community college course placement<\/h2>\n
okay, so you\u2019re planning to attend community college next year. first of all, that\u2019s great! good for you on continuing your education. yet even before your first class, retaking the sat can save you some huge headaches down the road.<\/p>\n
here\u2019s the problem:<\/strong> community colleges are open to everybody (as they should be), but course placement is a minefield. most community colleges rely on two pieces of testing software (accuplacer and compass) to place students without sat\/act scores into english and math courses. despite these tests having a massive impact on students\u2019 success in community college, few community colleges relay the importance of these tests to incoming students needing placement. this results in a large percentage of students being placed into classes below (and sometimes above) their true ability level. frustrated students = students dropping out = bad outcome.<\/p>\n i don\u2019t want you going anywhere near accuplacer, compass, or any \u2018placement\u2019 test offered by your community college. fortunately, there is a fix.<\/p>\n here\u2019s the solution: <\/strong>the sat isn\u2019t a perfect test, either, but it\u2019s much more predictive of your english\/math potential than accuplacer\/compass\/whatever. if you know you\u2019re going to attend community college, go to the admissions department and ask about how sat scores play a role in placement. get a copy of whatever policies they have and break out the sat study guides. your community college may also have a study center where professors or tas offer tutoring sessions. it may or may not cost money, but it\u2019s something to look into, especially if you\u2019ve been out of high school for more than a few years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n okay, so you\u2019re in community college. you\u2019ve taken the sat and used your scores to place into math and english courses. everything\u2019s going well. now it\u2019s time to think about transferring to a four-year university.<\/p>\n now, for some of you, by retaking the sat for placement purposes, your scores may already be good enough to transfer. if that\u2019s the case, yay! you can go ahead and skip down to where i talk about scholarships.<\/p>\n but if your sat scores still need a little improvement, it\u2019s time to once again hit the books. don\u2019t start fretting just yet. remember, as a community college student, you\u2019re taking english and math courses. you\u2019re honing your sat skills by simply going to class. you may discover that you actually don\u2019t need too much test prep to increase your sat scores.<\/p>\n yet, as always, if you need to do a little studying, get to your campus\u2019 tutoring center asap!<\/p>\n congratulations, you got into a four-year university. yay! it costs (a lot) more money. boo!<\/p>\n it\u2019s time to look for scholarships.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n first of all, when it comes to financing a four-year college education, loans should be a last resort. if you\u2019re returning to college after many years out of school, there are scholarships out there just for you. if you\u2019re still young and started community college right after high school, it may be a bit tougher to find scholarships.<\/p>\n your odds of receiving scholarship money boil down to three things. here they are in order of importance:<\/p>\n![\"taking](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/magoosh-company-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/hs\/files\/2016\/07\/12124945\/giam-can-5-7876-1457667244.gif\")
transferring to a four-year university<\/h2>\n
scholarships<\/h2>\n
![\"taking](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/magoosh-company-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/hs\/files\/2016\/07\/12125337\/1svggxx_jdg-xwjbrjrcfcq.gif\")
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