SAT-ACT Prep: Absolutely necessary for some colleges
By Daryl CapuanoSAT ACT Test PrepAs Early Action and Early Decision results are around the corner for anxious Connecticut students applying to college, I sometimes am privy to insider information from parents who have their own inside connections to college admissions officers.
This hidden world – what college admissions officers really think – can come through guidance counselors, particularly at prep schools where the counselors often know the college admissions officers directly, but sometimes just from the good fortune of having an old friend or acquaintance working as one of the gatekeepers.
Such was the case recently when a student from Fairfield County who attends a top school in New Haven was told very directly that he needed one more point on his ACT score to have his application reviewed in any serious way. He had a 29 on his ACT. The college desired (or really required) a 30 ACT.
The mother was apoplectic. “But during the college tour…” I stopped her and finished her sentence: “they told you that test scores were just part of the process and that grades, activities, and other holistic elements of the application process were more important.” I had heard this refrain hundreds of times during the decade and a half of providing college counseling and test prep to students along the Connecticut shoreline, as in sophisticated, college savvy parents, who generally would be “in the know”.
Only recently had the mother discovered that one of her college friends had a cousin who worked in the admissions office of the particular college. Through back channels, the information about the deficient test score was relayed but, unfortunately, too late for this student as he had gone Early Decision (as opposed to Early Action) and had, thus, wasted a valuable strategic chip in his college admissions arsenal.
If you haven’t discovered already, colleges are outstanding marketers. They need to be because part of the competition involves attracting lots of applicants in order to be more selective. So, for example, has 1000 applicants for 500 spots, the college marketing department is tasked with increasing the number of applicants to 2000. One way to do so is to encourage students to apply. And one way to encourage students to apply is to tell them the misleading view that the test scores do not matter so much. There is an element of truth: there are some outstanding “stories”, diversity candidates, special talents (athletes) who do not need top test scores.
But, for everyone else, be advised: maximize your test scores.
Register now for our next SAT-ACT Mastery Seminar.
CEO, The Learning Consultants and Connecticut’s top private education consultant
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