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.

Preparing for National College Decision Day

May 1st is a momentous day for college bound students.  It’s National College Decision Day – the deadline day for college applicants to confirm their enrollment for the upcoming fall semester. 

Typically, high school seniors apply to a gamut of schools, spreading their applications out among perceived “stretch,” “target,” and “safety” schools. By March 1^st they will have heard back from the vast majority of these colleges, letting them know whether or not they have been accepted.  Now, the ball is in the student’s court.  

 

Often, there is a clear-cut favorite and enrollment decision is an easy one.  Other times it’s a difficult choice.  As May 1^st approaches, students who are unsure of which college to choose may decide to “double deposit” – accepting admission at two schools and paying an enrollment deposit at each.  While possible to do, this is considered unethical as the student will ultimately attend only one university.  It’s also unfair to one’s peers, as it’s taking up a spot that could be cherished by another student. Likewise, it’s a waste of money, as enrollment deposits are typically nonrefundable.

Top 3 Hurdles of College Application Process

Admissions officers spend about ten minutes per application at large universities, and fifteen to thirty minutes at selective smaller schools, according to industry insiders.  So, students hoping to gain admission to highly competitive schools should emphasize three qualities on their applications.

The first is their numbers.  Every school looks at an applicant’s GPA and SAT or ACT scores, if submitted, with the exception of the very few “test blind” colleges and universities.  High school students should therefore take as competitive a course load as possible since Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors courses can significantly boost their GPA.  Students should also take the SAT (or ACT) several times, as they get unlimited “do overs” and can ultimately submit their highest test scores without colleges knowing how many times they took the test.

More Than 1.7 Million Students Took SAT Exam In 2022

More than 1.7 million students took the SAT exam in 2022 as part of their college application process, according to statistics from BestColleges.com.  Unfortunately, their collective scores were less than impressive with a national average total SAT score of 1050 – the lowest reported scores since 2016. Broken down by section, the average Evidence-based Reading and Writing score was 529 while the average Math score was 521. Back in 2018, the average total SAT score was 1068.

As expected, scores vary greatly by state.  According to BestColleges.com, the average total SAT score in 2022 for New Jersey students was 1079, slightly higher than New York’s average of 1067 and Connecticut’s average of 1025. But New Jersey students, on average, scored substantially lower than did their peers in Tennessee and Missouri (1200), Montana (1206), North Dakota (1212), South Dakota and Kentucky (1219), Nebraska (1222), Minnesota (1225), Mississippi (1226), Utah (1233), Kansas (1238), Wyoming (1244) and Wisconsin (1252).

What’s most significant for individual students is the way their SAT score compares to those of peers at their high school.  Colleges consider students in comparison with their classmates and favor those with the highest SAT scores for admission and scholarship purposes.