Test Preparation

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A Conversation About College

A Conversation About CollegeLearn More at Dobler College Consulting’s College Admissions Workshop

I will be hosting a free workshop titled, “A Conversation About College” on Monday, September 30th at Sacred Heart Church in Southbury, CT. For more information or to reserve your seat, head over to my Events page.

The workshop shares strategies to help your son or daughter navigate the college admissions process while eliminating mistakes that tend to reduce their chances of admission. Topics include college lists, essays, interviews, campus visits and what you need to know about making college more affordable.

All workshop participants will receive informational handouts and will be eligible for special discounts off private college counseling services.

Don’t live in or near Southbury? You can easily get in touch with me to set up a free 60-minute consultation to help address your pressing college admissions-related questions and issues.

Also be sure to snag your free copy of the Top Ten Tips For Navigating The College Admissions Journey.

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SAT and ACT Prep

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this by now, but your SAT or ACT scores will play an important role in your college applications. They are just one piece of the admissions puzzle, but they can very often be an important one.If you haven’t registered for your SAT or ACT yet, you will want to do so shortly. Registering for the test is the easy part. Being prepared for it so that you do well is the hard part. So, just how do you go about preparing for the test that everyone dreads? I’m glad you asked.

For the SAT, buy yourself a copy of The Official SAT Study Guide. You can buy it for about $12 and it’s money well spent. The guide contains 10 practice tests and while you may not have the time or intestinal fortitude to complete all 10, the more you do complete, the better off you will be. The key here is to go through and answer all the questions and then go back and figure out the answers to the ones you got wrong. Actually invest the time in figuring out where you went wrong and then work at it until you understand it completely and could arrive at the correct answer the next time.

For the ACT, you can purchase The Real ACT Prep Guide. For about $15 you get 5 practice tests and your goal here is the same with the SAT guide. Use the practice tests to practice your abilities. What do you know and what do you struggle with? If you can identify some weaknesses and then work on them, you will find greater success when you take the real test.

There are also some great online resources. In this case, great also means free! Check out PWN The SAT, Craig Gonzalez Tutoring, the Perfect Score Project, and FreeTestPrep.com. Each one is chock full of tips, drills, resources and strategies you can put to use right away. You just have to be willing to spend the time.

Of course, if you’re like me and standardized testing just isn’t your thing, you should also know that nearly 800 colleges are test-optional. Some don’t use standardized tests at all while others may waive them due to your awesome grades. Either way, be aware of all your options, the resources available to you and use them to your advantage!

If you have any questions about standardized test prep, the SAT or the ACT, please use the comment box below.

You can also email me directly at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com – I would love to hear from you!

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A Conversation About College Part I

Last week, at Sacred Heart Church in Southbury, Connecticut, I conducted a workshop titled, “A Conversation About College.” There were about 35 people in attendance – mostly parents of high school sophomores and juniors –and the event was designed to be an engaging discussion about how to successfully navigate the college application process. The families who came to the event were great! They weren’t afraid to ask their pressing questions which covered just about every aspect of the college admissions process. Starting today, I will be sharing a take-away transcript of their most pressing questions from the evening’s discussion with you here in my blog.

Q: If all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, except for SAT scores, will most schools overlook a low score?

A: To be honest, this is a tough question to answer because whether or not a school is going to overlook a low score depends on several things:

1.) It depends on which schools your son or daughter is making an application to and what their average SAT scores are. The more competitive the school, the less forgiving they are going to be. What you want to know is how low the score is when compared to the college’s average score for admission.

2.) It also depends on the other pieces of the application. How strong are the grades? How good is the essay? What do the recommendations say? Has he or she done an interview? Is there enough here for an admissions counselor to say, yes, let’s overlook the scores – this is a very subjective situation and will be met with different responses depending on the college.

3.) One thing to consider is whether or not a college even requires SAT scores. There are a couple hundred schools in the country which are test optional. You can find a complete list of them at www.fairtest.org. A student can apply to any of these schools and choose not to submit test scores for admission. Some of the schools may want test scores at a later time for course placement so you would submit the scores later on, but for admission they would not be required. You may get lucky and find out that a school your child is interested in is already on this list. If not, he or she may want to go through the list and consider some of the schools.

4.) In the end, with a situation like this that is so gray, the best thing a student can do is contact an admissions officer and ask for their take on it. Go right to the source for the most accurate information. Definitely a situation where an interview could be very helpful.

Q: When is the right time to submit an application?

A: The right time to submit an application is before the deadline. Depending on whether your son or daughter will be applying Early Decision, Early Action or Regular Admission, there will be different deadlines and you will want to pay close attention to them. On the other hand, some schools will be on Rolling Admission which means you can apply whenever you want (though you will typically want to apply sometime in late November or early December). For the application deadlines for any school, you can go to their admissions office webpage or a website like the College Board or College Navigator.

Q: How can I find a reputable college that will accept a “C/B-” student?

Honestly, this is something that will take a little research and a little time because the search won’t just be about the grades as much as it will be about several other things including intended major, location, cost, size, type of student body, public or private – there are so many factors that go into prioritizing a college search and these are just a few of them. Once you have pinned down some of these items, you can then do a more thorough review of potential schools by reading reviews about them online, conducting college visits and attending college fairs. A C/B- student isn’t a terrible thing by any means, but it does mean that other parts of the application like test scores, the essay and recommendations may be leaned on even more so to help make a decision. Another thing to keep in mind is whether or not your son or daughter’s grades have been trending in an upward or downward direction. If they are trending up, a lot of schools will look favorably upon their academic record. If they are trending downward, then your list of potential schools will have to be very realistic.

Q: How can I motivate my child to enjoy looking at colleges?

This is really a question that is dependent on which grade your child is in and where you guys are in the college search process. For a younger student, such as a freshman or sophomore, your best bet is to check out a local school and at least attempt to introduce the idea of college. For a student who is already in their junior year, it may be best to just sit down and talk with them and see if you can get them to tell you how they feel about the college search and visiting college campuses. Are they nervous? Scared? Intimidated? Do they feel like they are under a lot of pressure? A conversation like this can be very valuable towards getting them pointed in the right direction. Here is an article from the NY Times about a dad who found some ways to introduce his 9th grader to college visits. I really liked his approach and hope you find some value in it.

If you have any thoughts you would like to share on “A Conversation About College,” please use the comment box below – I would love to hear from you! You can also email me directly at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com.

Eric Dobler is the president and founder of Dobler College Consulting. Follow him on Twitter.

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