Yay! All of our college admissions decisions are in and all of our clients have selected their college for next school year. We assisted 27 current seniors, class of 2017, through the college admissions process, including 4 who were pro bono clients, mostly teenage moms. They received a total of 96 college acceptances, for a group of 23 students, that's an average of 4.2 each. Clients ranged from two college applications to 12! Some great … [Read more...]
Scholarships for National Merit Finalists at Texas Colleges
The National Merit® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships conducted with the PSAT administered every Fall to high school juniors. Of the 1.6 million entrants, only about 50,000 (3%) with the highest PSAT/NMSQT® Selection Index scores (calculated by doubling the sum of the Reading, Writing and Language, and Math Test scores) qualify for recognition in the National Merit® Scholarship Program. In … [Read more...]
Class of 2017 Admissions Results
College admissions is getting more and more competitive, mainly because of ever increasing number of applications received, which lowers the rate of acceptance. Here are the numbers of students who applied, students who were admitted, and the acceptance rate for some of the best universities in the U.S. … [Read more...]
How soon should we begin working with Brand College Consulting?
The earlier in the process, the better! The best, most helpful college planning starts before or during freshman or sophomore year of high school. This allows time to flesh out the student's ideal academic program, delineate interests and lay the foundation for a progression of directed summer and extracurricular activities. Many of the interesting and most helpful courses and electives have prerequisites that need to be taken by freshmen and … [Read more...]
Class of 2017 Admissions Decisions at Texas A&M
As of March 2017, all admissions decisions for the high school graduating class of 2017 have been released by Texas A&M University. Here are some of the numbers: Over 42,000 applications received 27,000 of those applications were not Top 10% or Automatic Admits, so they were holistically scored Over 19,800 students were offered full admissions, 47% Of those holistically reviewed, 3,800 students were offered admission, … [Read more...]
ACT Adding New Summer Test Date
Beginning in 2018, ACT will begin offering students a chance to take the ACT over the summer, starting July 2018. This new test date will increase the number of test dates from six to seven dates each year. To accommodate the new summer testing date, the test will be offered at local community colleges annd university campuses, instead of high schools that traditionally offer the tests during the school year. “Students, educators and colleges … [Read more...]
Featured Testimonial
We love to hear from happy clients and students! Want to read them all? Click here for more. Client Review of the Month Jolyn and her team of tutors are awesome! With ACT tutoring, our daughter was able to raise her overall score and raise her English score 9 points. Jolyn is always so helpful and informative and replies promptly to any question I may have. In addition to the personalized tutoring, Jolyn's essay writing class was beneficial … [Read more...]
10 Most Important College Financial Aid Terms
Your college education is an extremely important and expensive investment. Before you shell out thousands of dollars for an advanced education, you need to give yourself a basic education in the financial aid process. Navigating the college financial aid process can be hard enough even for the most highly educated people. So to help, I’ve put together a quick reference guide on the 12 most common financial aid terms used. 1. FAFSA (Free … [Read more...]
The 20 Biggest Colleges in the United States
Many students want to attend a large national university, with a strong football team and all of the perks that come along with it. But what size is too large? Some schools have over 40,000 undergraduates, making them the size of a small city. These schools can provide great opportunities to students, but they may also be a little overwhelming. Why So Many Students? Many of the colleges on this list are public state universities, which … [Read more...]
How to Prepare for the ACT Test
The ACT is a national college admissions examination that consists of subject area tests in: English (grammar) Math Reading (passages and comprehension) Science (charts and graphs) The ACT Plus Writing includes the four subject area tests plus a 30-minute Writing Test. The ACT includes 215 multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes to complete, including a short break (or just over four hours if … [Read more...]
Class of 2016 Admissions Statistics
The high school graduating class of 2016 is now officially the college class of 2020. Here are some interesting statistics from the incoming class at Texas A&M University: Here's a summary of Early Admissions Statistics for high school graduates, class of 2016, who will soon be Class of 2020 college graduates (hopefully). Institution (Plan) Applied Admitted Rate Link Boston College … [Read more...]
What is the PSAT 8/9?
The College Board now offers the PSAT 8/9 to eighth graders and high school freshmen as the first test in a group of tests they call the “SAT Suite of Assessments”. This test is a practice for the PSAT 10 (for 10th graders), the PSAT/NMSQT (for 11th graders) and the SAT (the test for college admissions). For more information directly from the College Board, click here. So, What Is the PSAT 8/9? The PSAT 8/9 is the first test in the College … [Read more...]
Texas Colleges on New Best Colleges Rankings
Sept. 13, 2016 – U.S. News & World Report today announced the 2017 Best Colleges rankings to help students worldwide compare the academic quality of more than 1,800 U.S.-based schools. Princeton University remains No. 1 in the Best National Universities category. For the 14th consecutive year, Williams College takes the top spot on the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges list. California schools and military academies make a strong … [Read more...]
9 Texas Colleges on the “Shame List”
Campus Pride is a nonprofit dedicated to creating safe learning environments for LGBQT students nationwide, which has jut released a “Shame List” of colleges and universities it calls the “absolute worst for LGBQT youth.” Nine Texas colleges, all with religious ties, were among the 102 schools on the list. Arlington Baptist College Criswell College in Dallas University of Dallas (Irving) East Texas Baptist University (Marshall) … [Read more...]
3 Things to Know About the 2016-17 Common Application
The 2016-17 Common Application opened on August 1. For those of you eager to get started, here are three key pieces of information to help you begin. And for those of you who aren’t quite ready to give up on summer, don’t worry. These tips will be just as useful in September. Your Account- If you previously created an account, it should rollover. Log in with your email address and password (be sure to write it down!), answer a few … [Read more...]
