Summer Activities of Top College Applicants

Students vying for acceptance to the most competitive colleges know the benefit of highlighting impressive SAT scores and GPA, ideally including a perfect “5” on a gamut of AP exams. While that will move them to the top of the pack, more needs to be accomplished to acquire a seat at one of the most coveted universities.   

The summer provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in meaningful activities that will demonstrate their commitment to a particular field of study and help them stand out from their peers.  This can be accomplished through participation in extracurricular activities, volunteer opportunities, or enrollment in specialized courses. 

 

Students seeking acceptance into a particular course of study – business, engineering, pre-med, physical therapy – are often asked to write a supplemental essay about their “experiences” that have led to their passion for the field.  Summer is the ideal time to shadow a mentor in the field, participate in an internship, or engage in some pre-professional program.

What’s an Acceptable SAT Score for College Admissions?

College-bound students often wonder what SAT score they need to reach their goals.  The answer is that it varies greatly.  It depends on the student’s aspirations and the competition from their peers.

 

Students should make a list of their colleges of choice, and then look up the “middle 50” range of SAT scores.  This information is included in the Best Colleges guide by U.S. News & World Report.  At Princeton University, for example, the 25/75 percentile SAT scores are listed as 1460-1570.  At Stevens Institute of Technology its 1370-1510, at Rutgers-New Brunswick its 1240-1470, and at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) its 1180-1430.

 

Students who not only want to gain acceptance but also be awarded scholarship money should aim for the upper portion of that range or exceed it.

Top Return on Investment Colleges in 2023

Students searching for their ideal college often consider many criteria, including location, campus life, and academic options.  But a key criterion that students should take into account is the college’s ROI – return on investment – which identifies the long-term financial value of a degree.

 

With annual tuition and fees at some colleges exceeding $75,000, it’s wise for students to consider what the likely payoff will be in terms of their future earnings.  They can turn to research conducted by The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, which identified the ROI at 4,500 colleges throughout the United States.   

 

A degree from the sixteen non-profit or public colleges/universities topping the list all had a 40-year ROI exceeding $2 million. These schools, starting with the highest ROI, are University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy in St. Louis (MO), Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences (NY), MCPHS University (MA), California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College (CA), Bentley University (MA), Babson College (MA), University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University (CA), Princeton University (NJ), Carnegie Mellon University (PA), University of the Sciences (PA), Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ), Georgetown University (DC), and Lehigh University (PA).

Hobby Based College Scholarship Opportunities

Spending time playing sports or a musical instrument, or engaging in a favorite hobby, may have an unexpected benefit.  It may end up being the source of a college scholarship.

Millions of dollars of scholarship money is available to students who have a particular talent or interest or are involved with a wide range of organizations.  The best way for students to access these funds is to make a list of all their activities and then search on free scholarship websites for relevant grants.

 

Discover.com, for example, offers a free scholarship search tool providing information on a wide range of scholarships in fields including aviation, band, business, choir, civil rights, community service, computers, cooking, dance, entrepreneurship, environment, esports, fashion, feminism, film/TV/radio, gardening, health, LGBT rights, literature, mock trial, music composition and performance, journalism, camping, performing arts, photography, playwriting, poetry, politics, robotics, scouting, debate, student government, technology, volunteer fire fighting, and youth ministry.

August SAT Exam is Extremely Popular

Students planning to take the next SAT, which will be offered nationwide on Saturday, August 26th, should register immediately, if they haven’t already done so.  There is a supply and demand issue that occurs each year in New Jersey, only with the August exam.  There are a limited number of seats at local test sites with an abundance of students wanting to take the exam before immersing themselves in the next academic school year. Students who wait too long to register often find themselves taking a road trip of several hours to a testing center with an available seat. 

Students get unlimited “do-overs” on the SAT, which they can take as many times as they like during their high school years.  It is offered each year in March, May, June, August, October, November, and December, and is available to freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  When the time comes to file college applications and submit their scores to colleges, students can choose which scores to send and which to pretend never happened.  Colleges have no way of knowing how many times a student has taken the SAT.

 

Many colleges allow students to “super-score,” listing on their Common Application (which is accepted by more than 900 colleges) their highest Evidenced-based Reading and Writing score from one test date and their highest Math score from another.

5 Latest Trends in College Admissions Process

Students about to embark on the ever-challenging college application process would do well to know the latest trends, and use this knowledge to their benefit.

1. The volume of college applications has continued its upward spiral. More students are applying to college than ever before, and they are applying to a greater number of schools. The Common Application reports the overall volume of college applications increased by 30% over the past three years.

New York University (NYU), for example, received 120,000 applications from high school students graduating this year, and 85,000 applications from those who graduated in 2020 – an increase of 41%. As a result, the acceptance rate has fallen to record lows at many of the most sought-after universities.

2. Tuition and fees have also continued to rise. Over the past 20 years, costs for in-state students to attend public universities increased by 175%, while costs to attend private national universities increased by 134%, according to Forbes. Colleges and universities with a sticker price exceeding $80,000 per year (including tuition, fees, room, and board) include University of Pennsylvania, Boston College, Cornell University, Franklin & Marshall College, Tufts University, Brown University, Amherst College, Wake Forest University, and the University of Southern California. The exact figures can be found in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges.

SAT verse ACT: Which Exam Should Students Take?

There are two exams that are widely accepted for the purposes of college admissions and the distribution of merit scholarship money: SAT and ACT. While students throughout the U.S. know that they can choose whichever test they want, geography tends to play a major role in their decision.

 

In New Jersey, for example, 90.3% of students choose the SAT, while only 9.7% choose the ACT, according to statistics from Niche.com. This ratio of 9 to 1, or even greater, in favor of the SAT is also reported in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia.  

 

Local students find the SAT to be a natural progression from the PSAT which they typically take in the fall of both their sophomore and junior years.  Also, students often find the SAT to be an easier test as it covers fewer subjects and gives students more time per question than does the ACT.