Blog Post Four

College is always a stressful thing to think about for teenagers. There are so many components to go along with getting into the school of your choice. Maintaining grades, standardized testing, writing out your personal statements, thinking about money, etc. Those are only half of the things that we need to worry about. The list could go on and on. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do away with some of that stress so that we could have a more fun and enjoyable high school experience? I think so. A lot of the stress comes from all of the standardized testing that we have to go through in order to gain admission into the college of our choice. I think it is all unnecessary and more colleges would benefit from not having test scores as criteria in the admissions process. Colleges would benefit because perhaps there would be a higher acceptance rate and/or a higher applicant rate. Teenagers would benefit because there would be a lower stress level among them, and students would then have more time to focus on their grades or extracurriculars to maintain themselves being well-rounded throughout high school. The colleges would also make more money because of the higher level of attendance. I truly believe that everyone deserves an equal chance at a good, quality education and in some cases, test scores are getting in the way of that. Test scores sometimes restrict students from applying to certain schools because their scores don’t match the school’s criteria. If colleges would do away with the test score criteria, I think they would be a lot better off, and so would many students. Students would be more motivated to apply to more schools and keep their options open, instead of being restricted to only a few schools, and not often their top choices. So I say for the benefit of everyone, DO AWAY WITH TEST SCORES! (:

Blog Post Three

So I was browsing through some college websites the other day, and I came across some information that I thought was interesting. A bunch of the liberal arts colleges don’t always require standardized testing scores to be included in your application process. It is more based on talent, because a liberal arts college is, well, an artistic abilities school. I also found out that most colleges out east & west require the SAT, and not so much the ACT. While the central United States colleges look more at the ACT and not so much the SAT. Now we all know that all of the standardized tests are expensive, especially if you go and take more than one, or take one multiple times, such as the ACT if you dislike your score. I took the ACT three times, and the English and Biology Subject tests. There are a variety of tests you can take to gain admission into a college, but I personally think all of those tests are a waste of valuable time & money. As I have said many times before, college admissions should be based on your involvement in high school, NOT how well you do on a test. There are many advantages to not taking the tests and just working on how well rounded you become, but also not forgetting to stay on track academically. I believe that your grades should have a part in the admission process, but the extracurricular activities should count for more. I think a lot more students would benefit from it that way than how it is right now. I think there would be a higher college attendance if that’s how it was, because then people might think that they are able to get a higher education, and it wouldn’t just be based on how smart you were. I believe that way would be very successful, but only time will tell if that process would ever come through.

Blog Post Two

College is a big step for high school seniors, and it is most likely on a lot of the juniors and seniors minds throughout the academic school year. It is a stressful time full of test-taking, and maintaining grades, and being involved in school, all at the same time. But one of the main concerns of a lot of students these days is the standardized testing that colleges require to gain entry into a particular school. The ACT and SATs are taken in the spring of junior year. I personally dreaded that day of testing, where I knew I would struggle because I am so bad at test taking. This is on the minds of a lot of other students too, I’m sure. High school seniors often have to limit where they apply to college because of their ACT scores. I think that restricts too many of us, and it is not giving us a free decision on where we would like to pay to attend school. The NACAC, known as the National Association for College Admission Counseling stated that “high school students too much of their energies on testing strategies rather than the rest of their academic profiles”. I think there needs to be some sort of balance between test scores, and how well rounded a student was in high school. Because for all of us students out there who are bad test takers like me, we struggle, and then are restricted to the colleges where we apply to. I would personally love to see the standardized testing banned forever, but I think no matter what we do or say, some form of it will always be there. I think every student should have the right to go to any college they want to in order to get a good education, and with these tests, it limits us. In order for us to move forward and make this situation better, I think students should focus more on being involved in an array of activities in high school, and less on test taking skills, and hopefully as the years go on there will be more colleges not taking test scores into consideration.

http://blog.scholarships.com/tag/act/

PSA Two

PSA Two

PSA One

PSA One

Blog Post One

If you’re a junior in high school, it’s more than likely when come springtime you’re going to be stressing out about college entrance exams. The ACT or SAT, to be more specific. These tests and a variety of others help colleges decide whether you’re fit (aka, smart enough) to go to that particular school. The controversy today is whether those tests are legitimate, and whether they should be used anymore to determine a student’s academic ability for college. You see, there are plenty of us here in high school, and others out in the world, who are terrible test takers, but excellent students and who volunteer their time to the community and are involved in a lot of activities in high school. Then there are the others who only dedicate their time to their studies and are good test takers naturally. They get the easy way out. But for the rest of us poor test takers like me, we are stuck with stressful testing that is not a very legitimate way to indicate whether we are good students or not. I do not believe those types of tests should be used in college admissions anymore. Instead, I think colleges should weigh a student based on how well-rounded they are. I think that would be a much better determination of how good the student is. Not all students are gifted with great smartness and good test taking skills, so I do not think that is how a student should be judged. It just doesn’t seem fair. I know that all colleges want smart, well-rounded students to add to the diversity of the student population. So knowing this, colleges should look more to what defines the student and what they’re good at and all that they’ve done in high school, not what their test results say. I think more students would be accepted into colleges and universities if college admissions would use this criteria instead of what they’re doing now. Because I think everyone deserves an equal chance at good, quality education.

http://www.opposingviews.com/p/nearly-1-000-colleges-no-longer-require-sat-act-scores

http://blog.scholarships.com/tag/act/