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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"What I really liked about working with you the most was the essay refining part because it kept me on track. And I like to say that I would have been able to stay on track, but I definitely would not have because there were times when I would sit down on the weekend and be like, 'Okay, I'm meeting with Kimberly on Monday. I have to write this essay or I'm not going to have anything to show her.' So that in the moment kind of sucked. But looking back it was really good for me. Otherwise it would have not been good. I was also really happy about this feedback that you were able to give me with my essay and how I was able to make it as good as it could be."

-Anja L., graduate of Dimond High School

 

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Anja L. is a Dimond High School graduate.  During spring of her junior year, Anja began working with us in a college admissions consulting program.  We began working together to build her college list, enabling her to visit colleges during the summer.  In addition to college research and list building, I also assisted Anja planning and developing of some of her college essays (including her main Common Application essay) and optimizing her SAT testing plans. Anja concurrently completed a 12-hour SAT Individual Prep program and received one-on-one academic tutoring in her precalculus class. Over the course of her SAT prep program, Anja increased her SAT superscore to 1450 (97th percentile).  Anja was accepted Middlebury College, Colorado College, University of Vermont, and Montana State University, where she was awarded a $46,000 scholarship, for which eligibility criteria generally include 95th+ percentile SAT/ACT scores, 3.8+ GPA, track record of leadership/honors/high-impact extracurriculars, and essay application.

 

In this post, I share excerpts from an interview with Anja, during which we discussed the college list-building process (including some of the tools she used), essay development, and her SAT preparation experience at Frontier Tutoring.  Responses have been edited for length and clarity.  Use the links below to jump to the questions you're curious about.

 

-Kimberly Hewitt, Business Unit Manager - College Admissions Consulting

 

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"Starting DURING junior year allows you to improve your COMPETITIVENESS.  Starting AFTER junior year limits you to improving your NARRATIVE."

-Kimberly Hewitt, Business Unit Manager - College Admissions Consulting

 

Many high school students and families I meet with wait until fall of senior year to think critically about their college list or applications—but for best results, students should begin planning for college admissions during junior year—the earlier, the better.  Why?  If you start planning for college admissions during 11th grade, you will have time to improve your profile and competitiveness (for example, by adjusting your coursework selection, improving your grades and test scores, initiating or enhancing your involvement in specific extracurriculars, identifying and deepening relationships with potential recommendation writers, etc.).  On the other hand, if you wait until after junior year to begin thinking about college admissions in earnest, you will be limited to expressing the most compelling narrative about the profile you already have.  To be clear, optimizing the way you tell your story and express your goals on college applications is critical—but you'll be even better positioned if your profile is more competitive to begin with.  In this post, I'll walk you through six specific, high-leverage areas I work with on students when they start a college admissions consulting (CAC) program during their junior year.

 

• Developing and refining an optimized college list
• Getting to know your story—and translating it into your essay strategy
• Choosing coursework strategically and maintaining an excellent GPA
• Selecting, scheduling, and preparing for standardized tests
• Optimizing your extracurricular profile
• Identifying letter of recommendation writers and equipping them to advocate strongly on your behalf

 

"It's nice to have a third party saying, 'What are your goals? What are your objectives? Okay, then this is what you have to do to get there.' Also, I like the structure and the timing [of your CAC program].  For example, are we on time, or are we behind, and do I need to be stressing? I like not having to worry about that piece in particular." -Bhree R., parent of 11th grader at West Anchorage High School   READ MORE: Interview with a West HS Student & Parent: Starting College Admissions Consulting During 11th Grade

 

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Matt F. is a 2017 graduate of South Anchorage High School who completed a College Admissions Consulting program with Frontier Tutoring during the 2016/17 school year.  He also improved his ACT score by four points after taking our ACT Prep Class during his junior year.  Matt is now a freshman at Penn, where admitted applicants have an average high school GPA of 3.84 and SAT score of 1520/ACT score of 34.

 

In this second installment of our How I Did It series, we're giving you a first-hand account of what it's like to go through the college admissions process with a professional advisor.  Now, let's hear from Matt, along with his mom, Melissa, as they tell us about their experiences working with Frontier Tutoring in a College Admissions Consulting program.

 

 

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Earlier this week, the College Board released scores from the March 5 SAT—the first administration of the redesigned SAT—as well as long-awaited new concordance tables, which allow students to understand how their scores from the redesigned SAT, ACT, and old SAT compare in common terms.  Shortly after the College Board's announcement, the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education announced the Alaska Performance Scholarship score requirements for redesigned SAT.  What does the new scoring system of the redesigned SAT mean for you?

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For nearly the last 18 months, the College Board has dominated the conversation about standardized testing changes with news about the Redesigned SAT launching in March 2016.  But did you know that ACT, Inc. has been phasing in changes of its own?  While some of these changes are for the benefit of data collection and are fairly insignificant from a test-taking perspective, one major change is the essay—it has been completely overhauled and will debut in its new format during the September 12, 2015 test administration.

 

Let’s take look at these changes and talk about what you need to know if you're preparing for the ACT. We’ll examine these changes in order of significance, first discussing the biggest change (the essay) and ending our post by touching on the newly formatted score report.

 

 

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NOTE: This blog post contains guidance that was valid only though December 2015.  Now that your test options are either the redesigned SAT or the ACT, check out our newly updated post, Redesigned SAT vs. ACT: How 11th Graders Should Choose, for the latest guidance on what to do next.

 

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You’ve probably heard a lot of talk regarding the Redesigned SAT (a.k.a. the “New SAT”), which launches in March 2016. But how, exactly, does the new test affect you? In this post, we’ll break down what’s changing, compare the Redesigned SAT to the Existing SAT and ACT—and explain what 11th graders need to do ASAP to determine which test is right for them.

 

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