CPE Blog

Many states today require high school juniors to take either the SAT or ACT (ACT & SAT Mandated States) for federal accountability, a fact that presents strategic standardized testing options for college bound students. Here in the Nutmeg state, public school juniors will take an SAT on the state’s nickel in mid-March to early April 2025 (check with your school), historically 10 days after CollegeBoard’s national SAT in early March. For students applying to competitive colleges, the best strategy to maximize scores and therefore admissions chances, especially for those who prepare, is to take both. Once on March 9, the regular CollegeBoard […]

Wrong reaction! I mean, there are no wrong FEELINGS, but if you’re THINKING that getting deferred is bad news, think again! Today’s insanely stingy admissions rates, many below 10% even for early application (Harvard was around 3% last year, 2023), are NOT fake news. These single digit numbers are VERY REAL. Obviously, you were hoping to get in since you applied in November, and especially since you applied EARLY, but understand what getting deferred actually means in the college admissions game. It means two things in particular, and they’re both good news: Despite that good news, I also want to […]

If you’re planning to apply ED or EA to college this or next month (and in almost every case it makes sense to apply early to give yourself a better chance to get in!) and you assumed that the Nov. 2, 2024, SAT is too late for you, I have good news. The APPLICANT’S decline may be Oct 15 or Nov 1, 2024, but scores reported shortly thereafter absolutely still count, as they are reported well before committees even start thinking about making final decisions. You can take the Nov. 2 SAT and rest assured your scores can count if […]

From the College Board’s website: Who cares about the PSAT these days? Unless a student gets a rocket high score on the PSAT and qualifies as an award winner, the test doesn’t count one whit toward college admissions, right? Right, and also wrong. Strictly speaking, the PSAT is not used by committees to make admissions decisions. But every junior takes them in school (and often sophomores and sometimes freshmen, too), and they tend to set a baseline for a future SAT or ACT score, and those scores do count, sometimes considerably, in those decisions. The vast experience of students is […]

For most college students attending competitive schools, the two most important skills they can develop in high school are writing and prioritizing/managing time. This CPE blog has many posts on the former (e.g., Getting the Words Right; see also Search bar in menu at right), so this one is about the latter, especially targeting college-bound seniors, who probably have the greatest fall-semester demands of all high school students. PRIORITIZING refers to figuring out and balancing what’s most important and most urgent, while TIME MANAGEMENT refers to allocating time according to priorities to maximize bottom-line results. With regard to prioritizing, note […]

A quick comparison of the new Digital SAT rolling out globally in 2024 and the current paper and pencil (and online version) SAT by Dr. Yo, in consultation with Alisha Cipriano, M.A., originally posted 9/26/23, GREAT NEWS! After studying the CollegeBoard’s new book, The Official Digital SAT Study Guide, I believe that for MOST students the new Digital SAT rolling out globally next spring (March, 2024) as compared with the current version being offered through the fall of 2023, will be… wait for it… EASIER! This is great news for students: what student wouldn’t prefer an easier test to a […]

[Updated from 2020 and 2022] For four years before MIT, Dartmouth, Yale, and many other colleges reinstitute their required SAT/ACT entrance exam policies in 2024*, CPE has been warning students and parents not to fall into the seductive “test optional” trap, COVID-19’s pernicious effort to wipe out a chunk of candidates from the world of college admissions. The cancellation of long-scheduled SATs and ACTs in 2020 and continuing into 2023 and even 2024 forced many colleges at all levels to waive the entrance exam requirement for applicants, thereby making those schools “test optional.” It’s the only socially just and fair […]

by Dr. Yo, with contributions from Anthony Faulise (originally posted June, 2020) For better or worse, college counselors play a significant role in every U.S. high school student’s journey to college, influencing many aspects of the entire application process, from the selection of schools to admissions committees’ final decisions.   College counselors have substantial administrative responsibilities both for their school’s particular guidance program and for each of their individual students’ applications, including coordinating letters of recommendation, sending official high school transcripts and mid-year reports, arranging information sessions with regional directors and other college representatives, helping to run college nights and other […]