Test Optional—Or Maybe Not

(IECA)  By Elizabeth Stone, PhD (IECA) (CA) — The role of standardized testing in college admissions is one that has been contested and questioned throughout its history. Although the SAT and the ACT serve, to an extent, the purpose of “objectively” comparing students across the globe, the equity of the tests is quite limited. They […]

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State Shortfalls and Foreign Students

( Inside Higher Ed )  By Elizabeth Redden — As state spending for public universities goes down, international student enrollment goes up. A newly published working paper seeks to quantify this relationship, estimating that for the period between 1996 and 2012, a 10 percent reduction in state appropriations was associated with a 12 percent increase in international […]

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South Korea’s Testing Fixation

(The Atlantic)  By Anna Diamond — On Thursday in South Korea, hundreds of thousands of high-school seniors sat down to take the Suneung, or the College Scholastic Ability Test. As students walked to the exam centers, well-wishers handed out “yut”—a type of taffy and a sign of good luck, so that test-takers would “stick” to the […]

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Financial Aid Changes Ahead

(US News) By Farran Powell — With new federal financial aid changes in effect this year, colleges and universities are altering the way award letters are now handled. The change for the 2017-2018 school year comes after the Obama administration switched the tax year needed for filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly called the FAFSA, the […]

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5 Things College Applicants Can Do to Stand Out – in a Good Way

(US News) By Katherine Hobson An academic passion, initiative and a proven interest in a college are key to getting your foot in the door – and they’re only some of the attributes admissions officers are looking for in their ever more competitive applicant pools. Sixty-four percent of colleges and universities surveyed by the National Association for […]

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