1-17-08

College Q and A

When am I supposed to do all this “college prep stuff”? anonymous student

All of this is in much greater detail on the College Prep-101 web site (www.collegeprep101.com), under “College Planning Checklist”.  There I’ve posted information and checklists for parents of young children, middle school/junior high school students, each year of high school, as well as one for parents.  But here’s the abridged version.

You need to start thinking about careers and majors as soon as you know what a career or major is.  You need to start taking college prep classes in ninth grade – and take them seriously!  You need to start taking PLAN, PSAT, ACT and SAT tests during sophomore year.  Hopefully you’ve already visited several college campuses, but you need to start touring them and talking to people on campus in sophomore or junior year.  CLEP tests can be taken any time you complete a class you want to test in (AP tests are offered in May each year).  As far as applications go… Admission applications should be done in early fall of senior year; scholarships, late fall or early spring; financial aid, January or February; housing, ASAP, but by mid-spring.  Making your final decision about which college to attend is likely to be in spring of your senior year.  Enrollment should take place as early as possible, but likely in late spring or early summer.  Also in the summer, or just before school starts, you should attend the orientation program at your college.

Where can I find SAT Prep teachers for my program? Charmaine, Brooklyn, NY

Thanks for your question.  My first thought was that the College of Education at my college here in Oklahoma used to make an individual available to do that at high schools (though in Oklahoma, most students take the ACT).  It was considered an outreach function of the college, so it was fairly inexpensive, and had a qualified individual(s) teaching the classes.  So I'd check with all the Education programs at colleges and universities in our area.  If there's a continuing education or outreach or extension office at that college (those are all different names for the same function), you might also check there.

Another idea you might consider is to have a panel discussion of students who were successful in taking the SAT.  I couldn't tell by your e-mail address if you're located at a college or a high school, or are part of a separate program, so I don't know how easy that will be for you.  But if possible, I'd try to locate 5 to 10 individuals who are college upper-classmen/women, and did well on the SAT - not just high scorers, also include those who made a big change between tests.  High School Counselors, college admission directors, or experienced college consultants are good people to check with.  You could interview the students by phone and see what they have to say and pick 4 or 5 of them to talk about what they did and didn't do.  Particularly kids from your area are likely to be willing to come help you cheap or for free.  Kids, as you know, listen to other kids...  If you or someone else did a little research at www.collegeboard.com, you could have some specific suggestions to share, along with specifics on how the test is layed out and administered.  Between the panel, the specifics from College Board's site, and some general testing suggestions like "read the questions before you read the reading passage", and "get a good nights sleep", and "eat a good breakfast", etc. you would have a pretty good workshop and it wouldn't cost you much except some snacks...

Submit your questions to lance@collegeanswerguy.com and visit www.collegeanswerguy.com and www.collegeprep101.com.