Don’t Let Coronavirus Slow Down College Planning

The schedule has certainly been turned upside down for high school Juniors, preventing them from taking the March or May SAT exam, touring potential colleges over spring break, and meeting with guidance counselors to launch their college application process.

But there is much that can be done by Juniors who want to keep on track to experience a successful college application process.  College-bound students should visit the websites of some large universities such as Rutgers, Penn State, and the University of Delaware, and click on the list of majors – which will be extensive. Students should identify those that sound appealing, and then read up on the list of required courses and the careers for which they would be prepared.

Once a potential “major” is chosen, students can visit bigfuture.collegeboard.org and click Search for Colleges. By indicating their preferred geographic region, selectivity of college, major, on campus housing needs, and any other criteria of importance, the site will identify their “best fit” colleges. 

Students can then go on virtual tours of their best fit colleges and narrow down their preferences.  This will allow students to complete the all-important task of developing a list of the colleges to which they will apply. Now, the task at hand is to meet the criteria to get accepted – preferably with scholarship money!

The next SAT exam is scheduled for June 6th, and students would be wise to register for it as soon as possible as seats are likely to be at a premium. (The last SAT exam administrated in many school districts was back in December of 2019.)  Students should carefully prepare for this exam as they will likely have fewer opportunities to take the SAT before submitting their highest scores on their college applications in the early fall.

Students should not be lulled into complacency by colleges announcing they will not require SAT scores for the entering class in September of 2021. Students with strong SAT scores almost always benefit in a multitude of ways: impressing college admission officers, being awarded merit scholarship money, avoiding the requirement to take college placement tests.

High school students can also get started working on their Common Application, which is accepted by more than 800 colleges.  Although it “goes live” with a new application on August 1st of each year, the majority of questions remain the same and most of the information that students fill out in advance gets rolled over onto the new application.

Students can even write their Common App Essay in advance, as the choice of prompts have already been released!  

Susan Alaimo is the founder of SAT Smart. For the past 25 years, SAT Smart’s Ivy League educated tutors have prepared students for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, Subject Tests, AP courses, and all high school subjects. Visit www.SATsmart.com or call 908-369-5362.