5 Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Will Impact Your College Admission: Juniors Edition
It's an uncertain time for everyone, which is why we want to help answer some questions you may have about your college admissions and applications, campus visits, and test prep.
As it’s going to affect every other aspect of your life, Coronavirus is going to affect your admissions journey. It might not be for the worse, though, and using your time wisely now may position you well once we come out the other side. Universities are planning for the summer and fall despite all the uncertainty, and you can be in a position to be one of the students they need to get back on track.
For High School Juniors:
As you no doubt know, SAT, ACT, and AP tests have been postponed until June (AP Tests may end up being available to take online). This may be the knockout punch to tests that are already being made optional by more colleges every day. Oregon State and Case Western Reserve have just this week announced that they will be test-optional for the class of 2021, and I expect more colleges to follow. Depending on where you apply, you probably still need to take them, but you may not have to send them to all your schools if you aren’t happy with your scores.
During the COVID-19 slow down, keep up your test prep and use any time you might have off school to sharpen your abilities. There are plenty of resources available for this, from paid courses to free resources such the ACT Academy (academy.act.org) and Khan Academy SAT prep (www.khanacademy.org/sat). Starting in September you’ll be able to retake individual sections of the ACT to create a superscore made up of your best individual section scores. Strategize accordingly; focus on the areas you wish to retake if you already have a score you want in one area.
You probably had campus visits planned for this spring, and they’ve almost certainly all been cancelled. Even if you walked onto a college campus now, the ghost town feel wouldn’t give you a true impression of what the school is like in full swing with students present. Many colleges have wonderful online virtual tours on their websites, and YouTube is a great resource for videos of campus life, sometimes produced a little more candidly by students (and therefore more accurate in some respects).
This is also a good time to dive into college guides. There are paper guides, of course (Fiske is my favorite of these), and online versions. If you have access to Naviance through your school, use it to explore schools, and if you work with an Independent Educational Consultant, you may have access to other portals, such as Cialfo, or College Planner Pro (which my firm uses). If all else fails, apply to more schools than you originally had planned (maybe twelve instead of eight), and go visit schools that accept you AFTER you’re accepted and things are more back to normal next fall.
Finally, this is the perfect time to begin working with an Independent Educational Consultant. Many (including me) work online through Zoom and Google Docs, so social distancing is built in! An IEC can help clarify what you want in a school, suggest and discuss colleges to build your list, guide you through the applications, help you brainstorm, compose, and edit your essays, and have you ready to hit send on your applications by September. If this stay-at-home period is making you feel stuck in your progress, an IEC can jump start your admissions journey while you have the time and energy available. You’ve already seen what’s on Netflix; now you can put something useful on your screen!
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me today at 704 692 4559 or davidreedparker@gmail.com.