The College Board’s announcement of their SAT Adversity Score expansion last month prompted a flurry of discussion surrounding its merits and/or deficiencies. There are certainly many factors that...
SAT Adversity Score
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The Compass Academics Blog
Resources Designed for Academic Growth
College (Con)petition: Scandals, Fraud, and Deception
Where there is competition, there will always be players looking to gain an unfair advantage. If the recent Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal taught us anything, it is that people...
College Admissions Consultants
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The end justifies the means. Greed is good. Any of these famous quotes can be used to rationalize paying and charging ridiculous sums of money to gain an...
Guidance Counselor Crisis
The American School Counselor Association recommends a student-to-school counselor ratio of 250:1. The national average is more than twice that at 482:1. Of course, when you consider that these...
Power of the Yield Protection Myth
To paraphrase Nietzsche: Humans can tolerate suffering, but humans can't tolerate meaningless suffering. There is no doubt that many students are suffering right now with news of rejection from...
On the Subject of SAT Subject Tests
I recently gave a presentation for parents of HS Sophomores and Juniors and the subject of SAT subject tests came up. Compass Academics is based in St. Louis and many of our local clients are not...
Diversity Diversion?
In a recent article, “When Colleges Seek Diversity Through Photoshop,” InsideHigherEd.com exposes the lengths to which schools will go to appear to be more inclusive than they actually are. Scott...
Admissions Demystified
What Does it Take to Get into College? Each year, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) publishes their industry report: “State of College Admissions.” This is a...
Activism and Academia
The Political Campus The recent mid-term election further illuminated the political spectrum of our country and college-aged voters turned out in record numbers. With the highest turnout in 25...
Students for Sale
How much are applicants worth? In the world of Big Data and ever-increasing competition, universities are target-marketing to potential students like never before. What used to be a seasonal...