Parents and guardians often have more fear than their students about the journey off to college. They are unsure about fit, cost and value, distance, health and safety, an empty nest, and more. COVID-19 has added even more factors into the mix. The pandemic drastically changed the way many colleges deliver instruction, as well as the ways students…

The coronavirus pandemic has upended schooling and students' college admission journeys. Schools transitioned to remote learning, extracurricular activities vanished into thin air, and in-person visits to colleges were abandoned. The SAT and ACT calendars for the late spring were wiped out and subsequent plans for at-home testing were abandoned.…

Just outside New York City, school counselors at Hunterdon Central Regional High School (New Jersey) were at lunch discussing the students who would graduate from their sprawling suburban school in spring 2017. Their thoughts echoed those from a variety of people who have worked with these seniors. The 2017 graduates are confident, but need…

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) Statement on Counselor Competencies defines college counselors' responsibilities as including "collaborat[ing] with teachers, administrators, and other educators." The experiences of longtime college counselors, showcase many best practices for working with teachers to…

The development of college admissions requirements during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was basically the story of the admission policies and practices at Harvard College. Candidates for admission were examined on their ability to read and translate Latin and Greek, and a careful check was made of their character and background. With…

The role of standardized tests in general and college admission tests in particular is a hot topic for educators, administrators and others evaluating the outcomes of educational institutions. The importance of the test scores for both students and institutions is acknowledged, and the test preparation industry has spawned into a multi-billion…

This article investigates gender inequity in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. Results suggest the competition favors males due to their higher mean score on the mathematics section and greater variability on all sections of the PSAT, which shares differential validity concerns with the SAT in terms of gender. These instruments are…

In this article, the author talks about the cultural bind on the American male. The process starts with conception. If the spermatozoid that fertilizes the egg contains only X chromosomes a girl will be produced. If a single Y chromosome out of the 24 produced by the father is included, the baby will be a boy. From this point on the girls have a…

Males have significantly higher average scores than females on the SAT I quantitative section, which is designed to predict first-year college success in mathematics. However, it has been shown that gender gaps in performance on the SAT I have little to do with college readiness; rather they are due to the misaligned content of the instrument, as…

The College Board Advanced Placement Program allows high school students to take college-level courses and if an appropriate score on an exam is received, college credit is earned. While the program has had its detractors (access in rural and inner-city schools, lack of diversity, pre-selection of talented students, poor articulation with actual…

The advent of the modern form of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), brought to bear by the combination of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Harvard's former president James Bryant Conant (Lemann 1999), was designed to promote the recognition of talent and intellect, wherever they may be found. Their aim was to provide greater educational…

The four college years is the last important developmental period of a young person's life, and what happens then can and often does have substantial consequences. He can be awakened and fired up to develop himself and his talents, he can plod through largely untouched or unenlightened, he can be frustrated and turned off, he can transfer, or he…

This article focuses on the research being conducted by University of Cambridge International Examinations (Cambridge) to ensure that its international assessments prepare students as well as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate for continued studies in colleges and universities. The primary purpose of the research is to highlight…

Two methods of showing the ability of high school grades (high school grade point averages) and SAT scores to predict cumulative grades in different types of college courses were evaluated in a sample of 26 colleges. Each college contributed data from three cohorts of entering freshmen, and each cohort was followed for at least four years.…

A student?s standardized examination score and high school percentile rank are two intitative factors admission often uses to form a selection index, which is one of the main criteria used to make college admission decisions, especially in public universities. While the standardized scores are based on national examinations, the high school…