Education Articles from College Matching Service

Preparing yourself for college entrance is not so easy. Every student wants to get admittance into the college of their choice; however, very few get accepted into their dream college. There are few basic problems that create hindrance during easy college acceptance. Either they have not taken the proper course, or haven’t got involved in extracurricular activities or haven’t done enough research to prepare themselves for college entrance.

Presently, the college-bound student experiences the most competitive and the toughest admission than ever. Let us now discuss few things that are essential while preparing yourself for college entrance.

Grades: Grades are the most crucial factor that helps a college to decide whom to accept or whom to reject. For example, if you apply to an engineering college, and don’t get excellent grades in science and math, you will not get college acceptance. Through your grades, colleges want to see whether you have the capability of taking on the workload of your school. If colleges don’t check it before, you may face a tough time while gaining acceptance.

Take Up Proper Classes: Some students take solid college preparative curricula during their high school days. However, if you wish to prove yourself as a hard worker, try to take higher level courses. Honors classes are possibly offered at your college. Try to find out the requirements and register in few classes. The increased workload of an honors course will certainly help in the preparation for college entrance. Some colleges also offer additional incentive for achieving high marks in honors courses. Check and find what your university or college offers.

Involve Yourself In Proper Activities: Some students have numerous activities listed on their resumes. You can involve yourself in several activities, but always stick with those activities that will appear impressive to your college. Academic organizations that show leadership would be better choice compared to Drama club or Chess club.

These are few basic things that you must do while preparing for college entrance.

Most of the parents play a role only in encouraging their children to get higher grades in high school. Though grades are important for getting admitted to renowned colleges, parents need to play a much broader role to help their children to be successful.

As a parent you need to prepare your child for the college experiences. The following are some guidelines that will help you to assist your child.

• You need to help your child to develop a strong communication skill. From the very beginning help them to develop a sound reading and writing ability. Moreover, give them opportunities to prove their speaking and presentation skills. Make sure that your child has a strong command over grammar, spelling, punctuation and vocabulary as these factors play an important role in their college.
• Ensure that your child is gaining enough real world experience before stepping in the college campus. To help your children to broaden their perspectives encourage them to visit museums, national parks, concerts and athletic events alone or with friends. In the beginning you can escort them, but make sure you let them take their own decisions. A very good option for broadening the perspectives of your child is to let them visit a different, state or even a country if possible. This will allow them to come across different cultures, peoples as well as to develop ability to cope up with various situations.
• Encourage your child to take responsibilities. This is a very important criterion for being successful in their college. You need to teach your children that they are accountable for their behaviors and efforts. You can give them little responsibilities when they are in their schools and see how they perform.
• Teaching etiquettes and desirable behavior is not enough. You need to demonstrate them to help your child learn the difference between wrong and right from the very beginning. It is essential for you to remember that parental behavior has a critical effect on the child’s mental growth.

Admission to a college or university of your preference would require you to go through a number of selection procedures. Colleges consider essays, interviews, recommendations, community involvement and even high school GPAs. However, SAT scores remain the primary factor. A high SAT score would significantly increase your chances of admission.

The SAT has three sections and three scores, each on a scale of 200 to 800.

• Writing
• Math
• Critical Reading

It is important to submit your SAT scores to the chosen universities ahead of the deadlines. The procedure for proper submission of SAT scores is outlined here.

• Visit the College Board website to register for the SAT. Select the four colleges or universities you want to send your SAT score reports to. Changes in the selection of colleges can be made till midnight on the Tuesday of the week following your test day. Create or log in to your College Board account from the “My SAT” link.
• The “Scores” link on the College Board website will give you access to the scores page if you need to send additional SAT score reports. Click on the “View and Send Scores” button. Enter your login credentials, and click on “Send Available Scores.” Search for colleges and scholarship programs by name, state or code. Select your options and then choose from regular or rush delivery.
• Your credit card information will be required for any additional score reports requested. A charge of $9.50 is entailed for each additional score report.
• To request for SAT scores that are more than a year old, download and print the “Archived Score Report Form” on the College Board website. You will need to provide your current name and address, name and address at the time of testing, registration number, test date, college codes and credit card information. Depending on the age of your SAT scores, the charge for each additional report varies from $20 to $30.

Many colleges require admission tests in order to compare and to measure the ability and skill of a student. These admission tests are mainly the SAT and ACT. The ACT test is given to applicants who reside in the center of the U.S, whereas, SAT is prevalent in the coastal region. Many students sit for both the tests to improve their odds for college admission. However, you must remember that the college admission tests are not the sole criteria the college looks for during admission. The academic performance of the student, recommendations and applications with essays also play a major role in the college admission process.

SAT Test For College Admission

The SAT exam mainly consists of subject tests and reasoning tests. The reasoning test analyzes the aptitude and skill of a student in math, writing and reading. Questions on this exam are basically multiple choice and 25 minutes is provided to write one essay. Through this test result, the college forms a general idea about the thinking skill of the student, and whether he or she has the capability of solving problems and adapting. The SAT scores can vary from two hundred to eight hundred on each portion. The reasoning test takes approximately four hours, whereas, the subject test takes roughly one hour to get complete.

ACT Test For College Admission

It is the most commonly taken college admission test that assesses and evaluates the academic development of a student. This test also judges the students capability of doing college level work efficiently. Presently, the average score of this exam is 20.9 out of thirty six. The ACT exam has multiple choice questions and covers mathematics, science, reading and English. Students may also seat for a writing test which is optional. There is also a writing portion that measures the ability of a student to plan and execute short essays. The ACT test generally takes 4 hours to get complete.

How Can You Prepare For College Admission Tests

There are numerous resources available that can help students taking the SAT or ACT exams. The students can take sample test through the Internet, can search for relevant books in local library, and can join a class that teaches the required skills to master the SAT and ACT exams.

There are a wide number of ways in which you can get an early admission. They are enlisted below:

Remaining in the top ten percent of your class:

If you remain in the top 10 percent of your class, any college would readily absorb you. Therefore if you maintain a proper academic record in which you consistently get good scores, then admission in college becomes easier. Admission becomes difficult for students who always have grades added to their marks for passing. A college finds the consistent student more authentic and therefore, he has greater chances of getting admission.

Check out the options in your college:

For an extremely motivated student, the college offers Independent study option. After getting an admission into a college, you must look for the facilities/ options that are offered by it. For example, some colleges offer advanced degree programs. It is of great help to students who are really interested in their studies.

It is honorable to have meaningful extracurricular rather than a long list :

It is always better to have a meaningful list of co-curricular activities. A long list comprising of a number of co-curricular activities is not of much help. If you have any 2 or 3 good record of extracurricular activities, then you can easily get admission in a reputed college.

Donations:

In most of the colleges, students belonging to the aristocratic families get an easy admission by donating huge amounts of money. They take early admission and lessen the chances of admission for students who enroll in regular courses. The donation amount varies largely and is usually higher for more renowned colleges.

Proper connections:

If you have a proper channel then you can easily get an admission. You have to get hold of the right person, who can help you in this regard. It may be in lieu of money. Thus, if you can track the right person, he can surely help you out.

Early admission is considered to be unfair by many students. Since some colleges allow students to take admission much before the commencement of their session, the seats are blocked. The students are given early admission if they can produce the mark sheets. So the students who have just got their mark sheets in hand cannot get the scope. It is of great advantage to those students who already have their mark sheet with them.

Some students are of the opinion that there is 40% chance of getting admitted in case of early admission and only 30% in case of regular application. At present, many colleges are closing down this scheme due to student’s grievances. They want a fair deal and early admission is not a fair deal for them. Thus, both Harvard College and Princeton College (reputed colleges of America) have closed their early admission scheme. Since there is a fierce competition among students, these colleges have decided not to give extra advantage to any student by early admission.

There are a number of points which go against early admission. They are the following:

a) The parents are required to spend thousands of dollars for their candidates while getting an admission. In this case, the meritorious candidates do not get any priority. Money becomes the instrument for college admission. Thus early admission is unfair to many students.

b) The candidates who come from low income group cannot pay huge amounts for admission. For them, early admission is a nightmare; since seats are blocked and they have to apply as regular candidates.

c) In some colleges, early admission does not have transparency. The ways in which students are enrolled are not clear and transparent. Some spend a few dollars on the admission; others are admitted just by contact. Due to this process, the meritorious students fail to get a fair chance. Some students thus consider early admission as unfair.

Early admission is not affordable by most people. Those students who come from a low income group cannot afford to give huge amounts for admission. Their families do not have the ability to pay such an exorbitant amount for their candidate. In most of the cases, the students from low income group fares better in an exam. Often a meritorious student takes an admission in a low grade college, since the seats in their preferred colleges remain blocked. The seats are mainly blocked by the affluent students who have money to buy seats under early admission scheme. The effects of early admission are the following:

Adverse effect on society: Early admission adversely affects the society. The meritorious students cannot display their caliber since they don’t get the opportunity to study in their preferred fields. Therefore, poor quality professionals are produced. They neither know how to handle cases, nor have any respect for their profession. This is an unwanted thing which may hamper the progress of society.

Effects on the career of students: The career of students is mostly affected by early admission scheme. Students who have the merit and percentage of marks cannot enroll themselves in reputed colleges. This spoils their career. Some students have a brilliant extra curricular record. It is one of the important criterions for getting an admission. Even those students lose their chance of admission in renowned colleges since the seats remain blocked.

Early admission stopped in various colleges: Keeping in mind the adverse effects on the society and the sad plight of the meritorious students, most of the prestigious colleges in America have decided to stop early admission. This had been a constructive step on their part. Although there was an upheaval among the students for this decision, the authorities of Harvard University stuck to their decision and did not compromise. Well, it is heading towards a brighter society.

Getting admitted into a medical school is one of the most difficult things these days. Your academic grades along with your GPA and MCAT scores are very influential in determining your admission to a medical school. These are some of the grade related factors that are extremely important for most of the medical schools.

• Most of the medical schools consider the over all grade point average together with your class ranking.

• Selection procedure in the best medical schools is based on merit and grades. Thereby, achieving higher grades in high school increases the chance of getting admitted to the most renowned medical schools.

• Most of the medical schools allow only those applications who have achieved an average of 3.5 and 27 in their GPA and MCAT respectively. Most of the medical school graduates achieve a GPA score of 3.7 and a MCAT score of at least 30. In case you fail to achieve the minimum requirement, chances are you will not even be called for an interview.

• Most of the medical schools assume that the students who have obtained relatively poor grades in their MCAT will also be unsuccessful on the USMLE, which is a standardized test for graduating from a medical school.

• For your GPA calculation you also need to enter all the credits and grades that you have received in your college or grad school.

• Most importantly, you need to be very familiar with your college’s grading system as you will have to convert them into AMCAS grades, which is a standardized primary application service for most of the medical schools in United States. You will also need to include all the details about your grades ion your secondary application.

However, there are certain other requirements apart from grades that you will need to fulfill. These include extra-curricular activities during your high school as well as volunteer work experience in the field of medicine.

Although college or university is all about academic success, your grades indicate your overall achievement and dedication to a particular field of study. Colleges basically give emphasis on 10^th grade and 11^th grade GPA (grade point average), and focus more on 11^th grade. If you are familiar, interested and comfortable with the matter of your subject, good grades are quite easy to achieve. If you are well-rounded, your GPA will become an approving factor to your well-formed stats. You must make your GPA scores more than average, and must do well in SAT exams to get easy college admittance.

The Basics About Grades

Colleges ask for your GPA marks for easy admission. A 4.0 grade point average or GPA grade means you have got 93 percent throughout your higher classes. This grade indicates that you have got a promising and successful academic future, and will make your college admission easy. 0.0 GPA indicates that you have got below 60 percent, and this won’t help you during your college admission. Some students get between 83 percent and 86 percent which is a 3.0 GPA. This is an average grade and does not create much hindrance during college admission.

GPA cut-off marks for college admission varies from college to college. Students get semester grades and quarter grades. It is your semester marks that contribute towards GPA. However, the quarter grades are used for the calculation of semester grades. Hence, they indirectly matter a lot.

Points to Remember

If you fail in one class, your GPA will decrease to a great extent, even if you get good marks in other segments. Colleges and universities see the grades earned by you in the freshman year; they will also calculate the average marks of all semester grades that you have achieved since the 9^th standard. Your GPA grades will get counted even after you get admission into a college. However, you must remember that the numbers are not meant to make you scare. No doubt, grades are certainly important. But they are not the only thing to be considered during college admission.

A college or a university is a center of new ideas and culture. Possibly, the biggest thing that can make you feel tied to your university or college is the involvement in sports. Several researches have proved that students who involve themselves in high school sport participation become highly successful academically. Getting involved in high school sport participation is vital for all students, whether he is a commuter or a resident.

Purpose of Sports Participation and Its Importance

The purpose of high school sport participation is so that universities or colleges can analyze your teamwork and commitment. If you are a sports lover, try to join groups or clubs at your high school. These factors can be conveyed easily to the college or university community, and that is what most colleges want. Volunteering and participation is sport events during high school, demonstrate the character of a student in bigger community. Hence, try to demonstrate both volunteering and your extra curricular activities such as sport participation to get easy admittance into a college.

If your SAT/ACT scores and GPA scores are decent you may face no difficulty in getting admission into a college. However, high school sport participation also plays a major role in college enrollment. It looks good to colleges that you participated in sports in high school.

Other Significance of Sport Participation

Some colleges and universities offer scholarship if you are good in a sport. It may be crucial because if you get scholarship, you will have to spend less money for your college education cost. Volunteer work and internship is still needed even though you participate in sports. If you are planning to get scholarship for specific sport, high school participation is sport event will certainly help you a lot. Even though, you do not want to take part in college sport events, your college feels good to know that you did participated in sporting events in high school.