Take a College Personality Quiz

Often, when starting to discuss college admissions and choices with students, I am sad to see so many things become more important than their own needs! Sure, finding a college that is prestigious may seem necessary and certainly you want to make family and friends proud. Yet, all of this should be secondary to an understanding of your unique academic personality. The quiz below is a great resource in looking internally see assess your academic, social, and personal consciousness.

College Personality Quiz

This quiz is important to keep in mind as you move forward in assessing goals and needs from a school. After looking in, then you can look outwardly to see what schools match you! Only then is it time to start applying and proving your worth in securing a place in an incoming class.

Price Check in Aisle Ivy

My dad always wears the Princeton baseball cap that I gave him freshman week, right when I started school. Whenever people ask about the tattered, sweat and bleach stained thing, he has the same response;“I paid to wear this hat”. It is probably the most expensive piece of clothing he owns! When considering a student’s four year college experience and the financial commitment necessary for a degree, images of a second mortgage may cause uneasiness in every parent. The Ivy League especially is preconceived to mean an even larger price tag. I am not here to take sides on how much an Ivy education should be worth. I do however know that financing it will work if you want it to!

A scholarshipis money that a university may offer a student based on their performance. This may be merit-based in academics, or for another arena, such as sports or the arts. In the world of athletics and the arts, Division 1 and 2 schools may offer scholarships. The only exception is the Ivy League. No, the Ivy League does not offer athletic scholarships. Yes, I am sure. Yes, the person who told you someone got a full athletic scholarship to an Ivy is wrong.

If the Ivy League were allowed to offer any type of performance based scholarship, imagine the difficulty in finding which students would deserve money based on sports or their academics! Every year, many perfect 2400 SAT scores do not get into these top schools. With acceptance rates under 10%, every student admitted might be deserving of some type of performance-based scholarship elsewhere, but rest assured, these schools will fill their seats without any scholarship offers.

That does not mean that acceptance to an Ivy immediately means giving up your retirement fund! The Ivy League, given huge endowments to work with, wants to ensure that once a student is admitted to their institution it becomes a manageable expense. All 8 schools have a need-blindadmission process to promote low-income students to apply, without concerns of the expenses. Additionally, all the aid available is used on a need basis. Need in Ivy terms may not seem “needy” to our preconceived notions. Across the board, all the Ivies offer some type of need-based aid to 50-60% of their students. Princeton has a no loans policy, allowing all students to graduate debt-free [FinAid]. In 2008, Dartmouth eliminated tuition for students from families with incomes of under $75,000 [Dartmouth Public Affairs]. Harvard and Yale have incremental expectations of how much a student should pay, from 0 to 10 percent, with family earnings of $60,000 to $120,000 a year [Fitzsimmonsand Yale Public Affairs].

While the Ivies may be prohibited from offering talent based awards, they certainly ensure the cost of tuition will be manageable; given it is a worthwhile endeavor for the student. Students are free to win merit based scholarships from outside institutions and organizations. Sure, my middle class parents were uneasy at first, but slowly we saw as a family how this worthwhile investment could become manageable. Overall, my first year of tuition was cut in half with a diligent search for a variety of national and state scholarships. Additionally, combining a part-time job, my parents’ contributions, and a very accommodating aid package from Princeton, I am looking forward to law school with no debt!

Sure, it can be a blow to feel desired elsewhere and be offered nothing but admission to the Ivies. Yet, long-term, I felt Princeton offered me the opportunity to reach my potential athletically, academically, and personally. To me, it seemed like an opportunity many are not granted and I would be foolish to pass up. If it’s worth it, the investment works out – I promise!

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Join CollegeWeekLive for the world's largest college fair on March 21st & 22nd from 10am-10pm EST, where you can have live conversations with universities of interest to you, and gain advice from admissions experts. Watch live video presentations from current college students that have already been through the college search process... And enter to win a $1,000 scholarship!

The SAT vs. The ACT and SuperScoring: How to Do It Right

Guest blogger and President at http:///www.TestPrepAuthority.com Anthony-James Green offers students some pertinent advice for the upcoming SAT and ACT season:

We all know that you can take the SAT and the ACT more than once.  For most students, taking these exams multiple times is a wise call, since as they continue to study, they continue to see score improvements.  But if you're one of many who's planning on taking multiple SATs or ACTs, make sure you know HOW your scores will be submitted to colleges when you take multiple tests.

The SAT SuperScore:

When you take the SAT more than once, you get the best of all three sections submitted to your colleges of choice.  Let's look at an example:

On your first SAT, you get a 750 in Math, but a 500 in Writing and a 500 in Critical Reading.

On your second SAT, you get a 680 in Math, a 600 in Writing, and a 410 in Critical Reading.

On your third SAT, you get a 710 in Math, a 580 in Writing, and a 610 in Critical Reading.

Your total score submitted will be: Math:750 Writing: 600 Critical Reading 610

Colleges do see that you've taken multiple tests, but at the end of the day, most of them don't care so much.  You obviously shouldn't take 14 SATs and expect universities not to notice, but if you take 2-3 exams, you'll probably be seriously boosting your chances of admission.

The ACT "SuperScore"

The "little cousin" of the SAT isn't quite as generous when it comes to retakes, but it's still very, very worth your time to repeat the ACT if you weren't happy with your first round of scores.

While ALL colleges take the best scores from each section of the SAT, on the ACT, most colleges just take your best overall score.  So if you take these two tests:

Test One:

Reading: 26
English: 20
Math: 20
Science:20
Comp: 21

Test Two:

Reading: 20
English: 22
Math: 25
Science: 28
Comp: 23

You're only getting a boost of two points, even though you did much, much better in multiple sections.  This is because the overall score on the ACT is calculated using a formula that's more complicated than simply adding the three 200-800 scores that you get on the SAT.

It's important to note that SOME colleges do "SuperScore" the ACT as well, and you'll need to call their admissions offices to find out whether or not they do.

You can find out the expected SAT and ACT scores of America's top colleges by using our free SAT/ACT score generator at any time.

What This Means For You:

Once you understand how multiple scores are combined, you have one big advantage: you'll know what to study before you take your second or third test.

On the SAT, focus specifically on your worst score and put ALL of your effort into it./ Of course, if you have something like a 520/510/530 split, then you can do an overall effort.  But if you have a 670/500/780, you should be putting almost all of your time into studying for the "500" section.  

Since you'll keep your old, good scores, you'll want to focus exclusively on bringing the bad sections up to par.

On the ACT, you'll need to focus on the entire test.  You'll still have the most room for improvement in your weakest areas, but you can't let everything else falter without risk.  Call your target schools and see if they SuperScore or not - if they do, you can treat your ACT just like an SAT, but if not, you need to be more holistic.

However, At the end of the day, you should still spend most of your time on your weakest areas, since that's where you have the most opportunity to improve.

Visit Anthony's website, Test Prep Authority, for more free SAT and ACT practice and advice .

College Week Live Transfer Day - Wait List Reversal Strategy

CollegeWeekLive Transfer Day
Watch live video presentations from David Montesano of College Match, Inc. on how to improve your transfer admission chances--especially if you are on a wait list. Here's the video

CollegeWeekLive Transfer Day

On Thursday February 2nd @ 4pm PST is a free & online event to help community college students and current four-year college students transfer to another four-year institution to complete their bachelor's degree.

Chat live with admission reps, including David Montesano of College Match, Inc., from transfer offices of 60+ colleges and universities.

Watch live video presentations from experts on topics like transfer admissions, financial aid, and scholarships. Plus, login to be eligible to win a $1,000 Scholarship!

Visit: http://bit.ly/zCmMjx

Dancer in high school? Here is some advice that might be useful...

Dancers considering studying dance beyond high school often want to know if dance is an impractical major? They often ask "what kinds of work could I get from this major if I do not make it as a performer?"

Here is my advice to high school dancers:

Ask yourself if you can do anything else and if so, then do it. If you don’t have a ridiculous passion for dance, then do something else and have dance as a wonderful hobby.

Passion is rarely practical; one would be wise in the case of dance and the performing arts in the U.S. to think from the start of the what ifs and the what elses. What if you pour all your effort, talent, and time (and your parents’ money) into dance and then do not get offers as a performer? What if you get seriously injured and may not perform? What if you are able to perform professionally but it is not providing a living wage?

There is no harm or lack of dedication in pursuing another related area that might provide the time and income for you to continue to dance unless or until you land performing work. But if you go to college for dance, it would be discouraging (at least to your parents) to be the proverbial waiter or waitress after graduation while trying to “make it.” Consider utilizing your electives to minor in another area such as arts administration or become certified in Pilates. These could provide part-time work for you once out of school while you continue to train, audition, or perform.

Happily the days of professional dancers getting to retirement age and saying, now what? are fairly much gone. Years ago New York City Ballet started a joint program with Fordham University accommodating the dancers’ desires to get a college education while dancing. They became surprisingly practical about second careers in related or unrelated areas even as they were just joining or rising within one of the most incredible ballet companies in the world! They have set an example of practicality within their dedication for the reality of a short performing career and acknowledging there is life after leaving the stage.

So plan a parallel track. If you love to teach, great, but pursue that seriously and not just as a default-colleges and schools want strong credentials and professional experience. If you think you may love to create, study composition and music and the great works of the repertoire and get some of your fellow dancers in a studio and start creating. If you are organized, analytical and have strong leadership qualities, consider the possibilities of working within a dance or other performing arts organization in administration, development or marketing. Do an internship and see if you love to help the artists get to stage and the public to see them. Many artists work as teaching artists in the schools which is incredibly important work as dance is rarely offered in education; it can be very fulfilling and is rarely a full-time endeavor. If designing for the stage may be of interest, consider costume, lighting and scenic design study. Most schools with strong dance programs also have strong production departments. Take courses and assist the designers in production. Consider stage management and crew. Who could better call a dance performance than a stage manager who is a trained dancer? But put in the time and effort to learn it at school; it too is a serious skill acquired through effort.

Seek advice from a performing arts professional, a current dance major, a professional dancer who went to college, or a college counselor specializing in the performing arts. They can discuss your goals and give you more ideas about your optimal path or paths.

Take advantage of being in college. There are few other places that offer so many opportunities to experience many facets of your passion beyond performing. Start answering the what ifs and what elses with a plan. (Your parents will breathe easier.)

Diane Coburn Bruning
College Match Dance and Performing Arts Consultant
diane@collegematchus.com