Beyond SAT Scores: Navigating the college application process
In just a few generations, the college application process has gone from filling out forms and taking a few standardized tests to navigating a gauntlet of portals, essays, application fees, and letters of recommendation. We sought out two local Charlotte experts to help break it all down.
Katie Garrett, founder of Garrett Educational Consulting, has been advising families on the college and boarding school application process for more than 20 years. “The single most important piece of advice I give parents and students is to put your blinders on and ear plugs in and stay in your own lane,” she says. “Don’t worry about what someone else is doing or has done. Everyone’s process is different.”
Pat Throneburg, owner of Academic Counseling and Educational Services (ACES), echoes these sentiments regarding testing. “People ask all the time, ‘Should I take the ACT or the SAT?,’ and there is no one answer for everyone. So many factors are at play: the content of the test that day, how fast you can move through the material, did you wake up clear headed and ready to go, do you have other stressful things going on, even weather can affect performance. Don’t worry about what anyone else did. Take both tests—the highest result may just be because you had a good day.”
Here are some other valuable pieces of advice:
When should parents and students begin thinking about the college process?
Katie Garrett: It really starts in those early years—8th, 9th, and 10th grades—with establishing good executive functioning skills: time management, learning to advocate for yourself, organizational skills, study skills. The sooner students learn those, the better off they will be. One thing that a lot of boarding schools do really well is have required study hours. It’s phone-free, focused studying where everyone is dialed in. I tell my students, ‘Implement your own study hours.’ Do a trial for two weeks, four weeks, where you put your phone in a drawer and for two hours just head down and get through your work. Once students see how productive they can be, they see the value. And that habit will help tremendously as things ramp up junior and senior year and even into college.
The other piece to think about early on is tracking activities. I know you think you’ll remember everything you’ve done, but it just doesn’t happen. Freshman year, start a list and at least once each semester write down your activities and a few bullets on each. I like kids to take ownership for their college process, but this is one area where I say to run it by parents, because they often remember things or see value in activities students don’t.
Testing has been in a state of flux since COVID, but more schools are reinstateing testing requirements. What do you tell students in terms of prepping for the SAT/ACT?
Pat Throneburg: I can’t emphasize enough the importance of starting early. Spring of sophomore year, make a plan. What does life look like for the next year with sports, activities, travel, college visits? Look at the testing date schedule and decide when is best for you to take the test and when to set aside time to prepare. For most students, that’s the summer before junior year. Junior year is extremely challenging and no one wants to be trying to prep for testing while balancing a heavy course load. There will be challenges you don’t anticipate. I had one student who got in a wreck on the way to the SAT. You have to plan ahead with room for error.
What’s one of the biggest mistakes students make with testing?
Pat Throneburg: When people come to me and say, ‘I took the SAT/ACT at the end of sophomore year as a baseline.’ Why are you doing that? That’s now a score of record. Without having done any prep at all, there is really no chance you’re going to use these scores. Worst case, there are schools out there that will require you to submit all of your scores, and even if not, it creates a really bad experience for students and affects their confidence. There are so many practice tests out there that will give you the same information and won’t be a score of record. Take those to get a baseline.
Where is the best place to find these practice tests?
Pat Throneburg: Always make sure you are using official tests. There are a lot of free resources out there, the Princeton Review, Kaplan, but not all of them use official tests. The SAT has a bluebook app and practice tests online, the ACT has an official test guide book. I always have my students start with those.
What’s one piece of advice you would give in each area of the college application process?
Katie Garrett
On academics: Challenge yourself appropriately, but don’t overextend. Just because you can take an AP class in every subject doesn’t mean you should. Be realistic with your interests and what you can handle.
On extracurriculars: Early on, explore a lot of things, but don’t be afraid to funnel down to what activities truly pique your interest. I had a drummer who started a non-profit to expose younger kids to drums. Drum sets are expensive but sticks aren’t, and you can drum on anything so he started making YouTube videos for kids to view. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering, just authentic. Get creative.
On essays: More opinions are not always better. When you have too many voices in an essay, you start to lose the authenticity and true voice of the original writer. Admissions officers can tell when a 50-year-old attorney has dabbled in an essay. These kids are pretty amazing the way they are.
On teacher recommendations: Pick two teachers from junior year or one from junior year and one from sophomore year. Make sure they’re from different subject areas. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the classes you did the best in. Sometimes the best letters of recommendation can be where you really struggled or weren’t taught in the way you learn best, where you had to work hard and dig in and get extra help.
LAURIE LARSH is a Charlotte-based writer whose work has appeared in The Charlotte Observer, Yahoo News, Scary Mommy, and more. Follow her on Instagram @goexplauring.
