Category: College admissions

NACAC 2016: Observations On Presentations About the SAT and ACT

Every year in September the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has its annual conference. NACAC is a great organization made up of high school counselors, independent educational consultants and college and university admission officers and I’m proud to have been a member for years. Along with 6,000 other professionals I attended this year’s […]

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

In late July I drove down to North Carolina to visit the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Ever since I moved to Virginia a year ago, I have been committed to visiting more Southern colleges and universities, and for years I have heard about the beauty of UNC’s campus so I definitely wanted to […]

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to Rollins College

At the end of June I visited Rollins College during a trip to central Florida. I had been peripherally aware of Rollins for years, but only in the sense that I knew it was well regarded for the beauty of its campus and that it often appeared on “best of the South” ratings lists. Having moved […]

Thoughts on the Reuters “Expose” About SAT Cheating-Part Two

This is the second part of two posts that take a look at Reuters’ recent expose of SAT test security, especially as it relates to international student admissions. You can find the first one here. ********************** One of my biggest problem with the articles was a constant (inaccurate) conflation between “the test prep industry” and […]

Thoughts on the Reuters “Expose” About SAT Cheating-Part One

If you’ve been a reader of this blog for awhile, you know that I was concerned with the topic of standardized tests even before I started work with Method Test Prep. It’s no secret that I have been critical of, among other things, the role of standardized testing in college admissions, the value of standardized […]

What The NFL Isn’t Learning From College Admissions

  If you’ve been paying attention to college admissions lately, you know that the last year or so has seen quite a lot of interest in the changes to the SAT, which started with the PSAT last October and will fully take effect with the March test date. I have previously written about the efforts […]

If I Can’t Understand The Score, What’s The Point Of The Test?

  2016 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the field of standardized tests for college admissions. The list of “test optional” colleges and universities is bound to grow, President Obama has joined the clamor deriding “test prep” in schools, and both national admissions testing organizations–the ACT and the SAT— have instituted changes […]

A Private School College Counselor Learns About Independent College Counselors

Since I started working for Method Test Prep this summer, I have had the chance to speak with school guidance counselors and administrators from all over the country, as our company partners with schools to provide access to high quality test preparation materials to students. When I was told that we also make partnerships with […]

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to the University of Virginia

In early August I visited the University of Virginia, the flagship university in the Commonwealth, and a perennial presence on “top public universities” ratings lists.  I attended an information session with about 100 people in attendance, and then took part in a student-led tour. The University is quite old, having been founded by Thomas Jefferson […]