New policy: students can withhold low SAT scores

The first article on this College Board policy change that landed in my inbox comes from Education Week, which requires a (pricey!) subscription to read its full articles. I'm just pasting the fragment that Ed Week allows the unwashed masses to peek at, and will go hunt down more information from a more accessible source to post.

Policy Shift Lets Students Withhold Low SAT Scores
By Scott J. Cech

Students who take the SAT more than once will soon be able to cherry-pick which scores they want colleges to see, rather than have those institutions automatically receive all of their scores, under a policy change by the College Board.

Officials of the College Board, the New York City-based nonprofit organization that owns the SAT, said that the change, effective for the class of 2010, will relieve student stress and will not detract from the value of the widely used college-entrance exam.

Some observers contend, though, that the change will give wealthier students an unfair advantage because they can afford to pay the costs of private SAT-prep tutoring and the fees for taking...

(More information on this policy change to come asap!)

Seniors: This isn't the summer to veg out

A message to next year's seniors from Gordon Chalmers, college counselor at San Francisco School of the Arts.

SUMMER VACATION

As mentioned in junior classes I visited before school ended, have a productive summer and just don’t sit around the house doing nothing.

SOME SUGGESTIONS

Get a job or an internship, if you can.
Especially seniors, as your final year can be expensive with ACT/SAT fees, application fees, proms, yearbooks, cap and gowns, rings, etc. Also, you need to start saving money to help out parents with college costs. Go to fastweb.com or monstertrak.com to look for jobs or internships

Do volunteer work
There are always places out there that need volunteers, such as hospitals, camps, etc. Colleges love unselfish students who have made a contribution to their community. How about volunteering to work for someone election campaign. A possible source for in this area is fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/volunteer

Take a class during the summer
Local community colleges and private high schools are a possibility. Kaplan, the test prep company, is also offering a summer school program on line where you can take just about any class in the academics. Go to www.kaplancollegepreparatory.com for more information

Visit colleges if traveling
Don’t just visit, but instead take a tour (phone ahead to find out tour times) and attend an information session. You can visit local colleges if not traveling far.

Read, read and read

Use ECOS to explore colleges, if you have an account.
You might also try College Board at collegeboard.com/quick to further explore colleges

Work on improving your ACT/SAT scores
Some possible ways to improve your scores:
• Take a test prep class. Some possibilities are Revolution Prep, Sherwood Test Prep, One Smart Kid (also group sessions and essay writing), San Francisco Tutors or Elite Test Prep .
• ECOS also has a test prep section under ‘college’.`
• Again, read, read and read.
• Work on your weak areas

Start looking for scholarships
You can not expect your parents to pay for everything. Go to the modular in ECOS or go to fastweb.com.

Attend a college fair
There will be one at the South S.F. Conference Center right off Hiway 101 on Sunday, August 3 at noon. Fair is called “Colleges that Care” and includes colleges such as Hampshire, Evergreen, Lawrence, St. John’s, Whitman and more.

Need tutorial help in certain subjects?
• Summer reading Program at S.F. State including study skills. Phone 1-800-978-3532

Start your portfolio

Write your autobiography or resume
ECOS has a section under ‘portfolio’ that will create and print your resume.

Promising program for 1st-in-the-family students

First Graduate offers a program similar to College Track, guiding students with college potential from sixth grade on:

Every spring, twenty-four 6th-grade students are chosen from several of San Francisco's lower performing middle schools. All of these young people will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Some will be the first to graduate from high school.

Students participate in a rigorous application process that includes a day-long "Discovery Day" where they take part in a number of small group activities with other potential First Graduate students and are interviewed by community members who come in to evaluate the students.

First Graduate students are admitted on the basis of evidence of their desire to succeed, their ability to benefit from the program, and the support of parents or guardians. We do not require students to meet minimum grade or test standards before entering the program.

College support for disadvantaged students

Today's Chronicle Sunday mag has a feature on College Track, a nonprofit that provides what sounds like wraparound support for promising disadvantaged students who are aiming for college.

The educational nonprofit was founded in East Palo Alto in 1997 to help low-income students boost their grades, apply to college and obtain scholarships.

Students must apply to the after-school supplement to their high school studies and maintain a 3.0 grade point average. Those who falter are steered into a counseling group called Inspire, which tries, through group chat sessions, to motivate them to try harder.

There's fun, too - summer field trips to Yosemite and Tahoe, because many students have never experienced the outdoors. And tucked into all this is counseling. College Track officials find there are times when they have to cajole parents into allowing their children to attend college out of the Bay Area or out of state.

Click to read the rest of the article.

Colleges for future screenwriters

Thanks to the NACAC listserve, here's a list from seasoned college counselors of colleges with strong screenwriting programs, or creative writing programs that allow students to focus on screenwriting. I haven't double-checked the names. (If I do the legwork of linking, there will be a long delay before this is posted; sorry.)

Pomona

Emerson (MA)

SUNY-Purchase

USC (School of Cinematic Arts)

Chapman

Wesleyan

Loyola Marymount

New York University

College of Santa Fe

Binghamton University

Hampshire

Columbia College (Chicago)

Kenyon

Bard

Wisconsin

Ithaca

Syracuse

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Occidental

University of Central Florida

University of Iowa

Interview with Reed College at Bay Area events

Reed College (Portland, OR) has an admission counselor on the road over the summer doing individual interviews by appointment with rising seniors only. She'll be in the Bay Area for three sessions, none in San Francisco itself.

Friday, June 27, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley

Monday, June 30, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Caffe Trieste, Berkeley

Tuesday, July 1, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Caffe Trieste, 315 S. First St., San Jose

Here's the website showing the schedule:
http://web.reed.edu/apply/reed_on_the_road/index.html

To schedule an appointment with counselor Alea Adigweme on those days, call 800/547-4750 weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific Time.