SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

To be considered for federal financial aid, you must complete and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Most states, colleges, and universities also use the FAFSA to award other types of institutional financial aid, including state- and college-sponsored financial aid, such as grants, educational loans, and work-study programs.

If you don't get your FAFSA submitted by the deadline, you might be missing out on free money. Don't do that. Make sure you know all the applicable federal, state, and college deadlines. Get that money!

In this article, we'll discuss when you should submit the FAFSA and how to ensure you don't miss any important deadlines. We'll also explain the financial aid process after you submit your FAFSA.

If you're interested in attending a fine arts college, your college search may be trickier than the average student's. It's relatively simple to compare standard undergraduate degree programs, but fine arts schools can be so different: they have different specialties, different facilities, and different curricula. How do you know which fine arts colleges are the best, and how do you know which ones would be good fits for you?

I've taken the first step for you by compiling a list of the top fine arts colleges and bachelor's programs in the country. Each one offers something a little different, making this ranking list a bit more unique (and a bit more interesting) than your average college ranking list.

Attending a performing arts college is a big decision—you're committing to focusing exclusively on your art for four years. Once you've made this choice, you need to find a school that'll allow you to accomplish your career goals.

In order to help you find the right school for you, I've compiled a list of the best performing arts colleges in the US. Keep reading to see what these are!

If you plan to practice law in the United States, you must earn a law degree and pass the bar exam. While that may seem a long way off for an aspiring lawyer, your journey to your law degree and your dream career starts with your decision in your college and your major in your undergrad years.

There are lots of factors to consider if you one day plan to be a lawyer and want to start your education off right. It's a big decision since the right school can help your chances of getting into your top law program, which can in turn help you land the job you've been thinking about for years.

To help you out, we've compiled a list of the best colleges for pre-law.

Less than 5% of applicants are admitted to Columbia every year. Do you want to be one of them? If so, you'll need to write amazing Columbia essays as part of your application.

In this article, we'll outline the different types of essays you need to write for your Columbia Supplement and teach you how to write an essay that will help you stand out from the thousands of other applicants.

Do you love studying buildings and dream of spending your career designing them? If so, you're probably wondering where to get the best architecture education. Figuring out which architecture schools are best can be difficult, but we've done the hard work and compiled a list of the 11 best undergraduate architecture schools in the United States.

Each of these best schools for architecture has a description that explains what makes it an excellent program, and we also include a list of questions to ask yourself to help you decide which is the best architecture school for you.

Do you have a low GPA? Are you wondering what colleges accept a 2.0 GPA? 

Out of all the schools in the country, we've compiled a complete list of colleges with low GPA requirements and ranked the best ones. Even if you have a low GPA, that doesn't mean a great education is out of reach for you. Keep reading to figure out what your options are for higher education.

Regardless of whether you majored in psychology as an undergrad or are just now realizing you have an invested interest in the field, a psychology master's program could be a great fit for you, especially if you're not sure about pursuing a doctorate.

In this guide, we look at what kinds of psychology master's programs are out there and what the point of these programs is in terms of how they help you build a career. Moreover, we'll present you with a list of the best psychology master's programs for various kinds of psychology.

If you're still in high school, you might be curious about how college GPAs work and what you can expect for grades given your major of choice. Just like high schools, colleges vary in how they calculate GPA. Grade inflation also significantly affects college GPA at most schools, causing many students to end up with higher GPAs in college than they had in high school.

In this article, I'll give you the facts about average GPAs at different types of colleges and within a variety of college majors.

If you've taken the SAT, you're probably curious about how your score stacks up against the average SAT scores. There are lots of different ways to look at averages on the SAT. What is the average SAT score overall? How many types of average SAT scores are there? And which SAT score averages are important for you?

We'll answer all of these questions and more to tell you which SAT average scores actually matter for your future. We'll review the most recent data available, from 2024.

Are you applying to the University of Florida? You'll need to answer some essay prompts as part of your application.  Read this guide to learn what the University of Florida essay prompts are, what admissions officers are looking for in your response, what you should include and avoid in your answers, and what strong UF college essay examples look like.

The University of Pennsylvania requires all first year applicants to submit a personal essay as well as a Penn-specific essay. If you're hoping to be one of the 6% of students admitted to Penn every year, your UPenn essay is an important part of your application. You'll need to make sure your essays are strong to increase your chances of admission.

In this article, we'll go over the UPenn essay logistics—covering exactly what you need to write for each college you're applying to at UPenn. Then, we'll break down each prompt, offering suggestions for what to write about. Finally, we'll give tips on how to write an amazing UPenn essay that'll help you get into your dream school.

Ranked among the top 40 colleges nationwide, Boston College is an excellent college choice, especially if you're hoping to attend a Jesuit institution. As part of the application process, you'll need to submit a Boston College essay. So what should you write about in your essay to raise your chances of getting admitted here?

In this guide, we closely analyze all Boston College essay prompts, providing you with our best tips and advice. We'll also take a look at real Boston College essay examples to give you an idea of what a successful Boston College essay can look like.

So let's get started!

The University of Chicago is famous for its unique essay topics. They're some of the most creative and off-the-wall essay prompts you'll see when applying to colleges, and it can sometimes be confusing to know how to tackle them.

What should you write about in your UChicago essays? How can you show that you're intelligent, creative, and worthy of a place at their school? As someone who spent a long time on my UChicago essays (and who got accepted into the school), I've figured out exactly what UChicago is looking for in these essays.

 Read on to learn all about the UChicago essays, what the admissions team expects to see in your responses, what topics you should write about, and which topics you should avoid. In this guide, we also suggest sample essay ideas for each of the 2024/2025 UChicago supplement essay prompts and analyze past University of Chicago essay samples so you can see what a great UChicago essay looks like.

Writing your personal statement for your college application is an undeniably overwhelming project. Your essay is your big shot to show colleges who you are—it's totally reasonable to get stressed out. But don't let that stress paralyze you.

This guide will walk you through each step of the essay writing process to help you understand exactly what you need to do to write the best possible personal statement. I'm also going to follow an imaginary student named Eva as she plans and writes her college essay, from her initial organization and brainstorming to her final edits. By the end of this article, you'll have all the tools you need to create a fantastic, effective college essay.