once. If you haven’t taken the official SAT/ACT yet, see this blog post:
When to Prepare for and Take the SAT/ACT: 3 Questions to Help You Decide.
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Topics:
College Admissions,
ACT,
SAT,
11th Grade - Juniors,
10th Grade - Sophomores,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Test Well,
Anchorage
10th and 11th graders: Your SAT or ACT scores will likely play a significant role in your competitiveness when applying to colleges, with 88% of colleges placing considerable or moderate importance on students’ standardized test scores for admissions purposes.1 Given the importance of your SAT/ACT scores, how should you develop your testing calendar and plans? In this article, we’ll review three questions to help you decide when you should prepare for and take the official SAT or ACT—including what sophomores should do over the summer to determine whether they may be competitive for National Merit recognition on their junior year PSAT.
Here's everything covered in this post:
First, let’s start with a high-level overview of SAT/ACT testing strategy.
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Topics:
SAT Subject Tests,
ACT,
SAT,
11th Grade - Juniors,
10th Grade - Sophomores,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Test Well,
Anchorage,
PSAT
SAT Subject Tests could be an important part of your college admissions profile. In this post, we'll cover critical things to know about SAT Subject Tests—like the fact that there is still a penalty for guessing, unlike the regular SAT. We'll also discuss other FAQs from Alaska students, including which colleges require SAT Subject Tests, what makes for a competitive score.
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Topics:
SAT Subject Tests,
11th Grade - Juniors,
10th Grade - Sophomores,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Test Well,
Anchorage
At Frontier Tutoring, we encourage every college-bound high school student in Anchorage to take advantage of our free practice SAT/ACT testing at the right time as part of their test prep strategy. And many do—last year, over 40% of Anchorage School District students who took the SAT/ACT electively signed up for a Frontier Tutoring practice test first. But why, when, and how, exactly, should you sign up for practice tests? We’ve put together a few tips to help you get the most out of this important resource and navigate the standardized testing and college admissions process.
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Topics:
ACT,
SAT,
11th Grade - Juniors,
10th Grade - Sophomores,
12th Grade - Seniors,
College Admissions: Test Well,
Anchorage,
PSAT