SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Applying to college usually means writing some essays, asking for letters of recommendation, and submitting your transcripts. But what about the ACT and SAT? Is the ACT required for college? The answer is, not necessarily!

In this guide, we explain what test-optional colleges are and give you the complete list of 1,000+ colleges that don't require ACT scores from applicants. We also offer a few tips for what to do with these ACT-optional college lists.

Are you taking the ACT? Before registering, you should know how admissions officers look at your scores. Do they consider Math, Science, Reading, and English individually, or do they care more about the composite score?

You might be relieved to hear that many colleges "superscore" your ACT scores by taking the best subscores across all your test dates and creating the strongest possible composite score. Read on for the full list of colleges that superscore the ACT, followed by some tips on how you can use this policy to your advantage.

Who needs deadlines? Colleges with rolling admissions invite you to submit your application within a general time frame, usually ranging from the fall to the spring.

While these schools don't have a set deadline, your timeline for applying still matters. This guide will explore the rolling admission policy and how it affects your college planning. First, what is this application option all about?

Maybe you've taken the SAT or ACT and got a really good score, but you aren't sure how to get the most money out of it. Or maybe you haven't taken the SAT or ACT yet but are wondering how important the tests really are. One way you can make the most of your score is by finding guaranteed SAT scholarships or guaranteed ACT scholarships.

In this post, we'll show you some of the scholarships for high SAT scores and scholarships for high ACT scores that you can get. You can earn thousands of dollars in scholarships based just on your test scores. Curious to see how? We'll show you where you can get scholarships based on ACT scores and scholarships based on SAT scores.

If you're in the midst of college application season, then you know it's time to take action. For some of you, that might be early action, which pushes your deadlines up a couple months.

This guide has the complete list of colleges that offer early action, along with advice on the best way to prepare for an early deadline. Before getting to the list, though, let's go over the ins and outs of the early action admission plan.

The novel coronavirus has had a massive impact on colleges, and that includes college admissions. Because of stay-at-home orders, virtual learning, and cancelled SAT and ACT exam dates, among other things, many universities are aware that it might be difficult or impossible for incoming high school seniors to take and do well on standardized tests in time for application deadlines.

The result? Hundreds of colleges have dropped their SAT and ACT test requirements for the 2020/2021, 2021/2022, and 2022/2023 college admissions cycles. Which schools have cancelled exams? Will they reinstate these test requirements next year? If you're able to take a test, should you still submit your scores? This guide covers all those questions.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the best schools in the world. If you want to be one of the few students accepted into MIT every year, you'll need to make sure your application is up to snuff.

In this article, we'll break down exactly how to get into MIT, from the test scores you need to the tips and tricks that'll help your application stand out.

Would you like to know where you'll be going to college as soon as possible? If you apply early action, then you might have your plans all set by winter break of your senior year. That's a big leap forward compared with waiting for regular notifications in March or April!

A large number of schools offer an early action deadline in addition to a regular decision deadline. This guide will go over what you need to know about applying early action and give you a comprehensive list of all the schools that offer it. To start, how does early action work?

College admissions can seem like a giant puzzle, especially if you're hoping to attend an Ivy League or other extremely selective school. Planning your high school schedule carefully is definitely important, but these schools' expectations aren't as inflexible as you might think they are.

In this article, I'll provide a concise overview of what Ivy League admission requirements are for high school transcripts and give you some tips on how to map out your classes so you have an excellent shot at being accepted.

Georgetown University is one of the most selective universities in the country, but understanding the application and what Georgetown admissions officers are looking for when they review your application can give you a serious leg up over the rest of the competition.

In this guide, we go over everything you need to know about the Georgetown University application, including what you need to submit, every Georgetown application deadline, what admissions officers are looking for when they review applications, and how you can make each key part of your application stand out from the pack.

The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts, this article will be a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

Are you applying to college soon? If so, you've probably heard of the Common Application—an online application you can use for more than 900 colleges. Since you only have to fill out one application, it saves you time when applying to college.

But which colleges use the Common Application? And which Common Application schools are in your state? We have a complete list here, broken down by state and updated for the 2022-23 academic year.

Most college application fees fall in the $40 to $50 range, with some costing as much as $90 (ahem, Stanford). For many students and their families, these fees present a serious obstacle along the already pricey path to college. If application fees are burdensome to you, you might qualify for college application fee waivers.

Just like SAT and ACT fee waivers, these college fee waivers allow you to send off your applications for free. This guide will go over how you can qualify for and use college application fee waivers; it'll also review how much college apps usually cost and how much you can save with fee waivers.

Deadlines are stressful—so why not get rid of them? Well, some colleges do just that. Rather than having a fixed application deadline, these schools open up a period of time for you to submit your application.

Rolling admission doesn't mean you won't have any timeline, though. This guide will go over what rolling admission means as you apply to college and also provide you with a complete list of colleges with rolling admissions.

Many students assume colleges will see every score they've earned on the SAT and ACT when they apply.

However, while some top-tier schools do require your full testing histories, many don't. Some even allow score choice for the SAT, which allows you to send only the scores you want them to see, or they allow you to pick your best ACT test date.

If you're aiming for a top-tier school like an Ivy League, Stanford, or MIT, read this guide to learn how they evaluate standardized tests to help you best prepare.