The official e-newsletter of The Equestrian College Advisor.

From the blog:

I don’t mean to confuse readers with the title of this week’s blog entry. During my time at the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) conference in Los Angeles last month, I realized that there’s a correlation between selection for an NCEA riding team and selection for the first-year class of an Ivy League university – both of which come down to an issue that’s much-discussed in all circles of higher education these days:

Selectivity. Read More

"There is no sugarcoating the fact that getting into top colleges can be incredibly difficult. At each of the 13 schools with the lowest acceptance rates in fall 2017, fewer than 1 in 10 applicants were admitted. The average acceptance rate among these highly selective schools was only 7 percent."

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Management of the 2019 College Preparatory Invitational (CPI) announced that Chris Mitchell, head coach of the Randolph College equestrian team, will serve as clinician and CPI “Hire-a-Coach” at the Florida Horse Show. CPI Florida is scheduled for Jan. 17-20, 2019 at the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center in West Palm Beach.

Registration is still available.

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Making Sense of Your PSAT Score ReportIf you’re one of the thousands of students who sat for the PSAT in the fall, the results of your exam should arrive in mid-December. But what do all of the numbers, percentiles, and benchmarks actually mean?Here’s a basic breakdown:

• Your total score. Just like it says, much like the SAT, your total score (the upper left hand side of your score report) is the total of the points earned in the math and reading/writing sections of the PSAT. The scores for the individual sections are then broken down in the next section so you can see how your strengths in math and in reading/writing compared (and how your scores ranked against other test takers nationwide).

• Test scores/cross-test scores/sub-scores. This section is color-coded to break down your total scores farther and show your strong spots and weak spots that you’ll want to concentrate on improving before you take the SAT as a junior. Green scores are strong, scores in yellow are in need of improvement (but almost there), and scores in red are the ones you’ll really want to focus on in your SAT preparation. (The “Skills Insight” section of the score report can help with this as well.) 

• AP Potential. If you aren’t already taking AP courses at your high school, the PSAT can also serve as a predictor of your success on AP exams. When viewing your score report online, click over to the AP Potential section to see which AP coursework you should add to your schedule junior year. 

• National Merit selection. If your scores on the PSAT are particularly high, you might achieve candidacy for National Merit recognition – a great honor and one that might be worth a lot of scholarship money down the road!

Finally, it’s important to know that studies have shown that students improve – onaverage – thirty-three percent between taking the PSAT and the SAT. That’s asubstantial improvement in scores in just a few short months! So while your PSATscore is certainly an important part of your college planning process, it’s only a tinypiece of a much larger puzzle and in the end, it won’t make or break the strength of your college application.

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