As college students prepare for their Freshman year and move into their dorms, here is a list of must-haves and tips for a successful transition: Whenever possible, order textbooks online (often...
Freshman Dorm Room Must-Haves
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The Compass Academics Blog
Resources Designed for Academic Growth
How Important is Volunteer Work?
With so many variables at play in the college admissions process, it is tempting to look for ways to gain an edge. For many students who feel trapped by average GPAs and test scores, and even for...
Get Paid to Wait: Virginia Tech’s Plan to Pay Students Not to Enroll
In much the same way as farmers are often paid not to farm in order to forestall and/or correct economic imbalances, it seems that Virginia Tech is taking a similar approach to mitigate the...
No Take Backs: When Colleges Rescind Admission
Many message boards and community forums dedicated to college admissions are filling up with student concerns about having an admission offer rescinded. These "reverse chance me" posts are...
SAT Adversity Score
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...
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...