Spivey College Consulting

In honor of my incredible son who died way too young. I know you are always by my side.

We normally spend our entire winter break in Italy, but this year we did one week in Italy and today we are in Vegas enjoying the new Fountainbleu hotel.

10th annual Vespa Club Festival in our town. Such a fun event.

Current list of colleges that will be test optional for the 21-22 admissions cycle.

Lots of juniors are starting the SAT and ACT testing. Here is a short article about the test-optional policy. So the question is. . .. should you take the test?

National Association for College Admission Counseling- Test-Optional Means Test-Optional As the NACAC community mobilizes to support students under these unprecedented circumstances, resources of every kind are being created, shared, or repurposed. This crowdsourced tool provides members of the NACAC community the opportunity to share useful resources.

Applying to college doesn't have to be hard.

Spring To-Do List for Juniors!
At this point, most seniors are finished with their applications and now is time for juniors to begin ramping up the process. So what should juniors work on???
1. Families need to start the "college talk". This is typically not a very comfortable conversation but you need to sit down and talk about
--finances, talk about how much your family is willing to contribute to your education
-- distance the college is from home
-- will parents expect student to work during college
-- how will you manage the application process

2. Finish junior year STRONG! This is the last semester of grades that will show up on your transcript before you apply.

3. Testing--SAT and ACT-- many colleges are test optional for a year or in some cases several years. My suggestion is to test if it is safe to do so. If you score well on either test, it can enhance your application. If your score is low, you can apply test optional.

4. Summer plans?? Do something with your summer. You can volunteer or get a paying job. Take a class just for fun. Travel. Do something besides sitting on your Play Station.

Many Ivy League Colleges and Highly Selective Schools require an interview. These schools use these interviews with alum or admissions officers to gain a better understanding of the student's personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Below are just a few of the schools that I researched.

Schools Requiring an interview:
Brown
Columbia
Georgetown
Harvard
University of Pennsylvania

Schools recommending an interviewing:
Cornell
Dartmouth
Princeton
Yale
Carnegie Mellon
Duke
Emory
MIT
Rice
Swarthmore
University of Chicago
Wellesley

If colleges offer an interview as an option, it is a great opportunity for you to provide another dimension to the overall application. If you feel like you are good in small group interviews and/or one on one discussions, then opt for an interview!

Enjoying learning at the IECA 2020 Fall Conference. Great information from my first session, "Advising Pre-Med Students".