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For years, high school juniors have had to decide on which standardized college admissions test to take. For some, the choice is made by their states. More than 25 states require either the SAT or ACT as a part of their state-wide testing requirements or as a requirement for graduation. For others, it’s a question of access; one test may be administered by their district while the other is not. Many students have the option of taking either exam, and may take practice exams for both tests to see on which one they get the higher score. The two tests have always been a little different. The SAT reading sections feature short paragraph readings while the ACT reading sections feature longer passages with more questions. The math sections differ as well. The SAT math section focuses more heavily on algebra, while the ACT exam features more geometry and trigonometry. The SAT requires students to work at a faster pace to complete all of the math questions than the ACT does. In 2024, the College Board changed the structure of the SAT. The test is now digital and adaptive. Students complete a set of basic questions for each of the three core tests and then, depending on how they do, are shifted to one of two advanced sections. Students that scored higher on the basic questions get the harder advanced section and can achieve higher SAT scores. According to the College Board, this allows students to take a much shorter exam with equal predictive ability. In 2025, ACT began to unroll their new, Enhanced ACT digital platform. This version features three core tests – English, Math and Reading, with two optional tests - Science and Writing. But while the digital SAT is empirically equivalent to the old SAT, the Enhanced ACT is fundamentally different from the legacy ACT exam. First, there are less questions (175 core questions vs 108 on the Enhanced ACT), but unlike the SAT where there is a predictive component, all students answer the same questions. The enhanced ACT test is longer than 108 questions, it’s actually 134 questions long. This is because each section has embedded field-test questions (FTs). These experimental questions do not count in the final scoring, instead they are being tested for future ACT exams. There are two very important implications because of the FT questions. The first is a matter of numbers. There are so few questions for the core sections that there is no margin of error. Miss a question, you drop by at least one point on the section score. In fact, there aren’t enough questions to allow certain scores at all. If you miss two questions on the English section of the Enhanced ACT, you score a 35 for the section. Miss one more question, and your score drops to a 33. It’s simply not possible to get a 34. Or a 30. In the Reading section, you can’t score a 33, a 27 or a 19 and in the optional Science section, you can’t get a 13. Because there is such a premium on correctly answering each question, Compass Education recommends the following strategy for taking the ACT exam: The takeaway for students opting for the ACT is clear: make sure that they are going into official exams with an airtight command of strategies and timing to avoid careless mistakes and excessive amounts of guessing. And plan on a retest or two as a safeguard against unlucky guessing. The second problem occurs when students guess, especially if they don’t have enough time to complete all of the questions on the exam. There are four passages in the Reading section, each with 9 questions. One of those passages is an FT and won’t count. If a student runs out of time and chooses to guess at one of the passage questions, and it’s the FT passage, they get a really good score for the section. If it’s one of the other passages and they spent their time on the FT passage, they get a much lower score. Hint for students taking the ACT – the FT passages in English, Reading or Science is never the first or last; the FT questions in the Math sections are never at the beginning or the end of the test. While both the SAT and ACT offer an optional Writing section, very few schools will look at it and only two schools require it. Most students elect not to take the section. The Science section, however, is unique to the ACT. Here’s were it gets confusing. A few schools (Boston University, Pomona and Georgetown) require it. A few other schools (Duke, Michigan State and the Rochester Institute of Technology) recommend students take it. And some schools (like Penn State or BYU) won’t even look at it if it’s included on the application. Just to complicate it further, some schools average Science into their ACT composite score and some do not. Some schools (like Swarthmore) insist that students who take the Science section include it on their applications, while other schools (like Kansas State) will look at the score only if it helps the students. Hint: Before taking the ACT Science section, go to each school’s website on your college list and see how they will use Science in your ACT score. As you can see, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the ACT exam, and just mentioned the SAT in passing. That’s not a slight to the College Board! But before students invest time studying for the ACT and taking hours of test prep, it’s important they know the dark side of the test. The ACT test has so many problems with variability, interpretation and scoring it’s hard to recommend it. I suggest to my students they take the SAT unless they feel much more comfortable with the ACT long-passage format and it translates to a noticeably better score on a practice test or two. I don’t recommend they take the Science test unless they have an overriding reason for doing so. SAT or ACT? The answer is clear. Take the SAT unless you have a strong rationale for taking the ACT instead.

The 2026/27 FAFSA is now open; on time for the first time in two years. While changes to the FAFSA aren’t as drastic as the major overhaul in 2024/25, there are several significant changes that families preparing for college should note. This year's changes focus on refining the application process and adjusting how certain assets and income are handled. The good news is the form is now open earlier and is intended to be more user-friendly. One significant improvement is the simplified process for creating a StudentAid.gov account, or FSA ID. Applicants with a Social Security number can now be verified instantly, removing the frustrating multi-day waiting period from previous cycles. Additionally, inviting contributors (parents or spouses) has been streamlined. Students no longer need personal details like Social Security numbers to send an invite; a simple email address and code will do. For the 2026/27 FAFSA, several asset exemptions are now in effect. The net worth of small, family-owned businesses (with 100 or fewer full-time employees), family farms where the family resides, and family-owned commercial fishing businesses will no longer be counted in the Student Aid Index (SAI) calculation. Family-owned primary residences have never been counted towards the index. On the negative side, foreign earned income will now be included in the SAI calculation. Two other note-worthy improvements should be mentioned: Students can now select up to 20 schools to send their FAFSA scores. This means that, for the large majority of students, they won’t need to go back and order the FAFSA be sent toeach school on their list that didn’t make the FAFSA 10-school limit. Also, it is now easier to use the IRS data tool; tax data can now be imported into the FAFSA in real time as you’re competing the application.

In most social circles, students planning to go to college are pushed to attend the most prestigious college or university that will admit them. Students spend hours pouring over school rankings like those presented each year by U.S. News & World Report. “Can I get into the #5 school over the #10 school?” becomes an existential question that keeps kids up at night. But what if you’re one of the 70% of college applicants planning a career that involves grad school? What to be a scientist and do research? You’ll need a PhD. What to go into the health fields? Almost all career choices where you’re actually treating patients require advanced degrees. All told, nearly 40% of undergraduates will continue on to a grad-school program after completing their college degrees. Prestigious colleges often come with huge price tags. If you’re not careful, you could end up with so much debt after graduation you can’t maintain a decent standard of living. As a high school junior looking at colleges, how do you game the system to get you through college and a graduate program? The single most important factor that you have control over is the cost of your college programs, especially at the undergraduate level. Even if your family has saved money for your education, it makes a lot more sense to reserve some of that money for your graduate program where you may be attracted to higher-priced schools by unique educational opportunities or employment considerations. At least for your undergraduate degree, you should be looking to create a list of value colleges. A “value college” is one that offers you a quality education at a reasonable cost. Note that “reasonable cost” is not the university’s published cost of attendance. That’s like the sticker price on a car – no one pays that! Instead, reasonable cost is based on the net price you’ll pay after grants and scholarships. You can get a ball-park estimate of the net price you may pay at any college by using their Net Price Calculator, which colleges are required to post these on their websites. This does not mean you are stuck in a public, state-school program (although many state and state-related schools offer very high quality educations)! It does mean that your college list should be heavy on schools where you’re most likely to get the highest merit aid awards to reduce your net cost of attendance, leveraging your good grades in high school to a great deal at college. As an example, a 4.0 weighted GPA may get you a spot on main campus at Penn State your freshman year, which will cost you $50,400 this September. You could use those same great grades to get a full tuition scholarship to Temple University, a savings of $24,368, for a net cost of $17,690. That’s $32,700 less than attending good old PSU! Multiply that by 4 years, and you’re saving over $130,000! Of course, not everyone achieves a 4.0 GPA, but merit scholarships can start to kick in at GPAs as low as an unweighted 2.7 at many private schools like Rider University, where a full-tuition, Presidential scholarship requires a GPA of only 3.5. So how about that graduate degree? Choosing a value college for your undergraduate degree gave you more financial flexibility when you chose your graduate program. If you decide you need to attend a more expensive graduate program because it offers you unique educational options or future job opportunities, you’re in a better position to afford the more-expensive graduate program. But if you’re like most people, you can still use the value college approach to creating your list of graduate programs. The first year of a Wharton MBA program will cost $120,960, including room and board. A similar MBA program at Pitt’s Katz School of Business will only cost you $49,444 if you live in Pennsylvania. How much of a boost will you get from Wharton (ranked #5 by Forbes) than you will from Katz (ranked #37)? Probably not more than the $140,000 extra you’ll pay for the Wharton MBA, especially if that $140K is financed. So what’s the sweet spot for maximizing merit scholarship awards? Most colleges use complicated algorithms to develop their class lists. The boxes where they give the highest scholarships can include several factors, including academics, extracurriculars and achievements. GPAs are the best tool to predict which schools might offer you the most merit aid, because the information is most accessible. GPAs are important statistics for colleges. They affect rankings and the ability to attract quality students. GPAs below average reduce average rankings; GPAs that are too much higher than average are great, but students that are overqualified for a school are less likely to actually matriculate. The sweet spot for schools is generally between the 60th and 80th percent of their applicants. To maximize your chances of getting financial aid, your school list should be heavy on schools where your GPA falls within this range. Many schools are now test optional, but SAT or ACT scores that support your GPA or better can also increase your chance of acceptance and scholarships. Sometimes, it’s not about the grades. If Luther College, which is very big on music, needs a French Horn player for their orchestra and you happen to have gone to States for French Horn, you’re likely to get an offer with a good amount of money. But, but, but – that USNWR top-school rating! Relax! Your chance of getting into a good grad school isn’t dependant on your school’s undergraduate ranking, it’s dependant on how well you did while you were at school. Wharton MBA students are as likely to come from Iowa State as they are from Carnegie Mellon, but they all have one thing in common: they excelled in their class work and made a name for themselves at school. When you take a step back and look at the big picture, a quality education at a reasonably priced “value school” will leave you in a position to enjoy a financially secure and productive future. Choosing value schools, based on net-price-calculators and appropriate GPA ranges, to build your list of colleges will give you the best chance of choosing between a number of schools that offered you a great education at a very reasonable price.