Applying to American Colleges? Get the lowdown on the US admissions process
For many American students, the application process for US Colleges starts in the fall of their junior year, when they take either the PSAT or other preliminary standardized tests. The pace doesn't let up until December of their senior year, when most applications are submitted.
For students in the British education system, the process of applying to an American university will start as early as the beginning of their lower sixth year, when they begin to research selected universities and their SAT requirements.
British students are advised to take the SAT for the first time in the spring of their lower sixth year, before their AS exams. Applications should be worked on during the summer. The SAT (and any remaining SAT Subject Tests) should be taken again in the autumn if an ideal score wasn’t gained the first time around. This is not a cause for concern, as most American students will take the SAT twice.
Getting in to US Colleges
What is the admissions committee looking for? How difficult is the SAT? Is it true that if your test scores aren't high enough, your application is automatically dumped in the "reject" pile? ...Are schools looking for people with a two-page list of extracurricular activities? ...What do admissions officers want to see in your essay?
Just about everyone applying to college or university asks these questions - let alone when they're applying to institutions in a whole different country! The first step to answering these questions is to get a grasp on the application process itself—when, where, and how to apply. After getting all the information, your goal is to end up with a list of target universities—places where you would like to go and where you have a reasonably good chance of being admitted.
Kaplan can help you with all of these steps: we are an American company and we know the process inside out.