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Facebook Live Recap: Ask America's College Counselor (10.13.21)

As Early Decision & Early Action deadlines rapidly approach for seniors, my October Facebook Live Q&A brought out students and parents with questions on topics like test scores, financial aid and scholarships, college applications, and much more!

If you missed this session of Ask America's College Counselor, keep reading for a list of some of the questions I answered and to watch the full video.

SOME QUESTIONS YOU'LL SEE ME ANSWER: 
  • Are the University of California schools (except UC Merced) really “a reach for everybody” in-state?
  • I have a letter writer who has written me a four page letter of recommendation. Should I tell them to shorten its length?
  • How do colleges view students of multi-race? Are they counted into multiple categories, or into one separate category?
  • If a college lists optional questions, should you always answer those?
  • In order to be considered for merit-based aid/scholarships, will my parents need to submit the FAFSA and/or the CSS?
  • If applying Early Decision, will admissions officers look at first quarter senior year grades?
  • Is it okay to apply Early Action to all the schools on my list?
  • Do admissions officers read all ten activities?
  • Is the entire application read by the same admissions officer or is it split between different admissions officers?
  • Is it okay to not submit optional videos with your application?
  • Do you think that colleges will be looking at grades during COVID differently than in other years?
  • If I submit my applications separately to individual colleges, can I add self-reported ACT scores to some schools and delete for others?
  • Do colleges look at weighted or unweighted GPAs?
  • Will colleges consider that due to COVID many students were not able to do the extracurriculars they had planned?
  • Is there any indication if there will be test-optional admissions for the class of 2023?


    (Note: If you're unable to view the video below, click here to watch!)