Ivy League SAT Scores - Side by Side Comparison for 2007/2008

Allen Grove, About.com's admissions expert, has just compiled a comparison of SAT scores across the Ivy League schools. The article also has links for similar comparisons at top Liberal Arts colleges and top Public Universities. This is a handy resource to see how you stack up, and how the schools compare to each other.

Greg's probably not aiming at the Ivy League schools, but this is a good proxy for the top end of all selective schools. With this in mind he's in OK shape with his Critical Reading and Writing scores. But it reinforces what we already knew about needing to get his Math score up to between 700-750.

Campus Visits, Same ol' Same ol'

Greg and I have done 6 campus visits over the past year. Starting last summer with Emory and Georgia Tech, then on to Princeton, Vanderbilt, Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. We did Emory and Georgia Tech to kick-start the process, because they were in our back yard (and Greg will apply to Georgia Tech). For the others we happened to be in the area and they were schools he might consider.

Our main conclusion... If you just take the standard student-led campus tour, sit through the hour long admissions director's canned powerpoint, and walk around the campus a little on your own, they all seem the same. Same high academic standards, same selective admissions, same awesome students, same pretty buildings and amazingly, multiple acapella groups (no lie, four of the six tour guides showed us the cupolas and arches under which they performed).

So Greg isn't finding these tours all that helpful as a way of sifting through the colleges and has resisted investing the time visiting more. That said, we've convinced him to go on one more college tour in the waning days of summer, before school starts. Next Tuesday we head to Duke, Virginia Tech and UVA, all schools on his 'long list' and here in the southeast.

The thing I need to figure out, between now and then, is what we should do differently this time to make these three tours more informative and helpful than the last six were.

Finding a SAT Math Tutor

Greg's SAT scores are almost good enough. He just needs to bring his math up some -- ideally closer to 750. I say 'almost good enough' because Greg has some pretty selective colleges on his preliminary list. These days you need to be strong in all areas to be admitted to a top school. Greg's also interested in going to a good Engineering school, putting extra importance on the Math score. Fortunately colleges take the best score on each part of the SAT, from all the times you've taken it. It even seems like 700+ might even be good enough to get into MIT. So our strategy is for Greg to go with his past Critical Reading and Writing scores and focus all of his SAT test preparation this time on Math.

The first time around Greg self-studied, using the 'Ziggy method' . Obviously that didn't work as well for Math as for the other two tests. So this time around we've decided to hire a private tutor who focuses on SAT Math. The thinking was that this would be the most focused, time-efficient way to improve. In fact, the tutor we choose guarantees a 50 point/section improvement and averages an 85 point/section improvement. So if Greg is just average (and diligently does the homework they assign), he should hit is goal of approaching 750. The other data point that gives us some confidence is that he recently scored a 780 on the Math2 SAT Subject test.

In my next post I'll describe the process we used to find and select the tutor, and who we selected. Then as the experience unfolds I'll post from time to time on how it's working out.

Seniors, Get Started on 2008 Application Essays

As the summer winds down I'm reminded of some good advice I've read for rising Seniors (if I remember where I'll update this with the links). "...use the summer to start writing your application essays". Obviously this saves having to do them in the midst of Fall AP Classes, football games, etc. It also helps minimize that stressful mad rush to get applications done in December.

Since it may still be unclear to which schools you're going to apply, a relatively safe way to start is to check out the one required essay for the Common Application. Over 340 colleges (here's the list) accept the Common App now, so it's pretty likely you'll be filling it out (online) soon.

If you're applying to a selective college it's possible that they will require 'supplemental' essays (and other materials). You'll need to check the admissions sites for each college to see their requirements. (If someone is familiar with a site that has collected this supplemental information for a number of colleges, please leave the link in comments). Here are Stanford's additional essay requirements (three 250 word essays), along with a reprint of this year's Common Application essay choices.

I'm Back

After a 9 month hiatus I'm back to blogging about college admissions. The admissions process for my (now a rising Senior) son Greg has been ongoing and in upcoming posts I'll recount various aspects of it to bring you up to date.

Since Greg is entering his Senior Year the next 9 months will be intense and exciting. In addition to recounting Greg's experiences I'll also be helping the guidance counselors at his high school with admissions-related activities, and I'll be launching a college admissions oriented web site. All these activities should provide a rich source of material and experiences to fuel this blog, and to provide you with tips and insights into the college admissions process.

With so much to cover, my new goal is to post to CollegeAdmissionForum every day. Along with this I will be working hard to build up a community of college-bound students and their parents so that we can stimulate some interesting discussions and draw on their experiences as well. So please check back regularly (or subscribe to the feed) for more frequent and hopefully helpful, college admissions information and experiences.