Undergraduate studies in the USA: getting in the top schools, part II.
I don’t know about you, but growing up, the only thing I was told about getting into a good university was to get good grades. Well, the system in the USA is a bit more complex than that and even excellent grades might not be sufficient to get into their top schools. In fact, the competition is so harsh, most students prepare very well at least two years before their last year of high school to have some considerable chance. So let me tell you a bit more about it.
Part II: The Exams (to be taken well in advance before the application due date!!!).
Exams are a crucial part of your application. To get into a certain top school, you need at least a certain minimum. (Except maybe if you an extraordinary talent, recommendations from a Nobel Prize, or some other crazy thing.) Unfortunately, there are plenty of those exams…
- The TOEFL – Test Of English Foreign Language – is required of all students whose native language is not English or who have not studied in a institution teaching in English.
- The SAT Reasoning Test is the main exam for testing the capacities of students who want to enter college in the USA. It lasts about four hours and is composed of a verbal part (which is only multiple-question based), a mathematics part (multiple-questions and calculations based), and a writing part (essay based), each based on a score of 800. It is organized by the nonprofit organization CollegeBoard several times each year. A substitute of the SAT is the ACT exam which is more popular in the Southern states. It is composed of English, Math, Reading, Science and Writing. However, not all universities accept it, and therefore you should always check if you’d like to use this one.
- SAT Subject Tests, also organized by the Collegeboard, are further testing the abilities of students in various domains. Top universities will usually require at least two. Also, those whose students specialize early will “advise” their applicants to take specific SAT subjects. For instance, if you’d like to enter the engineering college of a university, you will be “advised” to take Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, or Biology as one or more of your tests. Other available subjects are foreign languages (Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Latin, Modern Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean), literature, and history (either world or USA history). Each test is one-hour long, made out of multiple-questions and based on 800 score. It is important to know that there is at most one date per month when you can take the SAT Reasoning Test or up to three SAT Subject Tests. Careful planning must be done in order to complete all the demanded exams.
- The AP, or Advanced Placement Program (again by the CollegeBoard) is quite popular in the USA. Students who take it will very often go through special classes in their high school to prepare for it. It offers various subject testing just like the SAT Subject Tests, however it is much tougher and longer. The scoring is from 1 to 5, where 5 is the best you can get. AP exams are said to be at introductory college level courses and therefore a score of 4 or 5 will often not only make more impact than just a perfect SAT Subject score, but will regularly grant you college credits. This means that you can either accelerate your degree by fulfilling requirements out of your major using AP credit, but you can also skip introductory classes needed for advanced subjects and save you time. The good thing about graduating early is that you might save a considerable amount of college tuition money and the AP exams can definitely help you with that. (Even if they are themselves a bit costly! So you should definitely not waste your time and money on them if you cannot ace your subject. Fortunately, you have more than 30 subjects to choose among.) Beware that the AP exams cannot be used as substitutes for the SAT Subject Tests. They may be used only to supplement your application and to gain credits.
Note 1: All exams you take have “expiration dates” so to say which are subject to change. For instance, last time I checked - (June 12, 08) - the SAT I (the Reasoning test) scores were valid up to 5 years. Also, some universities might impose their own limit.
Note 2: Don’t confuse the old SAT I, with the “New SAT”. Practically, a couple years ago, the writing component of the SAT Reasoning Test was not required. It was just another subject test which you could take. But because most universities required it, it was made part of the main SAT.
Note 3: Although the best is to check score statistics on the university website (and if unavailable on there, through a search engine), you should rely on at least a score of 700 and above out of 800 for the SATs for the best schools.
Note 4:
For early decision/action, some universities will accept scores which you take November of the year you apply. But NOT all! For others, October will be the latest date. So make sure to double check before you postpone any exam taking… and as always - plan to be done with your exams by the summer before the fall you apply. It will save you a lot of trouble.
For regular action, there’s a similar situation with universities accepting scores up to December of the application year, or up to January. Just make you part of the work and check the requirements.
To read about the application process, application form, and everything else from Part I, click here.
