Student Resume Can Boost College Applications

The college application process actually begins as soon as students embark on their high school journey.  Well before students identify their future college major or dream school, they start creating their personal journey through the activities, clubs, and organizations with which they engage. The best way to keep track of it all is to craft a resume and constantly update it throughout one’s high school years.

 

A resume is a worthwhile document to have on hand, as it is often requested of high school students seeking a part time job, internship, scholarship, or inclusion in a pre-college program.  Students should compose their initial resume during freshman year of high school, listing categories such as Academics, Athletics, Extra-curricular Activities, Volunteer Work, Employment, and any other fields in which they are engaged.  Resumes should continuously be updated, with the categories posted in decreasing order of importance. Thus, the category featuring the student’s most impressive accomplishments would top the resume.

 

On The Common Application, which is accepted by more than 900 colleges, students are given space to list ten activities. But they are limited in the amount of information they can include about each one. Often, students do not have sufficient space to enumerate all of their accomplishments and leadership roles for each activity. Thus, a resume can fill this gap.

The "Must Ask" College Planning Questions

Identifying one’s ideal college is a daunting task, with some 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. alone.  Often, students and their parents rely on information from well-meaning friends and relatives.  But the experiences and expectations of one family can vary greatly from that of another, with differing resources, talents, and ambitions.

 

The ideal way to identify “best fit” colleges is to devise a list of questions and then seek answers – hopefully over a lengthy period of time as colleges are visited and admissions officers are consulted.  Productive questions may be:

 

Which colleges offer the strongest program in my intended major?

 

Do I prefer to attend a college in an urban, suburban, or rural community?

 

Would I be more comfortable at a small school, or would I love being immersed in a large student body?

2.8 Million Students Take AP Exams in May

College bound students know that the GPA and SAT scores listed on their college applications are scrutinized by college admissions officers.  But so too are additional numbers: the scores on their AP exams. 

AP stands for Advanced Placement. It’s the term for college level courses, created by College Board (the same folks who bring you the SAT exam), that provide high school students with the opportunity to earn colleges credits if they score high enough on end-of-year exams.  AP exams are currently offered in 38 subjects, including the Arts, English, History and Social Science, Math and Computer Science, Science, and World Languages and Cultures, although not all courses are offered at every high school.  AP exams were introduced back in the 1950’s and have greatly increased in the number of options and in popularity over the years.  Currently, some 2.8 million students take AP exams each May. Students who score 3 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5) are offered college credits by many of the nation’s colleges and universities.

Students Get Unlimited “Do Overs” on SAT Exam

 

Just as the SAT has evolved over the years, so too have the “rules” surrounding it.

 

The first SAT was administered on June 23^rd, 1926 to 8,040 students. In 2022, nearly 100 years later, some 1.7 million students took the exam as part of their college application process.

 

The test has survived a multitude of revisions over the year, with a major overhaul scheduled for March of 2024 when the test will go digital in the United States and decrease significantly in length from three hours to two hours of testing material.

 

The good news for students is that they will continue to have control over which of their scores get reviewed by colleges. Students can take the current and/or new SAT exam and all of their scores are recorded on their College Board account. When it’s time to apply to college, students can literally check off the scores they want to submit.  Colleges do not know how many times a student has taken the SAT and do not see any scores that students do not want to share.