Mrs. Aselstine attended a webinar hosted by AcceptU: Advisors were former admission officers from Cornell Admissions team, UCSD, Vanderbilt and several small liberal colleges. The information is intended to solely help guide our students during this difficult time of school closure, but not to endorse AcceptU for college consulting.
Please note that the situation is very fluid and the professional opinions given are from past experience and current experience, things may evolve and change.
All information is as of 4/1/2020
AP Exams 12th & 11th Graders
How will this impact Advanced Placement Exams? How will this impact their admissions if they can not take their exams?
On the 3/22 college board posted that students will take a 45min at home online exam. Specific details about how to access the exam, types of questions,testing dates etc… are all on the website below. Daily online AP review is also happening. BEST TO GO TO College Board AP for specifics. Check that page daily.
How will it impact how they provide credit to the AP exams? Already the elite/ highly selective schools do not give any credit for AP even with 4 or 5 because they want you to take the course at their University. So it may be likely that no credit is given for the exam regardless of the pandemic.
AP Teachers are recording lessons across the nation and those lessons will be available to all students in April on the college board so they may watch this at home. College board will provide daily self learning lessons.
Remote learning may impact their academic performance. How will admissions look at this for our current 11th & 12th?
The University of California School System
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-eases-admissions-requirements-help-students-families-wake-covid-19Everyone is in the same boat and college admissions are all aware of it and the review will be in the context. For our current 11th graders next year when you apply the special circumstances or the additional information section it would be a good idea to really explain how this impacted you.
Private schools a lot have already come out and said that SAT or ACt will be test option for current 11th graders and will adjust to whatever you high school decides for grading for Spring 2020 semester. They will take any grade scale such as Pass/Fail fort his Spring Semester and possible future ones for not Having a G.P.A for that particular time period.
What about courses they are allowed to take in following years if they struggled in the online learning semester? I think the high schools will have to be flexible and if not the students will be able to explain that in the additional information.
Impact on extra curricular activities
College admissions Love to see students who are self starters. Develop a new language, a new instrument, do online class beyond hs, do online research, build a computer etc… Start a club that is able to do video conferences or check in as club to figure out how you may help your community.
Think of this as not being negative but more a chunk of time you can start essays, what is your narrative? What other things can you do? How could I be creative? Do more? Most students will not do this.
Making an Informed Decision Of Where to Attend: When all is closed down and can’t visit for our current 12th graders.
Try to still engage as much as you can. Do the virtual Day, join their webinars, do their chats with current students, join their social media, read their online newspapers.
Any chatter on postpone their dates of being admitted? Yes they will still let everyone known by April. The end date of May 1st most likely will move back to June 1 deadline to let the universities know they want to attend.
Build understanding of what you like about the school, attributes you can take advantage of coop programs, internships, clubs etc… Needs to be more than just like the campus. You can find out about the school so you can make your decision ie I want to join this program, internship or learn from this professor.
Waitlist think it would be a good year a lot of Universities will have to dip into their waitlist. But maybe a longer wait list since the timeline might move to June 1st.
College visits: Visit colleges that are high on your list. Find their regional admissions person and email them and let them know you are interested and ask a specific question. Don’t say I like your school only. On your application explain why you want to attend that specific university. A good answer allows you to show that you were actually interested. If they do come to your high school they need you to go listen to them. Join their mailing list.
Campus real.com is a great website for students to see the universities.
SAT/ACT Testing Cancelation For Our Current 11th graders
Test optional? Test Flexible? Will expectations be with the lower scores because of not being able to retake the tests? Universities want to make it easier for you to apply so they are going to try to make this as tangible as possible. Things will probably change and that SAT/ACT will most likely add in extra days or allow students to take these exams beyond December and that early action or early decision may change for next year. A lot of colleges will make the SAT or ACT Test optional for students applying for Fall 2021.
The process for current Juniors are going to be really different and that overall most are being impacted. When your application is being reviewed within your high school. When you look at applications you look at the context and ask yourself , what did you take advantage of? What did you do? For example School A was closed and School B was not. School A and B will not be compared.
How will early rounds early decision or early action be impacted? Not surprising it will not be as it has been in the past for our current Juniors and instead may possibly move it to January 1st and not the Nov 15th date.
SAT Subject Recommend for our 11th graders but it will truly be recommended and not required since there are no extra dates in place at this time.
Students focused on the May and June test that was canceled and they still want to take the exam? Future SAT Administrations if it’s safe from a public health standpoint, we’ll provide weekend SAT administrations every month through the end of the calendar year, beginning in August. This includes a new administration in September and the previously scheduled tests on August 29, October 3, November 7, and December 5. Students can register for these administrations starting in May.
Students focused on the May test and it was canceled and they still want to take the exam? The June test is now full. August exam will open up at the end of April.
Application Process for current 11th graders.
It will definately be different from the review process. For students to prepare for that, be flexible and that you understand that the Universities will be understanding. Don’t slack off, instead you need to still bank on the dates in the past with deadlines for College applications will be the same. August 1st Common App At this time the application will launch, the essay prompts have already been released, use this time to start writing. The same as the past, you can not create an account until August 1st.
Transcript will be different and they will have to review them within the context of the school. For private schools the high school school profile will explain this. For UC under the academic section student’s are able to explain if any challenges came up and they should cut the text from the school profile. For CSU there is nothing to add at this time but perhaps this may change for next year.
Use the summer to get ahead, do your essays, create a google spreadsheet with all your extra curricular activities with hours, leadership role and description of what the event did. Do your college research and create a thoughtful list.
Financial Aid
For current students as soon as something is different, you need to contact the financial aid office ASAP. Some examples are that parents invested in the stock market and now maybe have lost a lot of the college fund or that parent hours have been cut back or laid off due to the pandemic. If you did not apply for financial aid via FAFSA you are still able to and turn it in, it will be past the deadline but better than nothing.
11th graders need to make sure you fill out the FAFSA even if you think your family will not qualify so that if something does take a dramatic turn financially for your family you are able to reach out to the financial aid office