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eliteprepsat · 10 days

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Thinking about and preparing for the SAT or ACT, most of you probably went on your own version of a mental rollercoaster. You may have felt the pressure, then some boredom, maybe frustration, and any number of forms of anxiety. So you’ve finally taken the test (and hopefully recuperated from any dizziness from the ride). Now what? Here are six ideas for where to put your focus next:

1. CELEBRATE! 🙌

Now that you’ve put in so much hard work and took the SAT/ACT, it’s time to give yourself permission to put any thoughts about the test out of your mind for a bit. You’ve accomplished a significant milestone in your academic career and you deserve to celebrate yourself. Many of us are so used to being told we what we do wrong or what we need to do better—by parents, teachers and ourselves–that it’s easy to forget to honor our positive qualities and accomplishments. You are paving the way to a successful, fulfilling future, so right now, take a moment to tell yourself how amazing you are.

2. SEND YOUR TEST SCORES TO COLLEGES 📤

At the time you register for the SAT or ACT, you have the option to send your scores to a few colleges for free. While this is a good way to save money, keep in mind you will not be able to see your scores before they are sent, so it might be best to use these free score reports for colleges that want to see all your scores. Your other option is to wait until you get your scores back (usually within 2-4 weeks after your test date), when you can then choose to send or not send them wherever you want (albeit for a fee).

3. DETERMINE IF YOU WANT TO TAKE THE TEST AGAIN

Unless you are completely satisfied with your score the first time, it is a good idea to take the test at least two or three times, if for no other reason than scores will naturally vary depending on the test day. Regardless of how unhappy you might be with the score, don’t rip up your score report and throw it away. Examine it to determine which areas you could benefit from practicing more. You can also look at your target colleges’ test score averages as a way of setting your score goal for the next time you take the test. Lastly, if you are applying to any schools that offer superscoring, consider retaking the test to boost your score in a particular section.

4. GATHER COLLEGE APPLICATION DEADLINES 📆

As you think about which SAT/ACT date to register for, don’t forget to consider whether you might want to apply early to any college or university. Then check school websites to determine which date you will need to send your scores by and plan accordingly, especially if you also want to take SAT Subject Tests as these tests are offered on the same dates as the regular SAT and will thus limit the test dates available to you.

5. MAKE A LIST OF COLLEGE ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS 📝

With all of the attention we have given the SAT/ACT we must not neglect the other time-sensitive college admissions requirements. For example, if any of the colleges you are applying to require letters of recommendation, you will want to give your teachers plenty of time to write them. You will also want to give yourself enough time to craft quality college essays about yourself, take SAT Subject Tests, and, if you’re applying for any specialized programs such as art programs, put together any additional requirements.

6. MAKE A PLAN 📋

To keep track of all these moving parts, try starting a Google spreadsheet or get out a piece of paper and draw up a plan. Write down all important official deadlines—test registration deadlines, application deadlines, scholarship deadlines, summer program deadlines etc. You can also write down personal deadlines such as when you will ask your teachers for letters, when you will start drafting essays, and when you will prepare for any remaining tests. You can also add college visits and any other pertinent to-dos to your plan.

Writing everything down and taking each task step by step, well ahead of time, will minimize any feelings of overwhelm you might feel and will prevent any stress from forgotten or missed deadlines. This is your one shot to apply to colleges, so go all in; it’s worth it, and so are you.

#college prep #college admissions #studyblr #SAT #ACT #test prep #college #standardized tests #high school #education

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livebloggingkidshows · 10 months

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I just made so many incoherent sounds. I’m mad about this for so many reasons. First because not every long distance relationship ends in cheating. But mostly because the one named bi character cheated on his girlfriend. That is such a harmful thing to do and reinforces the "slutty bisexual" stereotype. If they had more than one labeled bi character it could work, but you can't have the one bi character you have be such a harmful stereotype.

#high school musical the musical the series #hsmtmts #hsmtmts spoilers #liveblogging #admissions #i genuinely think i need a break from this episode before i continue

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femmefatalevibe · 10 months

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Hi! I’m a huge fan of this page and I want you to know how much you have help me a lot.

I am quite in need of advice in this. Please reply whenever it suits for you. :)

A year from now, I will be transitioning from my senior year to college life. I am a WOC in a 3rd country and I feel quite overwhelmed upon all the step I am trying to make. I want to study abroad after I finished highschool, but I somehow feel stuck. It felt like I froze upon learning all the things I needed to do — safe to say, it scares me big time. My parents, although they are great people, isn’t the best in helping me complying with all the papers I have to compile for reasons that they are as busy in their respective jobs trying to make ends meet for our family. I am also struggling where will my finances come from even if I receive scholarship and financial aids for necessary expenses I might stumble upon even if I have an impressionable grade to present. I would really love to have my education internationally, but these thoughts that I am quite sure had come naturally make me spiral into overthinking such as what is to come, (I will be young and alone — not to mention not financially secured in a foreign land) without even trying.

The thing is, should I pursue it still? My parents were very supportive of it. However, I do procrastinate in making a move towards my goals. I don’t want to have this response. This anxiety have been difficult to deal with. Does my aspirations seems I am trying to bite something more than I can chew?

Your input will be invaluable for me. I hope you are having a great day.

Hi love! Thank you so much for your kind words and ongoing support. I'm so glad to hear my blog has been helpful/valuable for you <3

I think you should definitely go for it and seek out your options. My personal belief is that: If your dreams and aspirations don't scare you a bit, you're not dreaming big enough.

Personally, I would focus on two major areas: Research the options available regarding universities, scholarships, internships/apprenticeships, housing arrangements, etc. in the countries/regions and areas of interest you are looking to immerse yourself in. Make shortlists of all of these opportunities. Then, list out all of the paperwork you will need to make these options feasible.

Reach out to the admissions coordinators at these programs after looking up their admissions requirements/information on the institution, and your program(s) of interest. Share a brief overview of your situation (rising senior/finishing your secondary education from your country and why you're looking into their program based on your interest/demonstrated academic abilities/interest in whichever fields/subjects) to confirm eligibility requirements and see if you can score an informational interview. With this information all spelled out, go to your school counselor and parents with essentially a checklist of what you need – from the legal paperwork to transcripts, scholarship information, courses/testing requirements to take your senior year, etc.

Use all of these shortlists and checklists as your "to-do" lists. Commit to completing one action item every day or on set days of the week (let's say Monday-Friday). So, one day you short-list universities, the next you shortlist scholarship opportunities, the next you send emails to admissions coordinators at your top 3 programs/your school counselor, the next you fill out one of your required forms or give yourself an hour or two to fill out as many as you can. If you need your parents, schedule a time like an at-home appointment to meet with them to get this paperwork done. It will help eliminate the unnecessary logistics and mental energy spent focusing on getting this top-priority documentation done.

Hope this helps xx

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vote2 · 3 months

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my brother got into u of f and is reading what ppl are posting on reddit who got rejected and he is nowhere there man. He has above a 4.0 and good act but zero leadership role and worked only like 5 months and only extracurricular was two years of ultimate frisbee zero volunteer hours who let this man in 😭😭

#were joking that the ultimate frizbee coach did is admission review 😭😭 but seriously hes not even going there lmfao #insane #like ppl are wrting their club and school leadership state awards etc like...#laughing w him because i did not get into u of f back then but i wasnt expecting too lol my gpa was too low #requirement are getting crazy high though like both from low out of state costs and community colleges feeding in automatically #its getting bad but it is the states top school so not that bad

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floydsglasses · 8 months

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Crying over College Applications <<<<<<

#senior year #high school #college applications #college admissions #stressed as fuck #someone please make this fucking easier #why am i journaling on here

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robxstarstar · 4 months

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college apps be like

elementary school me: when i'm older i will apply to Every Ivy Ever

high school senior me: let's play Random College Grab Bag

#college #college app #college admissions #senior year #university student #high school

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chronos-advice · 2 years

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Advice Column 1 -

Things I wish I did in high school (for the kids who want to go to college)

Spent my time. I rushed through high school to finish when I was 16 because I hated school and just wanted to start my career. I ended up getting a horrible GPA, worse SAT scores, changed majors 3 times before settling for a two year degree, did absolutely nothing with it, couldn’t get hired anywhere, and I missed out on all the memories that are only made once in anyones life; in high school.

Got at least a 3.0 GPA. I still got into two different universities with a 2.5 GPA, but my options were very limited. If you want to go to a university with specifics (staying close to family, has certain degree programs, certain activities, etc.), aim for at least a 3.0 GPA. Or, at least have schools in mind & know their requirements.

Taught myself. High school doesn’t teach you what you need to know, it teaches you what they think you need to know. I didn’t know the difference between a bachelors & a masters or undergrad vs graduate until my first semester of being an undergraduate.. know everything about how the university system works or else you might go wild with anxiety when the time comes. Besides that, teach yourself things you want to learn that you can’t learn at school. Explore all kinds of different subjects and know what your interests are. It will make choosing a major a whole lot easier.

Volunteered. Start your resume. Having a job is okay, but honestly, it’s not required (resume speaking, not actual life speaking). Having experience in customer service and sales roles is awesome to put on a resume, but don’t get trapped in that industry if you don’t want to be in it forever. There are tons of volunteer opportunities for many different realms of things, remotely and locally. Find some that you might be interested in and go for it. Most don’t require many hours of your time per week/month and some can even turn into an internship or apprenticeship if you’re lucky. When you are in college or newly graduated, it will be hard finding a career-type role if you don’t have a lot of spicy things to put on your resume or if you only have experience listed in an industry other than the one you’re applying to.

Sports & extracurriculars. This could’ve made college a whole lot cheaper for me. Not only will schools lower or completely remove your tuition if you’re good at sports or arts, tons of sports & art scholarships are available. Some scholarships are even made for clubs; ex chess club scholarship. Play a sport, an instrument, make some art, photography, be on yearbook, student council (maybe?), theater, even… plus it adds to the experience points.

Networked. Start a LinkedIn or something. Add your classmates, teachers, bosses, people you volunteer with.. whoever. Ask for recommendation letters from respected people; teachers, religious leaders, bosses… Just keep some people in your professional circle.

Didn’t fall in love. I had big plans to go to UNLV & become a big time financial advisor for a casino. I never got to go. I fell in love with an abvser & gave up my dreams for it. And now I’m an adult, going back to college for sociology so I can help other abvse victims. If both people in a relationship aren’t mature enough, the relationship or the college dream will surely parish. Maybe it’s pessimism, but I watched it happen to many people I went to school with besides myself. Have fun & love people, but don’t fall -in- love, in high school.

The bare minimum. I wish I did the bare minimum. I took 7 classes, 2 online and no lunch to finish early. I still got a 2.5 GPA, I didn’t walk the stage either, because I didn’t know anybody, nobody would’ve known my name when it was called anyways. It’s high school, it’s not that serious, trust me. It seems serious, but it’s not. Do the bare minimum and h a v e f u n. Keep your GPA at 3.0, listen in class and cheat when you need to, listen to podcasts when you’re doing other things, volunteer, have an extracurricular if you can & want to….. and that’s really it. That’s the show. Besides SAT & ACT, you don’t have to take much of high school so seriously to get into a decent college.

#college #university #college advice #advice #teenage years #high school #college applications #college aesthetic #college admissions #advice column #anthropology #school #school tips #college tips #SAT #ACT #study motivation #study tips

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mistninja · 1 year

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every day i ask myself "should i quit uni" and every day i stop myself from posting it as a tumblr poll. but its getting harder

#personal #i have already decided that im putting uni on hold either next semester or the first semester of 2024 #my uni lets me take 4 semesters off during the course of my graduation and i really need a break #genuinely im not enjoying it as much as i did at the start and the main reason i dont drop off entirely is because im too lazy to go back t #taking uni admission exams you know #if i tried for another uni i would have to go back to studying math and chem and physics #and it was already hard when i was just out of high school but now i havent opened a math book in almost 2 years #ugh #i think i will try to get my degree just so that i dont feel like i wasted time

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willowistic22 · 1 year

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Modern newsies au where it’s just full of domestic fluff. Just them as adults living a peaceful life after going through the hardship of their youth.

#yes i am projecting #being a teenager is HARD #it’s like fuckinf torture i tell you #and it’s even harder when facing college admission seasons #AND THEN ENTERING YOUR ADULT YEARS #i just #want to skip to the part where i get my life together #where i do know what i want #how i want it #and how i get it #i cld project onto the newsies as being high schoolers (in which i do hv a high school au for but ummm i kinda abandoned bcs #well i’m more busy with my new zombies au hehe in which u hv not posted publicly anywhere bcs i’m too nervous to publish it lolz)#so yeah #domestic fluff #ahaaaa i wamt #newsies

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eliteprepsat · 11 days

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In my 10+ years of teaching at the college level, I’ve met a lot of students.

Recently, a colleague and I shared how professors we’ve both known have often referred to the “top 1%” of students they’ve taught in their careers. I quickly did a bit of rough math in my head, and it turns out that I have likely taught at least 1,500 students in my own career. This excludes the many students I’ve taught in test prep programs, after school programs, and summer programs. Add those, and I could probably at least double the total number of students I’ve taught to 3,000.

Using the “top 1%” metaphor, this means that a teacher who has taught for 10 years has about 15-30 students that come to mind when they think of “the best” students they’ve worked with.

The question, then, becomes: How do you, as a student, make it into that top 1%?

Making it into a teacher’s top 1% isn’t just for the sake of playing teacher’s pet. It’s practical. As a student, it benefits you to not simply “go through the motions” of school, being just another name or number on a roll sheet. Of course, having a good relationship with your teachers benefits you in that you will have better communication with them, which enhances your ability to learn while in their classes.

But, it can also benefit you long after their classes are over. If you’ve had great relationships with your teachers—even perhaps making it into their top 1%—they will be more likely to write you excellent letters of recommendation, which are vital to your success in the college admissions process.

So, with this in mind, below is a list of 6 great ways to stand out as a student so that teachers will give you strong recommendation letters.

1. BE RELIABLE

Many of the best teachers admire students who don’t necessarily follow the rules. But, it’s important to clarify that this only applies to being an intellectual rule-breaker and thinking outside of the box. What teachers don’t appreciate are students who deliberately disobey rules that are established for the sake of helping their classes run smoothly.

This may seem like it goes without saying. But one of the simplest ways to be a great student is just to be reliable. You can do this by always completing your work, arriving to class on time, and showing up every day prepared and ready to participate.

It’s not so much that students stand out for being reliable; it’s that students stand out for being unreliable—in other words, for all the wrong reasons. So, take the first best step toward securing a strong recommendation letter this way.

2. BE A TEAM PLAYER 🤝

Most of the best classrooms (virtual or otherwise) function like a sports team, where the teacher leads or guides (like a coach) and all of the students also have a role (like players). This stands in contrast to traditional (and largely outdated) classroom models where the teacher takes the only active role and the students are merely passive observers.

Good teachers relish students who are excellent team players—who listen actively, participate by making meaningful contributions to discussions, and generally exude a positive energy.

In my own experience, I’ve found that classes tend to function like the organic and often unpredictable flow of a basketball game. Some of the best moments in my classes have occurred when my game plan suddenly (and wonderfully) shifted because a student raised a compelling idea in discussion that we then pursued. I think of such students as my best teammates, giving me assists as I try to make a play.

But being a great team player in class doesn’t just involve your interactions with your teacher. It also involves how you interact with your other teammates, or classmates. Some of the strongest students I’ve worked with stand out in my memory not just because of how they treated their classmates, but also because of how their classmates responded to them.

Just as the best team players know when to lead and when not to hog the ball so as to let others on the team shine, so too do the best students know when to speak up and step in when their classmates need help, but also when not to dominate the conversation, actively listening instead so as to let their classmates also shine.

3. DEMONSTRATE CURIOSITY 🤔

Students often believe—incorrectly—that the best way to be a team player is simply to be the most “intelligent” student in the room. In reality, raw intelligence is typically not the attribute that good teachers appreciate most in their students. Instead, this attribute is curiosity.

What does it mean to “demonstrate curiosity” as a student? Generally speaking, it means having an open mind. If you encounter course material that is initially off-putting because it seems too difficult, for instance, don’t run the other way out of frustration. Instead, ask yourself: Why might this material be of interest? Why have people devoted their entire lives to its study? What could I learn from it?

4. VISIT OFFICE HOURS 🚪

The best letters of recommendation are written by teachers who really know the student in question. Although there are exceptions to this rule, it’s typically not ideal, then, to request a letter from a teacher who you only studied with for a brief summer session, or who you never actually spoke to in person (say, from an online course).

In my own experience, the recommendation letters I write are better the more I know a student. So, if there is a teacher with whom you feel comfortable, don’t be afraid to open up to them a bit.

Why is this helpful for recommendation letters, exactly? If you are taking several AP courses while also juggling a heavy load of extracurriculars, a resume or transcript will show this at a glance. But if you are taking night classes while also raising a child or taking care of your ailing parents, for instance, the extent of your hard work will not likely appear anywhere on paper.

If you take the time to open up about the particulars of your life to a teacher, however, they can speak to your perseverance and grit in a meaningful recommendation letter to an admissions committee. That added understanding could very well mean the difference between a college acceptance or none.

You may or may not have opportunities to open up to your teachers during class. And you may or may not feel comfortable doing so. So, take advantage of your teachers’ office hours, when you can speak with them one-on-one.

5. TURN IN AN IMPRESSIVE ASSIGNMENT 🥇

When writing recommendation letters, the best teachers will not write generally about the student in question. Rather, they will look for specifics to discuss. After all, specific examples are what help readers visualize and relate to what a writer is describing, ultimately becoming convinced of their claims.

In order to do this, teachers need to be supplied with specifics to write about you. So, if you’ve written an especially impressive paper, completed a particularly dynamic presentation, or organized a uniquely inspiring event, bring this to your teacher’s attention. It will give them something to focus portions of their recommendation letter around, and they can point to these specific examples as evidence of your mastery of a subject, your hard work, your passion, or any of your other exceptional traits.

Ultimately, your teacher’s reflections on these detailed examples will give admissions committees something to remember about you as a candidate, which is crucial considering how many applications colleges receive each year.

6. STAY IN TOUCH

Typically, students don’t require recommendation letters immediately upon completing a course. So, it can be difficult having to reach out to former teachers semesters—or even years—down the road. In this case, it can feel awkward asking them for the favor of writing a letter since you haven’t spoken in some time. You may wonder if they even remember you!

To avoid this, I suggest emailing your teachers not long after a course has ended just to say a friendly hello, to share that you enjoyed their class, and to ask if they might be open to writing you a recommendation letter in the future. Although you might not require the letter immediately, asking in advance in this way is a good idea for a few reasons. It demonstrates that you are taking initiative by being so forward thinking about your future success. It also helps to plant a seed in your teacher’s mind; they will be more likely to remember you when you reach out to officially request a letter one day.

SOME FINAL ADVICE FOR REQUESTING LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

When requesting a letter of recommendation, it’s always best to ask your teachers well in advance of the deadline so that they have plenty of time to complete the work. This means that you should usually aim for giving them at least 4 weeks and never less than 2 weeks. Remember that while they typically understand that writing such letters comes with the job and are happy to help out their students in this way, teachers are very busy people. So, do what you can to make the task as simple as possible for them.

Beyond giving them ample time to complete their letters, you can also simplify the task for your teachers by giving them a copy of your resume/accomplishments and a few of your strongest assignments as references. Finally, be sure to always ask at least one more individual than is required as a backup in case your original letter writer doesn’t come through or fails to get their letter in on time.

#college prep #college admissions #high school #college #recommendations #letter of recommendation #go to college #studyblr

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