COllege Admissions News and ACT / SAT Strategy

The short answer is this: it’s okay to discuss religion in your essay as long as the take-away (or values) promoted in the essay are universal. Here’s what I mean:

1. Don’t write about the school's size, location, reputation or the weather.

Why? Because that's what half of America is writing about. Take a hint from Emory University, whose “Why us” essay used to read:

Unfortunately, not all high school AP programs are created equal. Even though colleges put your AP exams in the context of how many were offered at your school, there are major tuition savings to be had from doing well on more AP exams. If you find yourself wanting to take an AP exam that your school does not offer, here is how you can ace the exams on your own:

Pick Your Textbook

This is an important decision as it will form the basis of your self-study journey, especially for exams that have recently gotten a facelift from the CollegeBoard. For such exams, like AP Biology in the 2012-2013 school year, you will want to Google “SUBJECT NAME textbook correlations”.

For most redesigned exam, the CollegeBoard collects correlation assessments from textbook publishers to ensure that their books align with the exam frameworks.  This is usually the ideal way to pick the best textbook.

If a comprehensive correlations document is not available, then you can look for the “SUBJECT NAME example textbook list”, which is more commonly available. Get the latest edition whenever possible and if you can’t decide, just go with whichever one you think has the most reputable publisher behind it.

Either way, do not spend too much time obsessing over the textbook you use – the important thing is how you will use it. 

This is a guest post by Joel Butterly, CEO of inGenius prep.

In part one of this two-part post, I referenced five ways to differentiate yourself in preparation for applying to college. 

The first five tips were:

1. Do what you love
2. Distinguish yourself at school
3. Distinguish yourself in your community
4. Get a job or an internship
5. Do some independent research