How To Handle College Admissions During The Coronavirus Pandemic
By Duc Luu
(Founder and Admissions Consultant of The Edge Learning Center)
Given the current worldwide lockdown, I’ve been asked about what steps I think need to be taken to mitigate COVID-19’s impact on the college admissions process. Let me give you a checklist and themes to consider:
GPA
Some high schools are moving to pass/fail to not penalize students during this difficult time. Keep track of what would have been your grade so that you can either self report or ask your high school counselor to report on your teacher’s behalf.
SAT/ACT/AP
With the cancellation of the SAT/ACT/AP until further notice, you should continue to study for those exams as if they were going to resume in the summer or fall, and concentrate on improving your GPA since that will get even higher weighting as the academic portion of your application.
Extracurricular Activities
ECAs are being canceled since schools are not in physical session. Last and this semester is dead, but the summer may be salvageable. Search and plan to upskill yourself in your ECAs through community organizations, summer programs, etc.
Summer Activities
In the likelihood that summer programs are canceled, look for online replacements for your summer programs. Were you planning on learning a skill or course at Harvard or UCLA summer school? Do they have a summer alternative? Do other programs have an alternative? Go hunting and welcome to online learning!
Online Learning
Yes, its here. It’s been here for a while. At The Edge, we installed our online system The Edge Prep a couple years ago to facilitate our courses online. Right now all our students are learning on that system during the Hong Kong/China quarantines. I’m grateful that we planned ahead. You should too! Are there AP courses you planned to take in the fall that you could pre-study online? Are there test prep courses (at The Edge!) that you can take online rather than going to a physical center? Are there sports training apps or online courses you can take to improve your skill set within the safety of your home? Enroll now!
College Application Season & College Essays
Since we expect to lose some GPA semesters and ECA activities in our college profile by fall, we should expect that college will need to de-weight those and weight more heavily towards other factors such as college essays and possibly interviews. So its time to sharpen up your essay writing skills and collect your life stories to make sure you’re ready to share the real you! Also, you may want to avoid the “My Life under COVID” as a main essay as I’m sure we’re going to have a TON of those essays!
Need more advice? Contact us for an Initial Meeting!
For current IB students, please visit the IBO website for the latest updates on the IB Exams arrangement.
About The Edge
The Edge Learning Center is Hong Kong’s premier Test Preparation, Academic Tutoring, and Admissions Consulting services provider. Founded in 2008, The Edge has helped thousands of students improve their ACT and SAT scores as well as their IB and AP grades. The AC team has just finished off another successful period in which students gained acceptance to schools such as Columbia, Yale, UChicago, UPenn, Oxford, and more! Check out our latest Admissions Results!
