Raising an ACT score from 25 to 31 earned one student a $112,000 merit scholarship

Step by step

1. Give each year of high school one job ▶1:30

   Jenn Curtis gives each grade one word. 9th grade is exploration, 10th is preparation, 11th is implementation, and 12th is application. In 9th grade, she wants students to try new activities and build habits. They should say hello to teachers, set a goal to raise a hand in class, and look back on their own progress halfway through the year. She says these habits teach students to speak up for themselves, which they will need in college and at work. She also urges parents to let teens fail and to stay out of their emails to teachers.

2. Read for pleasure early and skip freshman test prep ▶30:50

   Neither Curtis nor Nick wants any test prep in freshman year. Nick says the best early step is reading for pleasure, and that it does not matter what the student reads. He describes a study his firm ran in 2019 of more than a thousand students. A teacher on staff had a hunch, so reading for pleasure was added to the survey. Nick says it turned up as a predictor of score gains, not just high scores. His view is that readers pick up critical reading skills, and he calls critical reading the toughest section to raise.

3. In 10th grade, set the testing calendar ▶32:30

   Curtis wants sophomores to plan when they will test, without starting prep yet. Otherwise, she says, testing slides into fall of senior year, which is far too late. Nick suggests taking the PSAT and then a full-length mock ACT, since he does not think the pre-ACT is accurate enough. The goal is not to guess a final score. It is to see which test fits the student better. Then the family marks official test dates on the calendar. Nick says this means the student agreed to the plan months earlier, so there is less nagging later.

4. Make visits count for demonstrated interest ▶35:50

   Curtis says families should never just drop in on a campus. Every visit should be a scheduled information session and tour, so the college has a record that the student came. She says the same goes for college fairs: get your barcode scanned. Colleges care about yield, meaning whether admitted students say yes. In the episode, a student a college has heard from is described as three times as likely to accept an offer as one who only sent in an application. Curtis also tells students to take notes on visits for later essays.

5. Choose real activities over expensive ones ▶38:20

   Curtis pushes back on two myths. First, she says a student does not need a sport to get into college. Second, she says paying $8,000 for a summer program on a famous campus does not carry the weight parents expect. She calls it a pay to play signal. A reader may compare it to a student who took a community college class, set up an internship and made contacts in the field. Clubs count only if something happens in them. As she puts it, "We are not putting the pizza eating club on your application."

6. Line up recommendation letters in junior year ▶43:20

   Curtis says letters come mostly from junior year teachers, so students should build those bonds from the start of 11th grade. She wants two teacher letters from core academic classes, ideally one in a STEM subject and one in the humanities or social science. Students should not ask two teachers from the same subject. She has students ask right after AP exams in junior year, because some public school teachers cap how many letters they write. She also notes that many colleges require a counselor letter, which surprises a lot of students.

7. Treat test scores and merit aid as the money question ▶51:40

   Nick tells the story of two best friends who both started with a 25 on the ACT. One prepped and scored a 31. Both got into Texas Christian University. Nick says the student without a score paid full sticker price, and the one with the 31 received $112,000. Curtis explains that merit aid is money a college offers because it wants the student to attend. She says it is mostly separate from financial need. That is why she builds college lists partly around schools that are friendly to merit aid, and why she starts money talks in junior year.

8. Keep the college list a size you can do well ▶62:30

   Curtis says students used to apply to about eight to 10 schools before COVID. Now she sees 10 to 15 as typical. She considers 10 to 12 ideal and says 15 to 20 and beyond becomes impossible to manage. Most schools ask for supplemental essays, which she calls the most underestimated part of the whole process. They come out when the Common App goes live on August 1st. She wants most of the list to be target schools, with a couple of reaches and several safeties, so students are not facing a string of no's.

9. Plan senior year backward from a hard stop ▶70:50

   Curtis has her students done by Thanksgiving, with a drop-dead deadline of December 15th. In a normal year, she says, the FAFSA and CSS Profile open October 1st and should be filed soon after. She explains that early action is not binding, while early decision is a contract to attend. She says early decision can be a poor fit for families who need to compare aid offers. During the wait for decisions, Nick suggests parents write their own acceptance letter to their student. Curtis suggests a talk that prepares teens for both joy and sorrow.