Response to Elena: there are few early birds

Posted by Dee 

Glad you sent in your question, Elena! (on the AdmitSpit post titled, “Just got a comment…“)

“What’s the point of sending SAT/ACT scores to colleges before senior year? I was trying to guess-timate the costs of applying to college, and I was guessing it’d be about $100 per college with all the tests and whatnot needed to be sent in addition to the actual app. I’ve heard that large colleges like the UCs don’t bother looking at students’ scores because they receive so many, and I’m guessing many privates hold the same policy? Do you know if colleges keep these files on record, or do you have to re-send the scores when you apply there?”

You are partially correct.

The University of California campuses (and probably also most other large public institutions) DO NOT keep your scores on record if you send them before you

Response to Kathleen: Common App and stickers?

Posted by Dee

Kathleen left a very sweet comment on our latest AdmitSpit post titled, “Just got a comment…” saying:

“… I recently visited a college, and they gave me a sample of the 2006-2007 common application. On this application was a sticker saying “application fee waived”. The problem is, the application is for the 2006-2007 season, and I won’t be applying until this fall. Should I remove the sticker from the common application papers? Also, does the common application require fees to send online?”

I think Kathleen that the whole point was indeed to give you a “sample” of the Common App so you could get the gist of the types of questions they give in essays and short answers, etc. I don’t think that they necessarily actually wanted you to use that 2006-2007 form to apply for the 2007-2008 year. So no, you shouldn’t remove the sticker from the common application papers because you shouldn’t actually use those papers at all (and if you’re thinking of reattaching the sticker to the correct version of the Common App papers, I say that’s just a bad idea!)

The Common App does require fees — but those are simply the fees that the

Just got a comment…

Posted by Dee 

So, we just enabled a comment from Theron on the AdmitSpit post titled “Response to Theron: A-levels, SATs, and decisions, oh my!“

And, first I wanted to say, glad to be of help!

And second, I wanted to say that I’m sorry we haven’t posted for some time now — I must admit I’m sort of stuck for content ideas. Please send comments our way with any issues you have in general about the college admissions process so we can write again!

Thank you, thank you!!

The DBQ: 11 Steps to Success

Posted by Michael

Here are 11 tips that I used to ace the document-based question (DBQ) essay part of the AP US History exam.

1. Use the reading period to its full extent.
And, if you’re not done planning, spend an extra five minutes or so doing so. Planning helps to write a better (maybe shorter) essay as opposed to a longer and badly written one. Readers only have such little time to read each essay, and after reading thousands each day, they’ll look for the most clearly and well thought out to grade higher, and will frown down upon super long, unorganized essays.

2. (ⁿ/₂) + 1.
This is the golden rule in terms of how many documents to use (n = number of docs). It is not important to use all the documents, just use half of them given, plus