The official e-newsletter of The Equestrian College Advisor.

From the blog:

It’s that time of year, readers. No, I’m not talking about the holiday shopping season (though I’m a medium and Rico wears everything in oversize if you’re shopping) and I’m not talking about the start of basketball season or anything like that. I refer instead to the time of year when my students’ early applications have been submitted (and most of the regular applications too – after all, why wait?) and in theory we should all be sitting around waiting to hear wonderful, exciting news about admission decisions and scholarship offers and next steps for spring as final decisions approach – but we’re not. Read More

"Finding a college that has the equestrian team of your dreams can be challenging. One question that may cross your mind is, “Should I join NCEA or IHSA?”"

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If your child is a sophomore in high school now and you do some quick thinking before the end of this year, you may be able to save yourself thousands of dollars paying for college in a few years.

But I mean quick. The sophomore year is when you set the stage for college financial aid under changes adopted recently. Read More

“Welcome to grown-up life.”

It’s one of my favorite things I tell my students.

While applying to college is a right of passage, it’s also many students’ first encounters with the demands they will encounter in the professional world. As the co-founder of a company that prepares high school students for college, I often remind students of this reality: Not only is it one of the first times they are facing an outcome that is largely out of their control; it is also an early introduction to the kind of deadlines that truly matter — where the stakes are high and asking for an “extension” isn't an option. Read More

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 – on average – thirty-three percent between taking the PSAT and the SAT.  That’s a substantial improvement in scores in just a few short months!  So while your PSAT score is certainly an important part of your college planning process, it’s only a tiny piece 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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