College Admission Testing Is Now A Little Easier

College Board has finally made high school students smile with its announcement, just last week, that there will be fewer hoops for students to jump through on their path to higher education. 

Effective immediately, Subject Tests, also known as SAT II exams, will no longer be administered. These one-hour long multiple-choice tests were offered in Math, Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, U.S. and Word History, and a gamut of foreign languages. They were recommended by admissions officers at Ivy League and other highly competitive schools, such as Georgetown University.   

College Board now says that the proliferation of AP exams in recent years makes Subject Tests unnecessary.  College Board writes the syllabus for Advanced Placement (college level) courses, and the exams that culminate the school year.  Students can distinguish themselves to college admissions officers, and simultaneously earn college credits, by earning high scores on these tests that typically run up to three hours in length.

Some Big Name Companies Help Cover College Costs

The latest statistics from Forbes indicate there are more than 45 million people who owe $1.6 trillion in student loan debt in the United States. Students who want to avoid joining this “club” should consider choosing an employer who will absorb some or all of the staggering costs of higher education.

After working just one year at the company, Amazon’s Career Choice Program will pre-pay up to 95% of tuition and fee expenses for employees who are seeking a degree or certificate for certain in-demand occupations, including nursing, aircraft mechanics, and computer-aided design. The classes are offered on site at Amazon and student-employees are also reimbursed up to $12,000 for textbooks and other expenses.

Research is Key to Identifying Best Fit Colleges

While the Covid pandemic may prevent students from touring colleges of interest, there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t engage in an even more productive activity – research.  A college investment is one of the largest expenses most families will face in their lifetime.  Yet many students and parents find themselves choosing an institute of higher learning without doing any serious homework that could help identify best-fit colleges where students could prepare for the career of their dreams, at an affordable cost, with the likelihood of earning an impressive salary over the course of their career.

A good place for families to start their research is at CollegeBoard.org.  There they will find a College Search database that contains information on more than 2,000 four-year colleges in the United States.  By selecting specific criteria regarding school size, location, availability of on-campus housing, choice of major, and other aspects of college life, students can easily identify colleges that might be a great match.

There’s Still Time to Submit College Applications

If you’re a high school senior, with hopes of attending a great college in the fall, all is not lost if you have not yet applied to, or gotten accepted to, your dream school.

Although the application deadline has passed for all of the Ivy League schools, and many other elite institutions, there are several hundred colleges whose application deadlines for the 2021-2022 academic year fall on or after January 15th.  

While this is not the ideal time for college-bound students to begin the application process, those who find themselves in this boat – due to procrastination or any other reason – should follow a few guidelines.