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A couple of years ago, I relocated to Bellevue, WA from a sleepy little town in the Ohio. I came from the land where everything is about The Ohio State University to a place where seemingly everyone I meet is a graduate of Harvard, Stanford, MIT or another highly selective college. Honestly, I don't think either college landscape is better than the other. No one school is perfect. Finding the best fit school is more about what makes you feel comfortable and less about name recognition - whether an undisputed national football champ or the most prestigious college in America, sometimes good enough is just perfect.
In The Power of Good Enough, Olga Khazan revisits author Barry Schwartz's book The Paradox of Choice about how too many choices leads us to constantly second guess our decisions. "Choice overload", Schwartz says makes us second guess, over think, and regret decisions. Faced with so many options we can often end up less happy. If you're old like me, you can remember Robin Williams' character in Moscow on the Hudson - a newly arrived Russian emigre, fainting in the coffee aisle when first seeing all his choices. This is "the paradox of choice" writ large - so many decisions before us, how will we know if we make the best one? In the last 10 years, with the increasing role of social media in all of our lives, Ms Khazan followed up with Mr. Schwartz about how social media has impacted his ideas. Turns out, FOMO (fear of missing out) is worse, affecting us all. I can't help but think about how our teens are impacted. Especially when they embark on their college search. If you have a child in high school, and especially one who has taken a standardized test, you know how the colleges find you and fill your mailbox with beautiful brochures, postcards, letters, and invitations. College admissions reps visit your child's high school and organizations sponsor college fairs where thousands of students and their anxious parents roam through convention centers and banquet halls sampling the best schools have to offer. So many choices and they all look so perfect! And this is where I remind my students, sometimes good enough is the best choice. The campus where you feel comfortable because there are opportunities for academic AND social involvement; the school that offers the major you are interested in TODAY along with others you might be interested in second semester (or again sophomore year!); the town or city where you feel like you can spread your wings but also come home if you miss it. Good enough is the school that fits a family's budget and a child's personality. It doesn't have to be the best in all the land athletically or academically, it just has to be good enough for your child to be successful. -- Beth Silverstein
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Credit of authorship to blog.prepscholar.com (June 2015)
Abridged for this blog. Test Structure One of the goals of the SAT overhaul is to make the test more straightforward, so many of its structural oddities (like the wrong answer penalty) have been eliminated. The ACT structure, on the other hand, is staying mostly the same. Let’s go over the layout of the two tests, so you can understand the similarities and differences between them. Scoring The SAT redesign involves some major changes to the scoring. Returning to the 400-1600 scale. Ten years ago, when the College Board last implemented major changes to the SAT, it added the Writing section; there were then three scores from 200-800 to combine, making the top possible score a 2400. Now the writing and reading sections will count to the same Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score, which will be combined with the Math score to create a final score between 400-1600. No more wrong answer penalty. You will no longer be penalized by ¼ point for every wrong answer! The idea of that policy was to discourage guessing and student’s reliance on test-taking strategies (a major goal for the overhaul). The essay is given three different scores and no longer affects total score. Since it’s now optional, the new SAT essay will work a lot more like the ACT essay – you’ll receive a separate essay score that doesn’t factor into your score on the 400-1600 range. The ACT scoring, on the other hand, is staying mostly the same – section scores from 1-36 along with the composite score. The exception is the ACT Writing. It will still be a separate score, but it will now be on a scale of 1-36. Reading The big difference between the ACT and the SAT remains how you need to budget time. While the SAT is more focused on analyzing specific points in the passage and understanding how the author constructs an argument, the ACT is more about reading comprehension. Randomly ordered questions. The SAT reading tells you where to look for the answers to most questions, but one of the biggest challenges on the ACT reading is finding the information you need. The questions are ordered randomly and often do not give line numbers, which can make finding specific details very tricky. Less time per question. The strict time constraints are the other big difficulty most students face with the ACT reading: you have roughly 8.5 minutes per ten question passage for the ACT reading, compared to 13 minutes per 10-11 question passage on the SAT. Redesigned SAT Writing. As noted above, the SAT overhaul involves a complete redesign of the writing section, so that all questions are presented in context. For the new test, the writing section will be included in the same score as the reading, returning the SAT to its original 400-1600 scale ACT English The similarities between these sections are much greater than their differences, but the ACT does emphasize slightly different skills than the new SAT. A Lot More Questions. The ACT English has almost twice as many questions as the SAT Writing. This doesn’t necessarily make it more difficult, but it does necessitate a slightly different approach. Slightly more focused on grammar and conventions. While the new SAT includes a few more questions about style, the ACT has the emphasis reversed. It’s primarily focused on the Usage and Mechanics questions, which cover sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation. Big-picture questions. Though the two tests now cover almost all the same material, the ACT English has one type of question that the new SAT will not: main idea questions. Both tests ask questions like “what is the purpose of this passage?” in the reading section, but only the ACT includes them on the English as well. Redesigned SAT Math The changes to the SAT math are designed to make it more similar to the tests you take in math class, meaning you’ll be asked harder questions in a more straightforward way. Heavily focused on algebra. One of the main goals of the new SAT is to make it more similar to what you do in school and what you’ll need for college. One part of this realignment is shifting the focus of the test towards algebra. Sixty-one percent of the questions will deal with algebraic topics. More data analysis. The proportion of questions focused on data analysis is also increasing. Almost a third of the questions on the test will deal with manipulating ratios/percents and understanding graphs/charts. Very little geometry. Only 6 questions will be asked about geometry and trigonometry with formulas provided. ACT Math The ACT math is staying more or less the same. Far more geometry and trigonometry than the SAT. A quarter to a third of the questions will deal with geometry or trig. Formulas will not be provided so you must know the common ones. Wider range of material. You will see questions about logarithms, graphs of trig functions and matrices, none of which appear on the SAT. Science There still will not be a Science section on the new SAT, but questions are now included that ask you to analyze a chart or graph in all three math sections as well as two reading passages on scientific topics. The ACT will continue to have a lot more science questions with its dedicated science section. It also asks more complex questions than the new SAT will, especially with regards to experimental design. Conclusions Although the SAT redesign brought it more in line with the ACT testing process, there are still distinct differences between the two tests, namely: time pressure, deeper math concepts, testing of English mechanics and the science section. Take a try at both exams to see which one best suits your skill set. - Michelle Leonatti bracket busted but wofford is a winner Each year, my family participates in the NCAA March Madness Bracket. Each year, I learn about more schools that are basketball favorites. Before I became a college admissions counselor, I never gave these schools a second thought, but as I guide more and more students in their college searches, I have come to realize many of us never hear of so many great schools because they "fall off the radar." With Baby Boomer parents focussed on pedigree and status, it is easy to see why great schools are passed over for those with more "name brand" recognition.
Recently, at a presentation to my daughter's junior class, I had the opportunity to hear Maria Furtado, CEO of Colleges that Change Lives discuss the college search process. During her remarks, she informed the students that none of her co-workers had any idea where she was going as they had never heard of my daughter's high school. She asked the students, "Do you think you attend a good high school? Do you think you have great chances of getting into great schools?" She answered her own question in the affirmative and then followed up with the caveat - "Just because a group of very knowledgable college professionals have no idea this school even exists does not mean it isn't a good school. It only means they've never heard of it. Remember this when you look at colleges. Just because YOU'VE never heard of a college doesn't mean it isn't a great school." I couldn't agree more. Perhaps Wofford College fits this category. Founded in 1854 and designated a National Historic Site in 1974, Wofford College is a small, liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Its approximately 1600 students live and learn on its beautiful campus, also designated as an arboretum. With a 1:11 student to faculty ratio, classes are taught by full professors. You can choose from one of 51 majors and enjoy DI sports, many of which (eh hem, BASKETBALL) are nationally known. You can study on campus or abroad. Wofford is particularly proud of their program The Space "the only space of its kind at any liberal arts college where you can prepare, impact, launch, consult and explore, and we believe it will give you a unique competitive advantage after graduation." Focussed on a broad and traditional liberal arts education, Wofford is also focussed on getting you a job after you graduate. They may not have won on the court, but they are certainly winning in the classroom! Go Terriers! |
BethCreator and founder of The Accepted Life and college admissions counselors shares her thoughts, musings, and insights into the college admissions process. Archives
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