Having a Social Media Presence When Applying to College
Dear Parents:
Both articles in this month’s issue are dear to my heart. Many of you know I preach to students daily about social media postings and why it is very important to monitor a student’s social media “footprint”. It can negatively affect a student’s college admission chances.
The second article is about the new effort on the part of the SAT to “level the playing field”. The new push on diversity is not something, in my opinion, the SAT should be getting involved. The SAT is no longer the admission tool it used to be. The SAT was originally created in 1926 to evaluate an individual’s IQ for the army. It evolved over the years and began to be a tool to evaluate a student’s readiness for the rigor of college. It has evolved significantly especially after the 1990’s. Today, a student can make an above average score on an SAT, and still struggle in college. There are so many other factors that must be evaluated when assessing a student’s ability to be successful in college today. More and more colleges are going “Test-Optional” whereby standardized testing is not required for admission.
I am confident this newsletter will stimulate conversation with your teenager at the dinner table now your students are back in school. Thank you for taking a few minutes to read these interesting articles.
Sincerely,
Catherine Marrs, CEP
Why Colleges Look At Students' Social Media
WITH A SINGLE-DIGIT acceptance rate, Harvard University in Massachusetts has been among the toughest schools to get into. But in recent years, some students who cleared that high bar for admission had their acceptance rescinded before even stepping on campus. The reason: inappropriate social media posts.
Source: Josh Moody - US News
The SAT’s new ‘adversity score’ is a poor fix for a problematic test
The College Board recently revealed a new "adversity score" that it plans to use as part of the SAT in order to reflect students’ social and economic background.
The mere fact that the College Board sees a need for an “adversity score” is a tacit admission that the SAT isn’t fair for all students.
Source: Leigh Patel - The Conversation