Latest University News and 20 Free Admissions Essay Tips + Video

Latest University News and 20 Free Admissions Essay Tips + Video, & Bridge to Pre-Calculus Open Class!

ACT/SAT selective test

List of the most complete schools

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According to the latest statistics of the higher education examination policy, more than half of the four-year colleges and universities in the United States will no longer stipulate the requirements for the ACT/SAT examination in the fall 2021 application, but will change to the test-Optional.

A concept should be emphasized here: Test-Optional does not mean that the school does not accept ACT/SAT test scores . The school only changed the ACT/SAT test scores to selective application materials, and there will be no penalty for students who submit materials .

According to the latest data from FairTest (US Fair and Open Testing Center), 85% of the top 100 liberal arts colleges in US News use ACT/SAT scores as selective application materials.

Let's take a look at the changes in the policies of the Ivy League University and the University of California on ACT/SAT test scores.

Ivy League

*All 8 Ivy League colleges and universities announced that applicants can optionally submit ACT/SAT scores

Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Harvard College
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Princeton University

California Universities

The schools that allow selective submission of ACT/SAT scores are as follows:

For more about the school's requirement for ACT/SAT scores as optional application materials, please pay attention to the 7EDU Impact Academy public account and reply to the "list" to get a complete list of 540+ schools! (WeChat Only)

Changing Policies - How Should Applicants Respond?

Faced with changes in exam policies, the most frequently asked question about 7EDU recently is:

Is it necessary to take the ACT/SAT?

7EDU replies: We still encourage every child to take the ACT/SAT test! Test-optional does not equal Test-blind, and good scores communicate nationally prestigious academic competence.

Cornell University said at the end of April this year that although ACT/SAT scores are no longer mandatory application materials, the school expects that many children who have the opportunity to take the exam will still submit ACT/SAT scores, and the school will still carefully evaluate the results of these applications.

In other words, the the schools still care about your test score. Even though the ACT/SAT score is no longer a mandatory requirement, the students who took the test, earned scores in the national upper percentile ranges, and submit those scores along with the rest of their application will have an additional certificate to prove their ability.

Applying to university is notoriously a very competitive process. Every student wants to demonstrate their abilities, personality, and potential as best they can through the limited options on their applications. Thus, scoring high on exams (AP, ACT, SAT) & constructing powerful, high quality & genuinely inspiring admissions essays are two tremendous extracurricular factors within your control that admissions officers will undoubtedly pay attention to when reviewing your application.

Image from Grammarly, copyright belongs to the original author

In addition to not giving up for the beautiful ACT/SAT test scores, there are also college application documents .

Due to the epidemic situation this year, the documents will be more important than in previous years. If the importance of documents in previous years accounted for 50%, then this year, after the standardized tests are no longer required, the documents will be more important than ever .

There is an idiom in China called "seeing words like face, 见字如面", which means "to see one's words is to see them, 看到你的字，就如同见到你的人".

Thousands of years have passed, and in modern society, "seeing the person behind the words" still plays an important role in our lives. Every year, each school's admissions department uses a single collection of application documents to understand each child's characteristics, strengths, and goals.

Seeing the document is like seeing the applicant.

看到你的字，就如同见到你的人

Especially as the ACT/SAT score is no longer a mandatory requirement, there will be more applicants without test scores & only high quality essays, and thus the content of the application essay has become a key channel for the admissions department to recognize and evaluate students!

7EDU Impact Academy will be hosting a College Application Essay Workshop on July 10 & 17 with one of our most prestigious educators, Dr. John Niemann. His course is designed to help students pinpoint the content necessary to genuinely improve one's college application quality and share the essentials of great essay writing, from personalized engaging hooks (authentically) & topics, to using an effective combination of rhetorical appeals (Logos, Pathos, Ethos), to constructing an honest & captivating introduction and conclusion & much, much more. Through your admissions essay(s), Dr. Niemann explains that the insights about the student's sincerity, competence, goals, and community-orientation gained after reading the essay is key to winning over the admissions officers.

During the Workshop, 7EDU students will also study case trials of students whose real papers helped get them successfully admitted to their top universities and will learn to craft their own professional vision for the future & self-narrative that will empower their academic decisions & professional careers for the rest of their lives.

Last Saturday (June 20th), we hosted the introductory course online

45 minutes free online trial public lecture!

Over these 45 minutes, Dr. Niemann answers how to construct high quality applications this year, how to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls, and how to incorporate one's personal vision and experiences into sincere, persuasive writing. He also hosts a brilliant Q&A session at the end. Be sure to check it out to see if Dr. Niemann's class is for you!

Learn more & sign up for Dr. Niemann’s Class here: https://www.7edu.org/college-app-essay-workshop

For more additional resources on Essay Writing, we will be releasing more of our best prompt analyses, resources & relevant statistics for College essays and admissions over the month of July in our blog Make sure to follow for all the latest! Here is a small list of notes taken by a 7EDU Team Member during Dr. Niemann's Open Class.

Think critically who your audience is (the admissions officers, the university culture, etc.)
Avoid persuasive gimmicks
Take ownership of your essay - hold yourself accountable for this as if your life depends on it - because it does.
Evaluate every piece of feedback by your own standards & goals
Be careful with Pathos – Avoid using generic terms like PASSION
Develop a professional vision of yourself at the university community
Begin to develop your personal, professional narrative that will follow you for the rest of your life. You will continue to build this story for many steps in your professional career (i.e. cover letters, grad school applications, job interviews, etc.)
There is a general way of universal rhetorical appeal. See if you can identify it or the lack of it.
Incorporate a sense of community in your essay.
Learn to use rhetoric as a TOOL for communicating sincerity. Colorfully persuasive essays with a lot of big talk & little conscientiousness are red flags for admissions officers.
Avoid “I am/will/have ___” – Don’t tell, show them. Demonstrate your meaning of success.
Begin to define what “success” and “failure” means to you personally
Identify yourself as a part of the university, the department, and the community & how your presence will bring a strong contribution.
Be wary of corrupt admissions committees
Think of a significant success (non-academic)
Think of a significant failure (non-academic)
Plan for your future experiences & envision the narrative that will follow
Striving & Manifesting > Comparing & Competing
If speaking in/using cliches, acknowledge & address the elephant in the room, do NOT avoid it.
Understand that this essay is not just for admission to college - this is a narrative that you will continue to build for the rest of your academic & professional life. By using rhetorical appeal as a tool, you will continue to build your personal narrative for the next advancement steps in life, whether that's having discussions in class or with friends about your career goals & your beginnings, maintaining an acknowledgement of your background, your privileges & biases, and your ultimate goals when working on any academic or professional documents, projects, applications or assignments. This is the beginning of your life's professional story - envision who and where you want to be, what you want to be doing, and how you'll get there - to start crafting the future the way that you want it!

By the way, we have another online workshop for our Bridge Class from Algebra 2 to Pre-Calculus.

This Friday evening - Live Preview Class on How to Best Prepare for Calculus will be hosted online via Zoom by 7EDU Impact Academy's Dr. Yan Liu. - Zoom Meeting 6/26/2020 at 6:00pm PDT | 9:00PM EDT🤓

Pre-Calculus is usually taken after algebra 2 and considered as one of the most challenging high school math courses, even arguably harder than calculus for some. Pre-Calculus, a combination of trigonometry and math analysis, bridges a very important gap to calculus, yet unfortunately, students tend to be overwhelmed by a potpourri of concepts covered in their Pre-Calculus class.

To help students become better prepared and transitioned from algebra 2 to Pre-Calculus, we will be offering an Algebra 2 to Pre-Calculus Bridge class with a total of 12 hours. During the class, we will review and preview - key overlapping concepts between algebra 2 and precalculus, particularly functions and graphs, - polynomial and rational functions, - exponential and logarithmic functions, and trigonometric functions.