The Insider: College Admissions Advice from the Experts

If you have a close relative who’s planning on applying to college at some point in the next 10 years, you’ve probably already heard about the announced changes to the SAT. I tweeted last week that the fervor surrounding this announcement is one more reminder that the three biggest letters in college admissions are S-A-T. Here on our blog, we’ve discussed the potential effect of these changes on companies that offer test prep. And if you keep an eye on our Facebook page, you’ll see a handful of other comments and articles related to the new SAT roll-out. There’s a lot to take in.

Last week, Karen Crowley discussed the ways in which changes to the SAT will impact test prep. She suggested that companies with in-house curriculum specialists will be at a real advantage in achieving results for students. Revolution Prep has a robust infrastructure for responding to these challenges, and we turn to them today for answers to burning questions about the new SAT.

Recent news about major changes to the SAT hit just as I was boarding a plane home from a business trip. I took advantage of my time in the air to read up on the media reaction to this announcement. My ultimate take, despite what is asserted in the New York Times, is that these changes help the test prep industry hone in on how best to help students do well on the SAT, which will in turn help test prep become even more reliable in terms of results.

My son recently took the PSAT and has started receiving both email and snail mail from a few schools. Just how important is the PSAT to colleges and universities?

The answer to your question depends upon which hat an admission officer is wearing: the “recruiter” hat or the “gatekeeper” hat. Let’s start with the recruiter hat first.

Back in March 2013, College Coach admissions consultant Zaragoza Guerra sat down with Revolution Prep Global Elite Instructor Megan Stubbendeck to discuss the College Board’s plans to revise the SAT and published the interview in a two part blog (read part 1 and part 2). At the time, the anticipated changes were due to arrive in 2015. However, Inside Higher Ed published an article yesterday announcing that the changes had been pushed back to 2016. Read more about this development here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/03/college-board-pushes-back-revised-sat-one-year.

In part two of our series interviewing Megan Stubbendeck, Global Elite Instructor at Revolution Prep, regarding the news shared in the Washington Post article, College Board to make changes to SAT, College Coach discussed what some of the specific changes might be and got Megan’s take on changes she would like to see implemented. 

College Coach recently sat down with Megan Stubbendeck, Global Elite Instructor at Revolution Prep, to get her take on the news shared in the Washington Post article, College Board to make changes to SAT. In part one of our interview, we discussed what this news means for students planning to take the SAT in the next few years and what might have prompted these changes in the first place.