Clients have asked me repeatedly to explain the relationship between the financial aid and admissions offices, and to help them to understand how financial need is factored into admissions decisions. Usually these questions revolve around whether a college is “need blind” or “need aware.” So in this post, I’ll try to shed some light on [...]
Read full post...I recently wrote a post in response to a US News & World Report video explaining that boys have an advantage in the admissions process. Most campuses seek an even balance in genders, even though 60% of all college applicants are women. For more about this phenomenon, see the full US News article on the [...]
Read full post...A reader recently wrote in to ask my opinion about dual enrollment courses, and to compare them to the Advanced Placement (or AP) options at her sons’ school. The question came on a post I wrote analyzing the worth of AP courses.
First, a brief word of explanation about “dual enrollment,” or what some know as [...]
Read full post...Several recent client questions have centered upon the value of Advanced Placement (AP) tests and their importance in the college admissions process.
Conventional wisdom holds that AP courses are excellent preparation for college. They are considered to be rigorous. The general idea is that they are the equivalent of college-level, introductory survey courses.
(The Advanced [...]
A prospective client emailed me yesterday with a question that is regularly asked of me when I give presentations on college admission around the Denver area.
Which is better, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB)? Do colleges find one more impressive over the other?
In my opinion, both the AP and IB progrmas are [...]
The question that parents and students most often ask me is, “which is better: getting a higher GPA or taking a tougher course load.”
The humorous, accurate, but not always helpful response is: “Take the hardest course you can and get an ‘A’ in it.”
Here’s the scoop: this is not an easy question to [...]
How do colleges calculate GPA in the admissions process? Some students take courses that “weigh” more than others, which can boost their GPA and their class rank. But how do colleges treat these different weights when they read your application?
Most colleges will consider both your weighted and unweighted GPA, and most high schools will report [...]
Jay Mathews of the Washington Post has an article today about the College Board’s audit of AP courses across the nation. You can find the article here.
The article focuses on the fact that some veteran AP teachers’ syllabi have been rejected by the College Board, despite these teachers’ stellar success in preparing [...]