2024 Online Seminar Q & A - part 1

Today, I will be posting the Q&A from the online 2024 seminar.

More than 600 people participated in the 2024 online live seminar, and many questions were raised. However, we could only address eight of them. Therefore, I have planned today’s post to provide answers to all the questions that were asked without missing any.

My 11th-grade son is trying to decide which of the following three options would be the best to pursue during the summer break:

1. Math camp (Ross or Mathly)

2. Paid internship at Bank of America

3. Summer camp offered by the state (North Carolina Governor’s School)

Deciding on summer activities after 11th grade

Answer: This question is about what activities would be best for the summer between 11th and 12th grade.

Math Camp (Ross or Mathly)

Paid Internship at Bank of America

A summer camp run by the state, North Carolina Governor's School

The question was which of these three would be best. The level of difficulty for admission would be in the order of 1-3-2. However, as students have different stories, it depends on the student’s major and interests. Naturally, it is important that whatever activity the student chooses during the summer can be connected and expanded upon in the future. If the student is involved in many Math-related activities, such as running a math club, serving as president, or being involved in engineering or statistics, then Option 1 is recommended. Both Ross and Mathly are highly competitive camps and would be great activities. For Option 3, the summer camp run by the state, I understand that students can choose their program topic, so if there’s a subject that aligns with the student’s interests, this would also be a good choice. Personally, I recommend choosing either Option 1 or Option 3.

Is completing 150 volunteer hours over three years (about 50 hours per year at one organization) considered insufficient?

Is 50 hours of community service per year enough?

Answer: This was a question about whether 50 hours of community service per year is sufficient. To give a reference, there is the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. For those aged 16 and over, Bronze is awarded for over 100 hours, Silver for over 175 hours, and Gold for over 250 hours. For those aged 15 and under, Bronze is awarded for 50 hours, Silver for 75 hours, and Gold for over 100 hours. While receiving a presidential award should not necessarily be the goal, with 50 hours at age 15, it may not be considered a lot of time. While community service should be done from the heart, it’s not recommended to approach it with the goal of creating a significant "spike" in your profile. When planning community service, it’s important to decide whether:

You want to show that you've done some community service.

You want to connect it academically or extend your activities through the link between your community service and your studies.

If you are passionate about service, it is important to invest a lot of time, as it will show through the hours committed. If you are focusing on other extracurricular activities, then 50 hours of community service per year should suffice.

My child is in 10th grade and took the DSAT. Their practice test scores ranged from 1450 to 1540, but they are predicting that their actual test score will be lower. If they plan to apply to schools that require all scores, at what score should they consider canceling their DSAT score?

Cancelling the DSAT score

Answer: It depends on the student’s target score. If the goal is to score 1500 or above and the current score is in the 1400s, as mentioned in the question, cancel the score. This is because the student will aim for a score of 1500+ anyway.

However, if the target is around 1480 and the score feels like it will be above 1400, keeping it might be a better option, as the score could be around 1450. As it can be difficult to predict your score, if you think your score will be close to previous test results, it might be best to keep the score. However, if you think you made one or two more mistakes than usual in each module, cancelling might be a good idea. Rather than cancelling immediately, receiving the score first might be better, as seeing an upward trend in your test scores is a positive thing.

Would it be better to attend a high school that sends a lot of students to prestigious universities? Or would it be better to attend a local high school closer to home and prepare diligently, even if that school isn’t as well-known?

We live in Canada, and my child was accepted into the challenge program at a high school that sends many students to top U.S. universities, but the school is more than 40 minutes away from home.

Attending a school with a high college acceptance rate vs. a nearby school

Answer: This question asks whether it’s better to attend a high school with many prestigious college admissions or a school closer to home. In fact, in Canada, a commute of over 40 minutes can be quite long. However, U.S. universities rely heavily on high school legacies. If you ask me 10 times, I will tell you 10 times that it’s better to attend a high school that sends many students to prestigious universities. When looking at high school admissions to top universities in the U.S., schools with a strong history continue to send students to these universities, and it’s rare for a school to suddenly perform well compared to its historical results. It’s better to maintain a high ranking in a competitive high school.

Is it really a problem to take the SAT more than three times during the college admission process in the U.S.?

Is it bad to take the SAT more than three times?

My child took the SAT in March. If they are not confident about their score, is it better to cancel the score and retake the test?

Answer: This combines two questions: whether taking the SAT more than three times is bad, and whether it’s better to cancel the score if the result on the third attempt is unsatisfactory. I’ll answer both questions together. To address the second question first, if you lack confidence on the third attempt, cancelling it is not a bad option. If it’s your third test and you don’t feel good about it, I think cancelling is the right choice. As for the first question, as I have explained before, taking the SAT more than three times is not a big deal. While this depends on the situation, some of our academy students have taken the SAT five times and still got into Ivy League schools. Ultimately, it depends on how the university evaluates the student. Students can be divided into two categories:

Academically focused students – For students who participate in competitions and study alone, too many SAT attempts may not look good.

Students who build relationships with others – For these students, taking the SAT multiple times isn’t a problem. Taking the test multiple times can be fine because it doesn’t make them seem overly focused on academics. There is no fixed number of SAT attempts.

Which extracurricular activity is better: having many awards in a less popular sport or being part of a school varsity team?

Achievements in an unpopular sport vs. the school varsity team

Answer: The question is about whether it’s better to have many achievements in an unpopular sport or to be on the school varsity team. More important than choosing between the two is the duration of involvement. No matter the sport, if you have only been involved for 6 months to a year, universities won’t like it. If you have participated for a longer period, and if the sport has major competitions, such as state and national levels, achievements in an unpopular sport can be a good option. However, if it’s an unofficial sport or only recognized by specific organizations, it’s better to focus on being part of the varsity team for a long time. Rather than focusing too much on awards, consider the nature of the competition.

I’ve heard that it is harder to get into a good university if you attend a highly-ranked high school. Is this true?

Is it difficult to get into a good college from a highly ranked high school?

Answer: It depends on. To explain, I will show you a case study with blue representing highly ranked high schools and green representing lower-ranked high schools. For better understanding, I divided schools into four tiers. The top half is considered the top 25/50%, and the rest is the lower tier. The top 25% of highly ranked high schools tend to get into good universities. Students in the top few percent at lower-ranked high schools also get into some good universities. The challenge comes with the students in the second or third tiers of highly ranked schools. The general trend, shown by arrows in the results, is that a third-tier student at a highly ranked school may be equivalent to a first-tier student at a lower-ranked school. Students below the top 50% at highly ranked schools may have the same likelihood of getting into a good university as those above the top 50% at lower-ranked schools. Therefore, if you perform well, it is better to attend a highly ranked school. However, if you feel your GPA will drop below the top 50% at a highly ranked school, you may end up attending a lower-tier university than if you had attended a lower-ranked high school.

In the case of a high school that follows a deflationary grading system (not inflationary), if my child has a GPA of B but scores a 5 on the AP exam, would colleges consider the GPA lower because the school is known to grade more rigorously?

How will universities evaluate a GPA of B with a 5 on an AP Test?

Answer: If a student attends a school where grades are given out sparingly, and the student’s GPA is a B but they score a 5 on an AP test, will universities consider that this school is difficult to get good grades in? Top 30 universities may consider this, but top 20 universities may not, as most of their applicants will have AP scores of 4 or 5 and high GPAs regardless of the school's grading system. This is why some students from good magnet or specialty schools do not get into top universities.

If my child is not satisfied with their Algebra 2 grade from 8th grade, can they keep the credit but erase the grade?

Will admissions officers see this deletion of the Algebra 2 grade as a significant factor?

Should we go through the process of changing the grade during summer break, even though it’s from middle school?

Deleting an Algebra 2 grade from 8th grade

Answer: This question asks whether to delete a poor Algebra 2 grade from 8th grade. My answer is that there is no need to delete it unnecessarily. Universities only look at high school grades and extracurricular activities, so 8th-grade scores won’t matter. As long as it doesn’t affect the 9th-grade track, there’s no need to delete the grade.

Today, we took the time to answer the questions that couldn’t be addressed during the live online seminar. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us at A ONE Institute. We are happy to help. Thank you.