2025 ADDENDUM: This article was originally written in 2018, before many schools went test-optional and the SAT switched to its currently, digital format. Now that students have a choice about whether to apply to a school that requires testing, those who struggle with standardized tests might wish to forego testing and focus on other aspects…
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If you’re a high school student choosing classes for next year, an important question is how many Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes you should take. For years, the answer to this question was, “More!” The number of students taking AP classes has doubled in the past ten years, and also doubled in the ten…
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As top schools become more and more competitive, many people have been scrutinizing the practice of legacy admissions, which means giving preferential treatment to children and close relatives of alumni. There’s good reason for this attention: Harvard’s 2017 survey shows that 29% of its incoming freshman class are legacy students. Other Ivy League and highly…
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If you are a top student and you play the financial aid game right, you could end up with multiple sources of free money: a needs-based grant, a merit scholarship from the school, and/or outside scholarships. The way your school combines these aid sources can be more important than the numbers themselves. It’s important to…
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When I was a high school student (a long, long time ago), I knew that affording college was going to be a challenge for my family. Because of this, I paid careful attention to our school’s scholarship bulletin—which, at the time, was a paper posted on a bulletin board—and applied for numerous private scholarships, starting…
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