Make Your School Counselor Your Best Ally and Advocate

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Your school counselor has a big job, and part of that job is helping you (and all of your classmates) navigate the college admissions process. In that way, your school counselor is your ally.

But that is not all your school counselor does in the college admissions process.

Your school counselor can also be your best advocate through their counselor recommendation and conversations with admissions officers. Many of you do not appreciate how much influence your school counselor can have on the admissions officer’s evaluation. Admissions officers place a good deal of weight on what school counselors have to say about an applicant.
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WEEK 11 TIPS & TRICKS

Tip #1. Do your part to make their job easy. School counselors work with LOTS of students, and the only way they can do that effectively is to use tools and systems to handle the load. You need to do your part by educating yourself about the tools and following the rules. Does your school use Naviance or Scoir or some other online tool to help you with making your college list or handling your applications? Log on and explore what’s there. Are you required to turn in forms on certain days? Turn them in on time and fully completed.


Tip #2: Help your school counselor get to know you. It is easier to be an ally and an advocate for someone you know. So help your school counselor get to know you. If your school counselor offers individual appointments, schedule an appointment and meet face-to-face or virtually. If your school counselor distributes questionnaires, fill them out completely and thoroughly. If your school counselor holds group sessions, attend them and participate. They make these opportunities available for a reason.


Tip #3: Communicate any special requests respectfully and with as much lead time as possible. School counselors want to help you — that’s why they got into this profession. So even though they are busy, they are usually willing to grant special requests if you ask respectfully and give them as much lead time as possible. Respectfully means recognizing that your school counselor is obligated to follow policies and the law. Lead time makes it possible for them to squeeze a request into an already packed schedule. Need a recommendation for a summer program? Ask as soon as you know, not the day before the application is due!

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.
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Take a Virtual College Tour

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Can’t afford the time or money necessary to visit colleges in person? Or is Covid still messing with your travel plans? No worries. You can make a virtual visit! Just follow the virtual tour directions below. It should take you a couple of hours and by the end you’ll feel like you’ve been there!

WEEK 10 TIPS & TRICKS

You’re going to start your tour by imagining you are on-campus right now. The easiest way to do that is to google images for the college. It never fails that the iconic buildings on campus will come up. For example, if you google images for Princeton, the first images that come up are those of the Tower on the Princeton campus. And, of course, you can imagine you are there on a picture-perfect day because those are the images that you’ll see.

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Now that you are on-campus, orient yourself by downloading a campus map and marking where you are starting. You can usually find good ones on the college’s own website. Sometimes there is not a downloadable map, but instead an interactive map. If so, keep a tab open with the interactive map because you’re going to come back to it at each stop, so you can get a feel for navigating the campus. Google maps have also gotten much more detailed for college campuses, so you can check those too.


Stop 1. The Registrar’s Office. What’s a registrar and why are you going there first? Well, the Registrar’s Office provides support for your academic life. And since college is first and foremost an academic experience, we’ve made it your first stop. You’ll find a page for the Registrar’s Office on the college’s website. Explore and see if you can find out a few key things:
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• What are the requirements for graduation? Believe it or not, they vary A LOT from college to college.
• What majors (or concentrations) are available to me?
• What are three classes I’d be excited to take?
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Hint: The answers to these questions can ALWAYS be found in the University Bulletin (a bulletin is an official legal document that the university is required to maintain and it will include this information). For example, here is the current Bulletin for Duke.

Stop 2. A Classroom Building. Now that you know the basics when it comes to your academic life, you’ll want to see where you are going to be taking your classes. You can choose a classroom building at random OR you can visit the building where one of the three classes you’d be excited to take is being offered (you’ll have to find the class schedule to do that). Again, google images for the particular building. See if you can find interior shots of the classrooms.

Are they large lecture halls (auditorium style), smaller “desks forward” classrooms, small seminar style classrooms, or a mix? Try to imagine yourself there with other students. For you science types, also find out what a lab looks like.

For example, here is a picture of a 140-student auditorium style classroom at USC’s Taper Hall where the Principles of Microeconomics class often meets.


Stop 3. A Professor’s Office. You want to find out exactly how accessible your professors are. Why? Because students who engage with their professors are generally more successful. Frankly, the campus grapevine is the best source of information for professor accessibility: the online version of the campus grapevine on this issue is the Professor Accessibility information found in the campus topics section of the Unigo page for the college. What you find might surprise you – for example, see how Columbia stacks up against Harvard. If you really want to dig into this topic, you can research some of the professors at the college and see if you can find their office hours. It is often found on their web page or on a syllabus for a particular course (which you can often find linked to the course listing that you located on Stop 1).


Stop 4. Campus Life. Your next stop is the hub for campus life – usually it is a student center, but sometimes it has a different name or things are spread out across campus. For example, at the University of Chicago, there are several hubs for campus life, but the hub for the student organizations and campus-wide social events is the Center for Leadership and Involvement. Locate the list of active student organizations (or clubs). Now  pretend you are at the involvement fair and every organization has a table and a couple of representatives there to talk with you. Which tables will you visit? You’ll no doubt have an opportunity to attend a fair like this in the fall of your freshman year – almost every college has one. If you want insight into the arts culture, Greek life, sports, or political activism, go back to Unigo and look to see what students have to say by looking at those headings under campus topics. For example, you’ll see that University of Chicago is a place where arts and politics dominate campus life, sports aren’t their thing, and Greek life matters only to a small minority.


Stop 5. A Freshman Residence Hall. Even if you only end up sleeping at your residence hall, you’ll spend at least one-quarter of your freshman year there. So you owe it to yourself to check it out. Freshman living accommodations vary widely – some are housed together without upperclass students; some are housed in “live and learn” communities where you share interests and coursework as well as living together; some are in traditional single-sex dorms and the list goes on. For example, at Georgetown, freshmen live in one of four residence halls or in one of five Living Learning Communities (LLC). Read up on the options for freshmen and take yourself on a tour. Look for floor plans, interior images, and details that bring your future home to life. And when you’ve finished checking things out, head over to the ratings on Niche.com and see how recent and current students rate the on-campus housing. In our experience, these particular ratings are usually pretty spot-on. For example, Georgetown, despite it’s A+ for location, only gets a C when it comes to dorms.


Stop 6. The Dining Hall. Now that you’ve seen where you’ll live, it’s time to find out where you’ll eat. Unlike days of yore, “the dining hall” is usually a collection of on-campus eateries where you can eat using your meal plan. For example, Notre Dame offers its students two traditional dining halls, along with several restaurants, express eateries, and a food court.  And its meal plan includes an option where you can buy "Flex Points" to spend at select off-campus restaurants. Check out the places you could dine and find out what’s on the menu. Does it sound tasty? Meet your dietary needs? Again Niche.com is your go-to source for getting a feel for the quality of the food. They give Notre Dame an A.


Stop 7. The Fitness Center or a Sports Field. Sleep, food, now exercise. Yes, we think it is important that you stay healthy at college! What activity are you going to do? Work out, play sports, some of each? Every college will have opportunities for you, and most colleges have gotten very serious about promoting student wellness. For example, at Yale you could workout at Payne Whitney Gymnasium (described as a fitness enthusiast’s dream), play an intramural sport, or go the Good Life Center and do some meditation to reduce stress.


Stop 8. Participate in a College Tradition. Nothing says more about a college than its traditions. Google the name of the college and the word “traditions” to see if you can find out a few. Often you’ll find descriptions of traditions on the college website, on a Wikipedia page, or in articles from the school’s newspaper. Here’s a good rundown on traditions at Penn — who knew toast throwing was a thing? — from the “new student orientation issue” of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

That’s it. Your virtual college tour is done – and you didn’t have to leave the couch!

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.

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SAT Test Mojo: Tips & Tricks to Build Your Testing Confidence

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It’s the week before the March SAT, otherwise known as “Build Your Test Mojo” week. IF you are taking the test (do NOT put your health at risk to do so), these are our favorite tips for things to do throughout the week to maximize your performance on the test.

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STARTING TONIGHT
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• Get a good night’s sleep every night, but especially the night before the test. Studies show that 7 hours is the optimal amount of sleep for a teenager.
  

A FEW DAYS BEFORE
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• Make your plan for getting to the test location. Confirm where you are taking the test and how you are going to get there in advance so you don’t have added stress before the test. For most of you, the test center will be your own high school. But if you are taking the test at another high school, find the test center and check out the parking situation ahead of time. Once you know where you are going, make your plan and determine when you need to leave to arrive at the test center no later than 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. Communicate your plan to everyone who needs to know. Be sure that if you are going with a friend or parent, everyone agrees to the plan and knows when you have to leave.
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• Check for test center closings if there is bad weather on the horizon or if you live in an area where there are travel restrictions or school closings due to COVID-19. The College Board posts test center closings a few days before each test date. The list hasn’t been perfect. During COVID, there has been much confusion about which test centers will actually be open, and there have been last-minute cancellations of test center sites. It’s frustrating. Be prepared for last-minute changes like that and don’t let that throw you. You still have opportunities in the future to take the test if you decide you still want to.
  
  
  During bad weather, also check test center closings on Friday night and on Saturday morning before leaving for the test center.
  
  
  As for the evolving situation regarding closings due to COVID-19, the College Board has already announced that it is closing all test centers in several countries and may close other centers as well. You can check here for updates.
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THE DAY BEFORE
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• If you are driving yourself, fill up your gas tank. You don’t want to have to stop for gasoline in the morning. If someone is driving you, then ask them to make sure they have a full tank of gas.
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• Pack up everything you need to take to the test in a “go bag.” The friendly folks at the College Board have a handy checklist for you to use. One quibble we have with this list: the College Board thinks a watch, snacks, and water are simply “nice to have,” but we consider them “must haves.” Also, do yourself a huge favor and make sure you leave out all electronic devices. They are absolutely banned at the test center, so make your go bag an electronics-free zone.
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• Plan for a quiet relaxing evening at home. Last minute cramming will not help you on the SAT. So you don’t need to block out the evening to study, although 30-45 minutes of review of test-taking strategies is not a bad idea. Once you’ve done that, chill out and do something to keep your anxiety at bay. The absolute no-no? A late night partying with friends. That is just a set-up for failure.
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• Have a healthy dinner. Drink lots of water and eat a meal with protein, vegetables, and a few good complex carbohydrates. In other words, tonight is not the night to order in your favorite fast food, nor is it the time to binge on a few pints of ice cream.
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• Get one more good night’s sleep. Your brain will perform best on the day of the test if it is well rested. Part of the reason that we recommend you start paying attention to sleep at the beginning of the week is that it should help you be in the rhythm of getting a good 7 hours. One mistake students often make is trying to turn in super early on the night before the test. That usually doesn’t work well – you end up tossing and turning and get less than 7 hours OR you sleep 10 or more hours – both will result in you being sluggish in the morning.
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• Set the alarm and have a back-up. You absolutely, positively don’t want to oversleep on test day, so make sure you will wake up on time.
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MORNING OF THE TEST
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• Wake up and turn on your brain with a little exercise, a shower, and a healthy breakfast. Today is not the day to roll out of bed and go straight to the test. You need to turn on your brain. Get started with a little exercise – 10 or 15 minutes of anything that will increase your heart rate and start oxygen going to the brain. Run in place, dance, do push-ups, whatever. Then take a shower and have a healthy breakfast. Reach for a bowl of oatmeal or have an omelet instead of a doughnut or sugary cereal. You need something that will sustain you through the morning until early afternoon.
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• Stick to your routine when it comes to caffeine or other stimulants. If you usually have a Red Bull before school, then have one today. But if you don’t, then don’t try it out today. Unfamiliar stimulants can turn you into a jittery mess.
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• Dress in layers. The temperature of the room is unpredictable and if you are too hot or too cold, you may have trouble concentrating. If you dress in layers, you can be comfortable no matter the room’s temperature.
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• Leave on time (or better yet a little early). There are no “late arrivals” on test day. Doors will close and you will not be admitted to the testing center after 8:00 a.m. Usually the doors open at 7:45 a.m., but do yourself a favor and arrive by 7:30 a.m. Then you don’t have to worry about being late – and it can be a bit of a zoo getting in and getting to your test room. (Double check your admission ticket to make sure that your test center is observing these standard times; it will say when doors open and close.)
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• Don’t forget your pre-packed go bag!
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• Give yourself a pep talk on the way. Corny as it may sound, your inner monologue can shape your mindset at the test. So say some nice, reassuring, and encouraging things to yourself on the way. “You’re going to kill it” is always a good mantra.
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DURING THE TEST
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• Breathe. Believe it or not, you may discover that you are holding your breath, which is common when people are concentrating. Holding your breath deprives your brain of much-needed oxygen and it heightens anxiety. So breathe.
  
  
  
• Use your breaks effectively. Don’t miss out on these opportunities to refresh yourself. Leave the room, stretch your legs, go to the restroom, eat your snacks, and socialize with friends (but don’t talk about the test and don’t let yourself get sucked into chat with a hyper-anxious friend). One important note – take your ID and admission ticket with you so you can get back into your room!!!
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AFTER THE TEST
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• Celebrate your accomplishment with something fun. You’ve earned it!

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.

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March To-Do List for Juniors

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Yay! Spring is coming, bringing you a break from school and a little time to catch up if you’ve had a tough time staying on track in January and February. Seize this opportunity to build momentum by getting these things done in March.

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WEEK 8 TO-DOS

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THIS WEEK

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1. Review the Tips & Tricks below to get an overview of your to-dos for March. You’ll have a whole month!

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

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1. Keep your eye on the prize when it comes to your grades. Do what you need to do to put yourself on track for the end-of-year grades you want. Analyze your performance thus far and see what you need to improve. More timely submission of homework? Better performance on in-class quizzes or tests? A little extra-credit work you could do over the break? Whatever it is, now is the time.

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2. Work your plan for standardized tests. If you are operating on the schedule we suggested, you’ll either be taking no tests at all, or taking the SAT in the middle of the month, or doing final prep for the April ACT. Keep working your plan and look for our post coming soon that has tips for how to find your test-day mojo.

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3. Review your activities and see if there is an opportunity to do something by year-end that would add to your “impact.” When it comes to activities, admissions officers are on the lookout for impact. In admissions-speak, you’ve had an impact when you’ve done something that has contributed something positive to your community – whether that be your family, your school, or your town, your country, or even the world. Where do you have an opportunity to contribute something positive before year-end? Focus your energy there. If you want to learn more about how your activities will be evaluated, take a look at this video.

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4. Make your college visits – in person or virtually.  For those of you who are lucky enough to be making in person college visits while on break, be sure you make the most of them. For those of you who can’t swing in-person visits, you can use the time to go on virtual visits by digging into some online research. Look for our upcoming post on how to take yourself on a virtual tour of a college.

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5. Familiarize yourself with the college admissions resources offered by your school and, if possible, make an appointment to meet with your school-based counselor in the next month or so (either before or after break). Your high school has resources to support you through the college admissions process, and you owe it to yourself to find out everything you can about what those resources are. Educate yourself by poking around on your school’s website, visiting the counseling offices, and attending college planning events offered by your school. Find out if your school-based counselor schedules one-on-one appointments with juniors. If they do, sign up for one — this is an important first step for establishing a positive and productive relationship with your counselor. Read our post coming soon with more tips about working well with your school-based counselor.

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6. Work on locking in your plans for summer. What you do this summer is important. Check out our previous post on how to make the most of it.

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.

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Making the Most of College Visits

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Planning a college visit isn’t like planning a trip to Disney World or some other vacation destination. Sure, it can and should be fun, but there's a definite strategy for getting the most from these visits.

If it’s safe for you to travel again – and if you have the opportunity to visit colleges in person – you have two objectives. First, you want to learn as much as you can about what it would be like to study and live there for four years of your life.  Second, you want to take advantage of any opportunities you might have to get a competitive edge in the application process. So how do you achieve those objectives?

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WEEK 7 TO-DOS

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THIS WEEK

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1. Start planning your college visits.

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

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1. Learn about the college on and off the tour.

You definitely want to do the official information session and tour: they are really the most efficient way to get the basics. If you are interested in a particular program and there are specialized information sessions or tours for that program, then do those too.

But if you really want to figure out whether this college is right for you, you want to go off the tour and gather more information. Here are the things we recommend:

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• Do something that gives you insight into the academic experience at the college. We’re always amazed at how little attention is given to this aspect of college life on visits. There are many ways to go about finding out about what it will be like to go to school at this college. These are a few of our favorites:
• Attend (or eavesdrop on) a class. Note that you should get there a few minutes early and ask the professor’s permission to sit in on the class, and you should be prepared to sit through the entire class so that you don’t disrupt it with your coming and going. If you can’t sit through an entire class, stand outside the classroom and unobtrusively eavesdrop on the class for a few minutes.
• Chat up a professor. Locate the building that is “home” for your potential major (it will be where the department has offices). Wander the halls and notice the posters and other information on the walls, while checking in on what the classrooms are like. See if you can find a professor in their office who is having “office hours” (times when they are available to talk with students and you can just drop in) or is just available for a few minutes of conversation.
• Check out the library. Libraries are where you’ll do a lot of your schoolwork and they all have their own ambience. Stroll around and observe students at work. You’ll probably find some social/chatty areas and some super quiet areas. See if you can find the place that you’d feel at home.
• Do something that relates to your life outside the classroom. What do you do besides go to school now? What would you like to do in college? Be on the lookout for whether you’ll have the opportunities you want during college. For example, go to the student center and check out the clubs and activities on campus. Identify a few that would interest you. See if you can find a student who does one of them (maybe in an office for the club) and talk with them about it.
• Do something that reveals what daily life will be like on campus. Sleeping, eating, socializing – these are the fundamentals of daily life. Hang out in front of a freshman residence hall and ask a student going in to let you see their room, the common areas, a bathroom, and the laundry area. Check out the dining hall by having lunch there if possible. Get a feel for what students do for fun by asking students you meet about school traditions, big “all-­school” events, and what happens on a typical weekend.

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2. Getting a competitive edge.

There are several ways that a well-orchestrated college visit can give you a competitive edge in the application process.

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• It demonstrates interest. Some (not all!) colleges consider how interested you are in the college when making admissions decisions. The more you can demonstrate a true interest in that kind of college, the better your chances for getting in. Taking the time and investing the resources in a college visit are one good way to demonstrate interest. Make a note of the date you visit, whom you meet, and what you do, since many colleges will ask those questions on the application or in an interview. If Covid or your budget or your schedule prohibit in-person visits, take advantage of all the virtual opportunities a college gives you to get to know them.
• It gives you great content for your Why College X essay (if the college has one). Many colleges have some version of an essay that asks you why you are interested in that particular college. If you have done what we suggest above, then you’ll have interesting anecdotes and concrete details to make your essay memorable and impressive to an admissions officer. Take the time to do a college-visit debrief afterwards and jot down your discoveries and reactions right after your visit so you don’t forget anything!
• It may offer you an opportunity to have an interview. Some colleges offer on-campus interviews as an optional component of the application. Research whether the college offers them. If you can schedule one while you are there, go for it so long as you do some pre-visit homework and know why you are interested in applying to the college. An interview is a wonderful opportunity to add something to your application, provided you can do the interview well.
• It may offer you an opportunity to meet with a coach, a faculty member, or someone else in the university community who can become your advocate in the admissions process. Although admissions officers will ultimately make the decision about whether you are admitted or not, other members of the university community can be advocates for you in the process and boost your chances of admission. The most common opportunity of this sort is for those of you who are potential recruited athletes. If you fall into this category, then you will definitely want to schedule a meeting with the coach for your sport and talk with that person. But there are opportunities for advocates beyond coaches. For example, if you have an unusually deep background in a particular academic discipline or are a talented performance artist or musician, you might be able to meet with the faculty or staff in your area of specialty and have them promote your admission when the time comes. Likewise, if your family members have been very active alums or generous donors to the college, you might be able to meet with someone in the alumni affairs or development office and have them advocate on your behalf. (Most people don’t have those kinds of connection, so don’t lose sleep if you don’t either.)

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.

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Making the Most of Your Summer

After Junior Year

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Summer is coming, and it’s time to start locking in your plans. In order to make the most of your summer between 11th and 12th grade, you’ll want to be focused on giving your credentials that extra boost and getting a head start on the college application process.

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WEEK 6 TO-DOS

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THIS WEEK

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1. Start brainstorming projects and opportunities to line up in time for the summer.

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

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1. Do something that adds to either your academic or activity credentials in a meaningful and distinctive way.

A meaningful and distinctive experience during the summer gives your credentials that little extra something and that ultimately makes you a stand out as an applicant. Don’t let the words “meaningful and distinctive” throw you. You don’t have to cure cancer or travel across the world to do something meaningful and distinctive. You just have to do something that adds to the credentials you’ve been building for the last three years. Here are some questions that should help you determine what you could do this summer that would be meaningful and distinctive:

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• Do you have an academic passion? If so, look for a summer program that allows you to study your passion at an advanced level. Even better would be a summer program that allows you to do an independent project that you could refer to in your application. For example, if you are passionate about science, you could do a summer program that includes science research in addition to classroom study.
• Are you an athlete with the possibility of being recruited onto a college team or qualifying for national or international competitions? If so, you’re looking for opportunities to show off your skills to college recruiters and compete at the highest levels possible. You can also look at a good training/skills development camp or program (Covid permitting).
• Are you an artist, writer, performer, or all-around creative type? If so, the summer is your chance to have a gallery show (virtual is fine!), write and self-publish a novella, or mount a production. You can do that at a summer camp (Covid permitting) or seize the initiative and do it on your own. Whatever you do, work on improving your craft and think about documenting as you go because it could give you a great start on a required or optional artistic supplement in your applications.
• Are you a community-service volunteer? If so, use the long days of summer to take your volunteering to the next level by doing something full-time for several weeks in a row. Working as a volunteer every day rather than once a month or once a week will give you a very different perspective.
• Are you someone who has a definite career in mind for yourself that you’d like to explore? If so, then you’ll want to secure an internship (volunteer or paid, virtual or in person) that lets you see what people in that career do.
• Do you want or need to earn some money this summer? Start looking for a job now. You might be able to start working part-time right away and then bump up your hours during the summer. And don’t worry that having to work is somehow a mark against you in the admissions process. Nothing could be further from the truth. Admissions officers are always impressed by an applicant who can juggle the demands of the working world with school and other obligations or interests.

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2. Get a head start on college applications.

Taking time during the summer to get a head start on your college applications is the key to a sane fall of your senior year. We’ll have a full list of everything you can get done in a separate post that will come out in the late spring. For now, you just need to be aware that you’ll need time to work on your college applications throughout the summer. One other heads up: if you have colleges on your list that offer on-campus interviews during the summer, you’ll want to take advantage of this opportunity if your schedule and budget permit. Otherwise, virtual visits are fine too.

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.

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Choosing Your Senior Year Courses

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For most of you, it’s time to choose which courses you will take in your final year of high school. While it might be tempting to dial it back academically, you really can’t do that if you aspire to get into a selective college. Here’s what you need to know:

College admissions officers use a three-prong analysis to evaluate your academic record:

1. Curriculum: What courses you take
2. Rigor: How demanding those courses are
3. Performance: How you do in those courses

Your senior year will count in that evaluation, even for those of you who apply and get in early. Admissions officers get periodic reports as you progress through senior year, and any offer of admission will be contingent on completing the courses you showed you were taking on your application, AND getting grades consistent with your prior performance. So, for example, if you have a 4.1 GPA going into senior year, they expect you to finish senior year with pretty much the same GPA.

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WEEK 5 TO-DOS

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THIS WEEK

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1. Start researching your class options for senior year and make a plan. Meet with your counselor to discuss your choices and make sure your planned schedule is doable.

2. Check with your school counselor about visits from college admissions reps. Add any college rep visits to your calendar.

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

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1. Curriculum: You must take English and Math and at least 3 other academic solids.

Even though there are now multiple college prep curricula out there, selective U.S. colleges are steadfast in their expectations about the coursework that high school graduates will have completed (and the knowledge they will have acquired) before they begin college.

Four years of English and Math are non-negotiable. If you have already taken every English and Math class you can at your high school, take a course at a local community college or nearby university. If that isn’t an option, take a for-credit online course.

Along with English and Math, you should take at least 3 other academic solids. An academic solid is a course in one of these 5 core areas of study:

• English Language & Literature
• Foreign Language & Literature
• History, Philosophy, Religion & Social Sciences
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Natural & Physical Sciences

Note that you can double up in English and Math if you are really engaged by those subjects. For example, you could take AP English and a Journalism elective if you’re really into English.

You’ll see that music, visual arts, and performing arts are not listed above as academic solids. That’s because colleges are split about whether they count those as academic solids. So if you want to make choices that give you the most options, don’t include those when counting up your 5 academic solids. Luckily, most of you get to take at least 6 courses, so you can add music, visual arts, or performing arts into your schedule without a problem.

For those of you intending to pursue music, visual arts, or performing arts as college majors or careers, you may find it hard to take the courses you need to take if you do not count music, visual arts, or performing arts as academic solids. In that case, contact the colleges where you will be applying and get their advice about what courses you should take in your senior year. All admissions officers are happy to give this advice and would much rather help you now than deny you later!

A note for international students: High school curricula vary greatly worldwide, and U.S. college admissions officers understand that. Generally, the curriculum mandated by your home country will be acceptable to U.S. colleges, but you should consult with colleges where you are planning to apply just to make sure.

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2. Rigor: Create an overall schedule that either maintains your level of rigor or takes your rigor up a notch.

The rigor of your schedule is determined by the level of the courses you are taking. Your high school probably has some way of distinguishing the courses that are harder and more academically demanding.

Courses that are more advanced in particular subjects are considered more rigorous, so Spanish V is harder than Spanish IV. Accelerated, honors, AP, and IB courses are also considered more rigorous than regular courses.

So if you are taking 3 courses this year that are more rigorous, then you want to take at least 3 courses next year that are also more rigorous. It’s even better if you can take your rigor up a notch and include 4 courses that are more rigorous.

Why do admissions officers care about rigor? Because they want students who are ambitious learners and who can manage the increased rigor of college courses when they arrive. College is harder than high school, and they want you to be ready for the challenge.

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3. Performance: Choose courses in which you can maintain or improve your grades.

Most of you put more emphasis on this third prong than you should. You are probably on the quest for the easy A in the hope of bumping up your GPA in your final year.

But here’s the reality:

A high GPA that you earn by avoiding academic solids or by reducing the rigor won’t help you. Admissions officers aren’t dumb. They know that an A in ‘Beginning Guitar’ or in ‘French for Travelers’ isn’t the same as an A in Honors Physics.

That being said, you can use this third prong, performance, as a tiebreaker when it comes to making choices that are equal in terms of the first two prongs. For example, let’s say you are choosing between AP Statistics and AP Computer Science. If you think you are going to nail it in AP Statistics, but will struggle in AP Computer Science, then by all means, take AP Statistics.

One thing you should definitely take into consideration is the interaction between rigor and performance. Should you take the more rigorous course if you will get a lower grade? For example, should you take AP Physics and get a B, or take regular Physics and get an A?

Our recommendation is that you take the more rigorous course as long as your grade is likely to be no more than one grade lower than your grade in the regular course. B is one grade lower than an A, so in this example, take the more rigorous course (and of course do as well as you can). But if your grade is likely to be a C in the more rigorous course and an A in the regular course, then take the regular course.

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.

Start Planning Your College Visits

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One of the few silver linings to come out of the pandemic is that schools have finally embraced virtual visits (first out of necessity, now by choice!), and our guess is that they are here to stay.

So if your budget and schedule (and life more generally) enable you to visit colleges in person, that’s great! If not, you have a lot of virtual options now, and you absolutely should take advantage of them.

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WEEK 4 TO-DOS

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THIS WEEK

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1. Think broadly about which schools you want to investigate, and schedule your virtual or in-person visits.

Those visits will help you identify what you do or don’t like about different colleges, where and why you might might want to learn more, and discover more about your own preferences. That in turn will help you make better choices about where to apply when it comes time to build your college list. You’ll save yourself wasted application fees, and long term can also save you from wasting your tuition and your time on a college that isn’t the right fit for you. You can always narrow down your lists later. You’re just in the exploration stage!

Also, your chances for admission at many colleges will be higher if you “demonstrate interest” in that college, and a college visit is one really good way to do that. Colleges track who attends them.

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2. Check with your school counselor about visits from admissions reps.

Representative from various colleges might also be coming to your high school or town or region to meet with students in person. If and when that’s the case, make a plan for attending those events, if possible. Those are usually hosted by your high school, so stay in touch with your school-based counselor about what that calendar looks like.

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

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• Practice speaking with admissions representatives at virtual events. This is one of the reasons it’s a good idea to explore broadly at this point. You may not think you’re excited about a particular college, but at a minimum you’ll have a chance to ask questions and practice your conversational skills in that setting. You’ll find that these conversations feel easier and more natural over time. Note too that these events are not the same thing as an official admissions interview, so don’t lose sleep over those conversations. But do have good manners, and do look and sound interested whether in person or on screen, because every interaction with a representative from a college has the potential to leave a lasting, good impression.

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P.S. Want this 52 Weeks to College series to land in your inbox every week? Sign up for our 52 Weeks newsletter here.

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.
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Which Standardized Tests to Take and When

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Love ‘em or hate ‘em, standardized tests like the SAT or ACT are still a major part of the college admissions process at some colleges. And a small number of colleges are test-blind; those college won’t look at your test scores even if you have them.

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Most colleges, though, are test-optional, which means you don’t have to take the tests in order to apply, and if you do take the tests, you have to figure out whether your test scores help you and are worth submitting.

The list of test-optional colleges continues to grow, and while some are truly test-optional, full stop, with many colleges there’s a lot of fine print. They might identify and market themselves as “test-optional” but still require standardized tests for certain majors, scholarship eligibility, international status, homeschooled students, or other categories of applicants.

If you are going to be taking tests, what you need from us is ruthlessly practical advice about how to get the scores that will serve you well when applying to colleges. But we’ll say it again: Your health matters more than these tests, and that includes your mental health. Many colleges don’t require standardized tests at all, and they will seriously consider you with or without test scores.

In this post, we’re focusing on which tests to take, how many times to take them, when to take them, and how to prepare for them.

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WEEK 3 TO-DO’S

THIS WEEK

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1. Make your schedule for any standardized tests that you decide you need or want to take, and plan for test prep that starts at least 8-10 week before your scheduled test.

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

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1. Which tests should you take? The only way to know about college admissions requirements is to do your research. Visit the colleges’ websites and see what their policies are. (And they are fluid! Whatever they were last year might look different this year or next year.)  READ THE FINE PRINT to check whether or not you’ll still have time to take tests, even if the college is otherwise “test-optional” for most applicants. If you want to maximize options, we have this general advice:

• If you need a standardized test, take the ACT OR THE SAT. You don’t need to take both. Even though the tests are similar, there are some key differences, and you may be better suited to one or the other. The best way to find out which test suits you best is to take practice tests for both and see if you score better on one or the other and then pick one to focus on. Some test prep companies also offer free diagnostic tests.
• International students should plan on having to take an English proficiency test (TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo) unless they were educated in an English-language secondary school. (US citizens are by definition not counted as international students, even if they are living abroad and are being educated abroad.) Each college will have its own requirements around who must take these tests, and which tests it will accept.

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2. How many times should you take the tests?

• ACT/SAT: If you plan to take the ACT or SAT, plan to take it at least twice and leave room in your schedule for a possible third time. Why? Because some colleges permit “superscoring” (the policy of taking your best subscores from multiple tests to create your best composite score), and that favors having taken the test more than once. Not everyone can afford to keep taking the tests, or you might sit them out entirely because of Covid. Adapt this advice to your individual circumstances. Do NOT take the tests as many times as you can, just because you can. Most students don’t have the knowledge or skills to perform well until late in their junior (11th grade) year, plus you can only take it so many times between then and when applications are due. Your scores are only likely to improve significantly if you have time (2-6 months) between test administrations to improve.
• English Proficiency (TOEFL etc): There is no superscoring for the these tests, so you should only take it more than once if you have not achieved the minimum score required for admission, or if you have barely achieved the minimum and you have reason to believe that you will do better.

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3. When should you take the tests? We recommend the following schedules for taking the tests, but you can and should adjust this schedule for personal or school conflicts and for the Covid situation. Also, be aware that not all tests are available everywhere and at all times.

• ACT & SAT: Spring, Summer, Fall
• English Proficiency: Early summer (after ACT/SAT), late summer, and early fall (second and third dates if you need/want to retake)

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4. How should you prep for the tests? You should not take these tests without preparing for them, but HOW you prep for the tests is largely a matter of time, resources, and personal preference. At a minimum, you should take advantage of the free resources provided by each testing agency and follow the advice we gave in Week 2 on proven strategies for improving scores. If you want to do more prep, then you’ll need to invest in study materials (either paper or online), group courses, or one-on-one tutoring. Here are some free resources:

• ACT: ACT Academy
• SAT: Khan Academy
• TOEFL:  Practice tests

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P.S. Want this 52 Weeks to College series to land in your inbox every week? Sign up for our 52 Weeks newsletter here.

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Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.
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‍The Keys to Improving Your
Grades and Test Scores

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Conventional wisdom about how to improve your grades and test scores goes something like this: Buckle down, work harder, and devote more time to studying. But conventional wisdom is just plain wrong. You don’t have to work harder; you have to work smarter.

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WEEK 2 TO-DO'S

THIS WEEK

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Pick 1 or 2 classes where you could bump up your grade with just a big more focused attention.These are the classes where you have the B that could be a B+, or you have the B+ that could be an A-. Figure out what it takes to get the higher grade and start doing that. If you have no idea what it would take, go and talk to your teacher. Trust us, your teacher will be very happy to give you some suggestions to help you perform better.

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Why do this? Your grades in the last half of 11th grade are the most recent evidence that college admissions officers will have about the kind of student you are. So better grades are very helpful. Plus, they contribute to an upward grade trend, which is also impressive. Finally, it lays the groundwork for outstanding recommendations from the teachers in those classes where you demonstrate your commitment to performing to the best of your abilities.

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THIS WEEK AND EVERY WEEK

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• Check your email, voicemail, texts, and snail mail for any communications that relate to applying to college. Read them and take whatever action is necessary.
• Update your parents about what you’re doing. This regular communication will work wonders in your relationship with your parents during this stress-filled year.

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TIPS & TRICKS

1. Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. One study showed that college students who increased their nightly sleep from 6 hours to 7 hours showed a whopping 10% boost in exam performance. That’s a big improvement for just giving your brain the sleep it needs!  For great tips on improving teen sleep, check out this article from Dr. Craig Canapari, director of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center.

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2. Take practice tests. According to this article in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, taking practice tests is a far better way to study than highlighting, rereading, or summarizing (the most common ways students study). What kind of practice test should you do? Ideally, you use a practice test that is as similar as possible to the real test. So if you will have a multiple choice test in your Chemistry class, then ideally you would study using a multiple choice test that has previously been given in that Chemistry class. What if you don’t have access to a prior test? Doesn’t matter. It turns out you will still benefit from practice testing as long as the practice test addresses the same subject matter. So where do you find practice tests?

• For standardized tests of any variety, there are practice tests available from many sources. (AP, IB, SAT, ACT, TOEFL) – use them!

• For tests in your school courses, treat the questions at the end of a textbook chapter as a test, using homemade or purchased flashcards to test yourself, or searching online for tests in the subject matter. You can also see if your teacher will release old tests for you to use as study tools.

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3. Set a study schedule that includes shorter sessions over time rather than a giant cram session. After comparing what scientists call “distributed practice” to “massed practice,” the results were pretty clear that distributed practice wins. Great. But what does that mean?

Distributed practice is a fancy way of saying that you break your studying into shorter sessions over time, rather than cramming everything into bigger, less frequent sessions. (Also the same approach you’re taking to your college applications in this series!)

Based on our experience working with students, here is what we suggest:

• For standardized tests: Commit to doing at least 2 study sessions a week for the 10 weeks prior to the test.

• For tests in school courses: Commit to adding at least 1 study session of the practice-test variety into your “homework” each week for every course.

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P.S. Want this 52 Weeks to College series to land in your inbox every week? Sign up for our 52 Weeks newsletter here.

Anna Ivey is one of the founders of Inline. An experienced admissions consultant and a frequently cited media expert on the topic of college admissions, she is also co-author of the college admissions bible How to Prepare a Standout College Application. Learn more about Anna's background here.
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