COllege Admissions News and ACT / SAT Strategy

A college essay does not have to be about an important topic – cancer, death, poverty, etc. – basically, the Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened To You Or Anyone Anywhere. It has to be important to you, but not by definition heavy or serious. However, sometimes a major world issue or a personal tragedy is vital to understanding you and your worldview. It’s understandable to want to share that with an admissions committee. If you truly want to write about something serious, here are some tips on how to handle it.

Keep the focus on how YOU relate to the topic at hand

Discuss major issues in the context of you and your life story. It can be difficult to have any sort of meaningful dialogue about such topics as war or racism in approximately 650 words. Narrow your focus down to a specific time or event when your life was personally affected by such an issue. Describe how it made you feel, what your reaction was, and how you have grown as a person as a result of going through the experience. Providing relevant (the key being relevant, not “every sordid”), specific details will be the key to keeping your college essay from feeling generic or superficial. Ultimately, the point of the essay is to give a little insight into an applicant as an individual. Don’t waste the opportunity by pontificating on ending world hunger without relating it back to exactly why it’s a goal of yours and what you plan to do about it.

Math is a subject that most students either love or hate.  In either case, preparing thoroughly for the Math section of the ACT is important in order to do your best. If...

The Common Application sets a 250-650 word limit for the length of your personal statement. It may feel like it’s impossible to say everything you need to say about yourself in 650 words or less, but complying with this rule is about more than just word counting. It’s a life lesson.

The ACT Math section tests math skills that every high school student should have.  Even if you think you are good at math, it won’t be a walk in the park, and even if you think you are bad at math, it won’t be impossible.  It will test not just what you already know, but your ability to figure things out on the fly, so memorization and practice are both a necessary part of the preparation process.

Most high school athletes looking to play in college can readily rattle off their relevant statistics, be it best times, yards rushing, batting averages, or goals. They'll be able to tell you how often they qualified for the various all-state honors available. But far too many couldn't tell you if they would be an NCAA D1 qualifier for their sport. 

A "qualifier" is an athlete who has qualified to participate in NCAA D1 sports by meeting all academic requirements. This means that the athlete has met the minimum required GPA in 16 core classes with a matching ACT or SAT score. D1 uses a sliding scale to determine the require test scores--the lower your GPA, the higher test score required.

Maybe writing isn’t your best subject in school. That’s okay. Here’s what you can do to make the most of your college essay even if you worry about the strength of your writing skills.