Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Every October, approximately 3.5 million high schoolers take the PSAT/NMSQT, but a significantly smaller percentage of the population understands exactly why! Amy and Mike invited test prep professio…

Everyone knows that school visits are an important and often enjoyable part of the college admissions process. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to make this process worthwhile. Amy and Mike invi…

Despite their value, the SAT and ACT have always been the tests people love to hate. But do the test makers themselves--considering all the good works they do--deserve this same level of contempt? Am…

When people think of colleges, the names that come to mind are very often those of large public universities. But how many teens can handle attending schools with populations larger than their own ho…

Testing may be an individual endeavor, but test prep is very much a team sport. People often focus on the essential roles of educators, counselors, and other external supports, but what about dear ol…

Earning straight A’s once signified levels of academic excellence and diligence unattainable by most students. Do these grades still mean as much when 40% or more of the class carries the same perfec…

For admissions exams as infamous as the SAT and ACT, these classic tests seem to inspire a lot of confusion. How much about prior versions of these tests still hold true, and what commonly held belie…

Few Americans know much about the Reserve Officer Training Corps program, and even fewer have insight into the ROTC scholarship. However, the evident and not-so-obvious benefits of this scholarship d…

To many, the gifted and talented designation seems to promise a future of effortless academic success. How, then, can the adults in their lives help when these students face the inevitable educationa…

Of all the academic choices a student entering eighth grade or high school must make, math course selection exerts the most influence on future choices. What should a student, parent, or counselor co…

The world’s great cities offer some of the biggest, best, and broadest options in virtually any category you can think of, including colleges and universities. What differentiates the metropolitan co…

No feature of the ACT distinguishes that test more from its College Board rival than the Science section. How can a test feature as enduring and prominent as this one still be so poorly understood? A…

The public rarely receives any College Board initiative warmly, but the general response to announcement of the Environmental Context Dashboard exceeded most previous levels of cynicism, so much so t…

While every teen endures some level of emotional or behavioral turmoil, some reach such a crisis point that they require immersive therapy in specialized academic or nonacademic settings. Amy and Mik…

When is a price not a price? When the stated retail cost of a year at any college diverges dramatically from what students actually cost, you can’t effectively factor price into your initial college …

How can we succeed in the moment when we’re so burdened by thoughts of the past and anxious over fears of the future? The practice and application of mindfulness can keep a person fully focused on th…

The multiple-choice grammar sections of the SAT and ACT have never been more similar. Nonetheless, important distinctions between the ACT English and SAT Writing and Language sections can influence h…

Many test takers find the basic scaling of the SAT confusing, but the finer points of how this highly influential yet massively misunderstood test is graded mystifies even the professionals who deal …

About 66% of American students FAIL to earn their bachelor’s degrees in four years. Yet, those extra years of college come at a tremendous cost. Amy and Mike invited educational consultant Edie Steel…

Far too often, we evaluate math ability in high schoolers solely on the basis of grades and level of math learned. A more accurate assessment of a student’s potential on challenging math tasks--inc…