With silence, the sound of pencils meeting the paper grew louder in senior Kayla Riley’s head. She sat in at her desk at a loss of what to do. This was it; the dreaded SAT. One of the biggest chances to ensure scholarships.
“I was super nervous [about taking the SAT] because I didn’t know how to prepare,” Riley said. “Once I got my hands on a practice test I read it over and over until I started to feel comfortable.”
In 2014, more than 1.8 million students took the ACT and 1.7 million took the SAT. The average score on the SAT was a 1,500 out of the attainable 2,400 and a 21 out of the attainable 36 for the ACT. However, scores higher or lower than these can influence acceptance rates of getting into colleges.
“SAT and ACT scores determine your eligibility to get into college,” Mr. McDonald, a counselor at Legacy, said. “Some schools stop taking applications under a certain score.”
Students frequently stress over the scores of their standardized tests, but performance on these tests doesn’t automatically mean a student won’t get into that college. When looking at a student’s applications, colleges don’t weigh test scores as heavily as one might think.
However, class ranking can determine how important SAT and ACT are to a student’s acceptance to a college. The lower the class ranking, the higher a score students must achieve in order to meet the acceptance requirement for some schools. A student can take the SAT more than once, but it costs a certain amount of money each time they take it.
“Know what you want to major in and start researching colleges that offer your selected major during your junior year,” Ms. Vorsino, a counselor at Legacy, said.
Legacy’s head counselor Dana Vorsino believes students should start sending in their applications between the months of August or September of their senior year. Find colleges that provide good programs to support selected majors. Be thorough in completing your essay, and send it in before the deadline.
Colleges look at what students do outside the classroom. Community service, extracurricular activities, and rigorous classes add to a good college application. In order to help start preparing them for college courses, many students enroll in AP and TCC classes. AP classes help prepare students for the intensity of college-level curriculum and improve the look of college applications.TCC classes give the student both high school and college credits, which could lower the cost of college tuition as it means taking less classes in college. Senior Erin Long explains how the dual credit classes have prepared her for the tough college courses to come.
“The TCC classes help with study skills and some are more independent,” Erin Long, 12, said. “It really gives the feel of a college course.”
The price of college tuition and fees has increased by 1,120 percent since 1978. Cost of tuition for a public community college averages around $9,300. This cost ranks relatively low compared to prices of Ivy League schools, which can range from $43,450 to $63,000 per year. These prices are just for tuition and don’t include books or room and board, which can add thousands of dollars to the final price tag of college.
“The price of tuition has easily doubled since I graduated in 2004,” Ms. Vorsino said. “Start looking for scholarships as early as your freshman year and apply for anything you can.”
College tuition is constantly rising. Scholarships can save you thousands of dollars, so be sure to look at the requirements for scholarship eligibility. There are many classes offered at Legacy to provide information on the best ways to save money and how to finance and invest.
“High school goes by faster than you think,” Riley said. “Enjoy the time you have now and don’t be in a hurry to leave.”
(Featured Image by Wikimedia Commons)
