Questions for my Amerifriends...

[kellifer]

I swear these aren't for my SPN/HP story that I'm not writing because I have dozens of other things I should be writing.

*looks shifty*

So:

What age do you (approximately):-
- sit your SATs
- Apply for college
- Get accepted for college
- Are a senior in high school

I'm not really sure because in Australia people can be a year older/younger depending on when they started school and I also started thinking that maybe you guys get all your college stuff before you finish your senior year unlike us who apply after we get our results and then apply to Uni. I was always a little confused because it seemed like people had their college acceptances and were still going to classes?

ETA: Wow - you are all very awesome. I'm going to mem this as a reference for US school stuff because there is a *LOT* of info here.

Comments

[majrgenrl8.livejournal.com]

I make my living as an exam prep coordinator so, even though the people before me gave you great information, I just had to add a bit.

The absolute latest time you can take your SATs and still go to college right after high school is the January test.

The test isn't an entrance exam, rather it is a standardize way of comparing the students in all high schools. It tests you on how well you can take the SAT and nothing else. It's taken by students who want to go to college in coastal States or Ivy League Universities. Most inland schools ask applicants to take the ACT. The ACT is a more curriculum based test that contains a science section. You take it in the spring of your junior year or the fall of your senior year, just like the SAT. I often recommend the ACT to my students who are better at logic and not as great with vocabulary (as it does not have sentence completions and has significantly fewer word problems).

You can get more info on the SAT here and more on the ACT here

[beatrice_otter]

But even though schools may prefer one test or another, many will accept either. I went to a college in Iowa, and applied to several other midwest schools, and they all accepted SATs. Which was good since, being from Oregon, there were only about two students in my class of 180 who took the ACTs. SATs I could take in my own highschool cafeteria; ACTs I'm pretty sure you had to go to Salem to take.