The Foreign Service Journal, December 2011

74 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT to see schools first, before applying. • Use virtual tour Web sites when you can’t visit. There was a time when few high school seniors visited colleges at all, and simply chose a college sight-unseen. Now, there are virtual tours and student reviews all over the Web, including on www.youtube.com, to help you get a real sense of the college envi- ronment when you aren’t able to visit. Of course, if anyone is pre- pared to live in a completely unfa- miliar place, it’s the Foreign Service student! • Continue to take the most advanced classes you can handle. If you are planning to apply to the most selective colleges, you need to take as many Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate class- es as you can manage and accept that stress is the price you pay for wanting to go to Harvard. But if you’re like most of the population, and won’t be applying to the Ivy League and other top-tier schools, relax and just do your best. There are plenty of fine colleges out there that will appreciate your As and Bs in, say, standard-level math courses as long as they see that you’ve taken a number of higher-level courses in history or English. • Start creating a resumé that lists all extracurricular activities, vol- unteer work, jobs and awards. J ANUARY -F EBRUARY • Plan dates for taking stan- dardized tests such as the SAT and ACT (see Testing Dates, p. 76). Allow enough time to take the SAT twice, as well as up to three SAT subject tests. Or you may decide that the ACT, not the SAT, is a better test for you. Try sample questions and tutorials from both tests online to learn about the dif- ferences. Most colleges accept scores from either test, and a growing num- ber of colleges do not require stan- dardized test scores at all. • Take a SAT or ACT prep course, if possible. These vary greatly, both in structure and in price — from a Saturday practice test series or an online course to working one- on-one with a tutor. If “live” sessions are unavailable where you live, the College Board, which administers the SAT test, offers a low-cost online course, as well as free online practice You also should check for special, even quirky scholarships offered by individual colleges. Continued on p. 78