Should I Take the SAT or ACT and What About the MCAT, LSAT, and GRE during COVID?

Amid all of the adjustments that Colleges and Universities have made during COVID, the one that affects you and your student the most is the changes to Standardized Tests such as the SAT, ACT, MCAT, LSAT, and GRE. Although California has seen the most disruption in its Testing schedule, the rest of the country has been open for several months now. Therefore, if you are thinking about attending a College or University outside of California, then the SAT and ACT will be REQUIRED for the upcoming admissions cycle. That being said, there have been some adjustments to Graduate level Testing, such as in the case of the MCAT, LSAT, and GRE.

The Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) has been shortened from 7 hours to 5 and a half hours in order to fit in an additional sitting at Pearson Test Centers to make up for the 2020 cancellations. Medical Schools across the country have refused to waive the MCAT requirement, even during COVID. This is an extremely long and difficult exam for prospective Medical School applicants, therefore we at Dow Educational Solutions recommend approximately 80 hours for content review. Yes, 80 hours!… However, we have prepared a full color-coded version of all of the Notes associated with the Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Psychology, Sociology, and Critical Reasoning content on the MCAT. We can save you over 75% of your study time by accessing our complete MCAT Content Review materials…

The Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) will be administered at home while proctored remotely using your webcam. Spots fill up quickly, and registration deadlines are firm, with no late registration. Since Testing can occur in the comfort of your own home, Law Schools have not decided to waive the LSAT requirement. The LSAT is another complicated Standardized Test that requires practice, practice, and more practice…

The Graduate Record Examination includes 3 areas of focus: Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning, and Quantitative Reasoning. Since this Test is short by most standards, only 3 hours and 45 minutes, previous cancellations have been easy to make up. There are several Testing Centers that have been serving students for the past several months, even in California.

The bottom line is that now is the time to start planning your Standardized Test Prep for the SAT, ACT, MCAT, LSAT, and GRE as requirements for undergraduate Colleges outside of California remain the same, and Graduate & Professional School requirements for Universities across the county have always been the same despite COVID.

What is the SMART way to make Educational New Year’s Resolutions?

An estimated 50% of people in the United States make New Year’s Resolutions… only 20% actually keep them after 1 week… and only 10% of those people keep their resolutions after 1 month. That is an average of only 1 person out of 100 who can actually stick with a goal for a full month after the New Year! Why is there such a disparity in the number who can keep a resolution versus those who cannot? The answer resides in the SMART methodology...

The S.M.A.R.T. method of goal setting involves 5 principles:

1. Specific

2. Measurable

3. Achievable

4. Relevant

5. Timely

Your goal must be specific, such as start studying for all Tests at least 3 days in advance. It must also be measurable; for example, achieve nothing lower than a 90% on any Assignment. The goals must also be achievable. Trying to run a marathon in under a half hour is not humanly possible at this time (we shall see what jet-pack technology in the future may say about that), therefore it is not a SMART goal. Your Educational New Year’s Resolution should also be relevant. Hence, being accepted to a Top 25 University is an example of a relevant goal for one who has above a 4.0 GPA and is working on College Admissions. Finally, the goal must be bound by some sort of timetable, such as finishing all College Applications by December 1st, even the ones that are not due until January 1st. That will allow you to enjoy your Holiday Break without worrying about scrambling to finish before the deadlines. Set a deadline for yourself, because as a wise man once said, “Set your own deadlines or they will be set for you!”

Here’s to NO PROCRASTINATION in the New Year!

What is the Common Application, and how do I fill it out in order to maximize my chances of getting into my dream school?

The Common Application is the product of a non-profit organization with 900 member Colleges and Universities across all 50 states and 20 countries. The purpose of the Common App is to have one centralized hub for applying to multiple schools across the country and around the world. Once you create an account and log in, you are provided a dashboard that can be filled with Colleges and Universities that you wish to apply to. Although the Personal Statement is a major component of the Common App, which is sent to all of the schools from which you wish to gain acceptance, the Activities section is by far the most misunderstood section…

Often times we can be self-deprecating or too humble when discussing our talents and accomplishments. In the Activities section of the Common App, this is the time to brag about yourself and announce your Extracurricular pursuits from the rooftops! Far too many students describe their Activities in an unprofessional and haphazard manner. The Activities section is your opportunity to present your body of work outside of the classroom in a curriculum vitae type fashion using resume type language. Word choice for the Title and Description of your Activities is of paramount importance. For example, if you participated in an Internship that involved data entry, one could describe it as inputting data into a spreadsheet in the office. However, a savvy applicant will fill out the Common App Activities section by writing, “Database management in order to generate sales leads and maximize revenue for the corporation.” Although these two ways of communicating the information mean the same thing, the way you present yourself and your Activities is crucial to getting accepted to your dream school!

Assigning the duration of each Extracurricular pursuit on the Common App can be confusing… The minimum number of hours for an activity is 2 hours per week. The summer is approximately 12 weeks long and the school year is generally 40 weeks. If you participated in a performance based activity such as violin year round, then you would select 52 weeks.

The Ranking of your Extracurricular Activities is also a critical component of this section. Generally speaking, the activities in which you have had the most consistent and sustained involvement over a long period of time should be ranked highest. Therefore, #1 should be playing a sport for all 4 years of high school, where as second priority would be given to participating in the Robotics Club for only 2 years during your Sophomore and Junior year. Even though the Robotics Club is more revered among Math and Science based Colleges and Universities that do not have extensive athletic programs, the 4 years of involvement in another activity takes precedence.

Don’t waste this opportunity fumbling through the growing pains and mistakes that most applicants make while applying to College. Get trusted advice from an experienced College Counseling firm by calling Dow Educational Solutions for help on your Common App today!

“What makes a College Application Personal Statement stand out?”

Everyone is unique… Each of us has something special about us. It may be a special skill or accomplishment, or it may just be an experience that shaped the person you are today. Yes, the College Application Personal Statement is a way for Admissions Officials to get to know you, but it requires a strategic approach. There is indeed a formula for a successful Personal Statement. We go through this in a systematic way during our Personal Statement Workshops…

Tell a story. No one likes to hear someone ramble off a bunch of facts with no context. Tell us what you could hear, see, feel, and smell… Take the reader back to the setting and tell us YOUR story. The most successful Ivy League Personal Statements incorporate this style and approach. Focus on a life changing experience, then the other components of the formula will simply fall into place around this experience. What unique characteristics set you apart from all of the other applicants? What makes you stand out among the over 100,000 College Applications received at that University? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself before embarking on the most important essay of your academic career.