For families who have high school age STUDENTS, Spring Break often means more college visits. 

For those families who feel lost in planning a college tour for Spring Break, here are some essential tips for visiting colleges this time of year.

1. Make sure the college is in session.

Just as this is a popular time for high school spring breaks, the same goes for colleges. It's always better to VISIT A COLLEGE when students are going to class and bustling around campus.

2. Reservations may be needed.

Sign up for a campus tour and information session at the very least. Online registration can be found on the admissions office's website.

3. Be prepared for large crowds.

The admissions offices will be even busier for families like yours.

4. Don't just visit "reach" colleges!

Many of these College track demonstrated interest and absolutely "count" if you visit. 

6. Take notes on every college you visit.

They start to run together after a few days on the road. The notes will help students as they narrow down their college list and WRITE SUPPLEMENTAL ESSAYS in the future.

7. Don't worry about interviews this early in the process.

Even if a college offers on-campus interviews (and many don't), students need a little more time to figure out what they want and how to present themselves in AN INTERVIEW SETTING..

8. Try to do one extra thing on campus before you leave.

Visiting the bookstore is a popular destination. But eating a meal, sitting in the middle of campus when classes are switching, or meeting up with a student you know who attends the school will give you more insight into whether the college will remain on the list.

9. Go as a family!

If mom, dad, or even younger siblings can come along, do it. You won't regret this time together. 

10. Just take it all in.

No need to ask a million questions during the information session or tour or plan out every last class you would take. This is usually the first of MANY VISITS TO A COLLEGE, especially if the student ends up applying. 

Rejection is a part of life. Everyone who has tasted success has also tasted rejection. This doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. Parents can be supportive by giving students the appropriate amount of time to take the difficult news, but they should also not let students sulk for any longer than needed.

For many teens, the worst part of rejection is telling peers they didn’t get in or where they are going (especially if others will question why someone of their caliber did not get into a ‘better’ school). When dealing with a rejection, it’s important to keep things in perspective and to not allow one or two letdowns to overshadow other successes.

If a student is dealing with a rejection, here’s what to do next:

• Allow time for mourning. It’s okay to take some time to feel disappointed. Students may need some space and time to process, so let them have it.
• But don’t dwell. While it’s okay to take some time to feel sad, students shouldn’t spend all their time sulking. After an appropriate amount of time has passed, remind him or her that it’s time to move on and focus on the institutions that did grant admission.
• Focus on where they did get in. Students should go back and look at past research, compare financial aid packages, and consider the factors that prompted them to apply in the first place in order to choose where they want to enroll. A student may have an idea of his or her “second” choice, but it’s still good to weigh all other offers of admission. After a rejection, a student’s feelings about the other institutions he or she applied to may have changed.
• Stay positive! As I said before, rejection is a part of life. If students planned ahead and applied to a wide range of schools, any of which they would be happy to attend, then they will be attending a great-fit college. Focus on the journey ahead and get excited about all the new opportunities come fall.

It’s June, which means that school is over for the summer! If it’s not yet, it will be very soon. Your FINAL YEAR of high school is closer than ever before. This is a big deal; it's time to get serious about college planning! As a soon-to-be senior, the rest of the summer is going to be an exciting time. It will also affect how hectic your fall is going to be. The more you prepare now, the better off you’ll be later.

College Planning Checklist for High School Juniors

While you’re enjoying the sunshine, make sure to keep college planning in mind with this June checklist for soon-to-be high school seniors:

1. Get Involved in Summer Activities, Volunteer

By now you know that, in addition to academic grades and test scores, college admissions officers also look at your extracurricular activities. Summer break is a great time to get involved in clubs, the community and local sports, to help show colleges you are active both inside and outside of the classroom. Volunteering is a great way to spend your free time and give back to the community. Not only will you feel great doing so, but it also looks impressive on your college applications, too. You chose to use your time wisely. If you're looking for a place to start volunteering, get in touch with local organizations in your area. You could also ask your school counselor for ideas. Finally, if you're still coming up short on ways to make an impact in your local community, use CollegeVine's suggestions for charities to get involved with.

2. Summer Savings

If you’re planning on working this summer, set up a summer savings plan, which allows you to start saving for college now. Many food providers and retailers are desperate for employees right now, and they're paying the highest wages we've ever seen. The earlier you start saving, the less you’ll need to borrow to cover college expenses later. It’s always best to avoid borrowing if you’re able, so determine the portion of your summer income you can save for the future and stick to it!

You could also really get ahead on your college planning by choosing to work (and continue to work) for an employer that provides tuition assistance. This college benefit is available to many part-time employees, and you can easily transfer between the franchise near your home and your eventual college campus.

3. Explore Potential Career Paths

If you’re unsure of what you’d like to study in college (as most students are), summertime is perfect for exploration! It’s not too early to start thinking about what you want to be when you grow up and to be sure the major you pick pays well too. Contact business professionals in fields you’re interested in to talk to them about their careers and volunteer with organizations or at events which share common interests as your potential career paths. This summer is all about discovering who you are and where your passions and career path may potentially meet.

4. Keep Up Your College Search

Your college search will only continue to ramp up as senior year begins, so any legwork you do now will give you an added advantage. Look at the summer as an opportunity to schedule in-person college visits and research schools online. Check sites like You Visit and Campus Tours to see if the college you're interested in offers a virtual tour. Finally, if you and your family haven't made a plan to pay for college, the time is now. Have conversations about what type of school you can afford before you start reviewing your final college choices.

5. Build Your a Brag Sheet

A student resume, or brag sheet, will detail your life outside of school, since any school you’ll be applying to will already be aware of what your grades and test scores are from your transcript. You can include items like your extracurricular activities, community or volunteer service, work experience as well as any honors, awards or recognition you’ve received. Showcase your unique ability to adapt—consider using your social media on your resume to highlight all the good you’re doing. Remember to be smart about it though!

6. Apply for Scholarships

As a general rule, applying for scholarships should always be on your to-do list! Check out this list of 10+ College Scholarships You Can Apply for Today. Summer is a great time to apply for scholarships. For many students, applying to scholarships is not first and foremost on their minds, and they let their applications slip. That means that there is less competition than during the school year. We recommend updating your Fastweb profile now so that you are maximizing your matching eligibility. Check your Scholarship Matches multiple times each week; we add new awards to our database daily. Finally, make a commitment to apply to 1-2 scholarships per week. You can start with our summer scholarship sweepstakes: the $1K Scholarship Success Sweepstakes. Enter daily to increase your chances of winning!

I offered my condolences to the father of a student turned down by their dream school. The father seemed to be taking the news in a calm, but disappointed, manner.

But his goodwill had its limits, which was clear when he talked about the letter his child had received. “The second half of this letter is absolute nonsense” he said. “It says, ‘You have a great deal to offer as a student, and we know your future will be bright.’ What is that all about? If he has so much to offer, then why didn’t they take him?”

Rejection letters are tricky things, to be sure, and it’s wise for colleges to offer as much support as possible when communicating a no. At the same time, these letters need to consider the cognitive domain of the reader as well as the affective domain. If all you have to offer is a hug after just saying no, that’s not going to confuse everyone—it’s going to anger them, which is what the colleges wanted to avoid in the first place.

What would have helped this rejection letter? Well:

Data Once a student is told they weren’t admitted, it’s pretty reasonable they’d like to know why. This is where a few basic numbers can be a college’s best friend. “We saw an increase of 14% in our applicant pool over last year, which meant we had to turn down many students who would have otherwise been admitted.” “The average high school GPA of our admitted students this year was a 3.7, a significant increase over past years.” Anything along these lines gives the student some idea as to where they stood, and why they landed where they did.

Institutional priorities Every college has its own quirks in the admissions decisions each year, and they aren’t always the same. A lack of engineering applicants increases the chances that students who wanted engineering are more likely to be admitted, while an increase in History majors means a smaller percentage of them are going to get a Yes. Some of these priorities are established at the start of the year, while others are shaped by the applicant pool. Either way, it’s not unreasonable to share them with applicants whose hopes have been dashed, since it provides context.

Encouragement to apply again This year’s applicant pool may be record setting, but that may not be the case next year. Following up a little bit of data with the suggestion they consider applying again, either as an incoming freshman or a transfer student, drives home the idea that the college really did think the student had possibilities. And with a big drop in high school seniors coming up, it’s not a bad idea to build next year’s applicant pool now.

That said, there is one thing that should never go into a rejection letter. Suggesting that the student wasn’t admitted because the college sensed the student didn’t align with the college’s mission or values statement is nothing short of insulting. Sure, oboe majors shouldn’t apply to engineering school. On the other hand, saying a student isn’t admissible because of some philosophical divergence is pretty cheeky. Would this student really not have been accepted if the applicant pool had dropped by 20 percent?

Although applicants have already done the “hard” part by compiling their submissions, sometimes waiting can feel like the most challenging component of the process.

While staying in limbo isn’t easy for anyone, there are a couple of steps students can take to ease their nerves and stay calm while awaiting results. Keep reading to learn how you can maintain a level head while looking out for admissions outcomes from your top choice schools.

Trust the Process

Students who have done their due diligence and applied to a balanced list of best-fit schools don’t have anything to worry about. While it’s natural to have your sights set on your top choice option, don’t forget that each school on your list has its own array of exciting opportunities. Instead of fixating on the most selective school on your list, get excited about the potential to attend any of the schools you have applied to. Remember that each institution has something to offer and trust that admissions officers will recognize and reward what you’re bringing to the table.

Focus on the Positives

It can be easy to dwell on the negatives surrounding the admissions process, but try to look at everything with a positive spin. Yes, it can feel scary to be unsure about your next steps, but it’s also exciting knowing that a major transition awaits. Wherever you ultimately choose to attend college will be an exciting opportunity for you to expand your horizons, deepen your knowledge of your current passions, and discover new interests and pursuits. Cherish these last few days before admissions outcomes are announced and strive to live in the moment as much as possible.

Reconnect With Your Passions

To avoid fixating entirely on college admissions results, reconnect with whatever brings you the most joy. Stop checking your email frantically and pick up a paintbrush, practice your soccer skills, or take an hour to reread part of your favorite book. Yes, the college admissions process is time-consuming and important, but it’s also essential to make time for activities that are entirely unrelated to it. Come back to your passions and give yourself a chance to unwind by doing what you love.

Reach Out to Friends

You’re not the only one awaiting admissions results; it’s likely that your friends are too. Share your feelings with your peers and offer to support each other during this challenging time. Connecting with peers, even if it’s just a group video call, can help take your mind off of upcoming admissions decisions and serve as an outlet when you need someone to talk to.

Give Yourself Time to Cope

Regardless of what kind of college admissions news you receive, anticipate that you will need time to take it all in. Acceptances, waitlists, and rejections all come with their own host of emotional responses and next steps to take. Understand that coping with these admissions outcomes is part of the growth process and trust that with time and support, you will be able to handle whatever admissions news comes your way.

The ALEKS is a placement test designed to measure a student’s understanding of advanced mathematics. Colleges and universities use it to ensure that a student is capable of carrying out the curriculum of designated advanced math courses. ALEKS exam practice ensures that you’ll get placed into the right classes.   

Unlike most other tests you’ve encountered in your academics, the ALEKS is not multiple-choice. This test is also adaptive, meaning that questions will scale in difficulty based on previous answers. Students are given 20-30 questions that are chosen depending on whether the previous answer was correct or incorrect. More difficult questions always follow a correct answer while the difficulty lessens after an incorrect answer. However, this also means that answers cannot be changed once submitted. 

The test is designed using a state-of-the-art interface that simulates manual writing, which is explained in the beginning. There’s even a tutorial to help you get a feel for it. 

Here are some key features of the ALEKS assessment test:

• Questions adapt to a student’s knowledge based on the way they answer each question. 
• No grade or raw score is given. Instead, the ALEKS is designed to identify areas where you might need some extra studies. 
• Students must solve problems using the interactive writing interface. There are no multiple choice questions. 
• There isn’t a time limit for taking the ALEKS.

ABOUT ALEKS MATH PLACEMENT TEST PRACTICE

When searching for the right ALEKS practice test, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available. However, not all practice tests are created equal. It’s important that you find ones that cover the necessary topics. 

Here are some of the topics that you should expect to find on an ALEKS math practice test. 

INTEGERS AND REAL NUMBERS

Real numbers are what we all use every day. However, you’ll also encounter integers on the practice test. Integers include both real numbers and negative numbers. 

POLYNOMIALS

This is the most basic math concept and it is guaranteed to show up in a practice test. In this type of equation, only basic math concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and real number based exponents are used. 

ORDER OF OPERATIONS

The order in which a math problem must be solved. Needless to say, this will be used to solve every question. The way most people remember this is PEDMAS:

1. Parenthesis
2. Exponents
3. Division
4. Multiplication
5. Addition
6. Subtraction

FRACTIONS, PERCENT, AND PROPORTIONS

You can expect to find the majority of questions on the ALEKS to be based on fractions. It’s just that some equations will be more difficult than others. Fractions, percentages, and proportions can be converted into each other. Expect to have everything on the test presented using one of these three conversions. 

ALGEBRAIC EXPRESSIONS

Algebra will be a standard type of question found on the practice exam. Students are expected to have the ability to solve basic algebraic expressions so be sure you brush up on these beforehand. 

EXPONENTS

This is another basic mathematical component that will show up in just about every test. An exponent tells you that a number must be multiplied by itself a specific number of times. 

LOGARITHMS

These are the opposite of exponents because they undo them, much like subtraction is the opposite of addition. Logarithms are found in more advanced questions on the ALEKS. 

EQUATIONS AND INEQUALITIES

Expect to find several questions using inequalities. These are just statements that use a symbol other than an equal sign. Compound inequalities might also show up, which are multiple inequalities in a single statement. Keep in mind that these questions might be presented in word form. 

LINEAR FUNCTIONS

Linear functions are always graphed in a straight line and contain both an independent variable, as well as a dependent variable. Expect these questions to show up as you get into more advanced areas. 

QUADRATIC FUNCTIONS

Intermediate algebra questions are found when you answer several questions correctly in a row. So be prepared to see quadratic functions on the ALEKS practice test. 

RADICAL EXPRESSIONS

Problems containing a radical expression will show up during ALEKS placement test practice. Be sure that you’re ready to tackle these tricky questions. 

GEOMETRY

Geometry is another core mathematical concept that is going to be found in a lot of problems on the ALEKS. Any questions that involve shapes fall under this category. 

PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS

Statistics is used to measure past events while probability uses that information to predict the likelihood of a specific future event. Both are mathematical concepts that will be found on the ALEKS practice test. 

COMPLEX NUMBERS

Complex numbers are created when real numbers are combined with imaginary ones. You’ll find these with more advanced problems on the ALEKS. 

TRIGONOMETRY

This advanced mathematical concept is designed to simplify certain equations and plays an essential role in a lot of career paths such as electronics and engineering. You’ll probably be presented with trigonometry at some point during the ALEKS.

HOW DO YOU PASS THE ALEKS TEST?

The ALEKS is infamous for the anxiety it creates. Fortunately, this anxiety can be held at bay with proper ALEKS math placement test practice. But remember that this test is supposed to be difficult since its sole purpose is to determine what level program you start in college math. 

In the end, your goal should be to view this test for exactly what it is – a tool used to optimize your placement in college. This saves you time and money in the long-term. 

With that said, you should study efficiently so that you are placed at the highest level possible. Here are some tips that you should follow:

#1: CHOOSE THE RIGHT STUDY RESOURCES

Taking an ALEKS practice test on a regular basis will ensure that you’re prepared for the real test but it’s not the only preparation you should make. You’ll need to find the appropriate study resources as well. I recommend that you start with the resources given to you by the college providing the placement test. They will point you in the right direction. 

#2: GET A HANDLE ON BASIC MATH

Having a solid foundation is an absolute must when taking the ALEKS test so be sure you dedicate some study time into brushing up on all of your basic math skills. Without this knowledge, you’ll have a tougher time tackling more advanced math concepts. Regular ALEKS placement test practice will help ensure you’re ready! 

#3: SOLVE A FEW PRACTICE PROBLEMS EVERY DAY

Make sure you solve some problems related to the specific area you studied for the day. This helps you memorize what you learned by putting it into practice. The absolute best way to learn math is through practice. 

#4: TAKE AN ALEKS PRACTICE TEST EVERY WEEK

Don’t skip this important step. Weighing your study progress will reveal your strengths and weaknesses. This ensures that you’re able to focus your future studies in the right areas. Additionally as stated earlier, putting your math skills into practice is the best way to learn essential skills.

 The ALEKS test is considered by most test-takers to be difficult due to its adaptive nature. It will push you to the limits so there will be a point in the test where you simply don’t have the knowledge to correctly answer the question. That’s a cause for stress for most people.

Just keep in mind that the ALEKS is designed to place you into the correct college curriculum. It’s supposed to push all of your limits.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Always keep in mind that the goal of the ALEKS is not centered on the concept of passing or failing, but to ensure that you are placed into the correct college math program. So don’t stress too much.