Volume 1 | April x 2020
News & Updates
Dear GCSA Community,

We at Global College Search Associates (GCSA) hope you are all doing well in light of the COVID-19 situation. It's a difficult time to be going through the college and career search process so we have dedicated our regular communication to highlight:

  • What we are doing at GCSA to help our community;
  • Remind our GCSA Family about how we might assist them or others they know on an individual basis;
  • Give periodic update about the world of admissions as they occur.

Please feel free to share this information with others who might benefit from our work and this message.

Be well friends and family!

Dr. Bruce C. Neimeyer,
President and Founder
Global College Search Associates, LLC
Upcoming Events
FREE
Common Application College Essay Jump-Start Webinar (April 20,22,24)

To keep students moving on their college applications, GCSA implemented a free 3-day webinar to help students jump-start their Common Application general admissions essay. Click the link below to read more about this opportunity or to register. Feel free to share this with anyone you know who might be interested in this activity.

Online Virtual College Fair

Because so many college fairs were cancelled this spring, many students may not have had a chance to learn about all the college and universities that are out there. If you were one of those students, you are in luck! There is now a virtual college fair schedule for April 20th - 23rd, 2020.

There will be information sessions about FA, Scholarships, and individual college presentations. It is a wealth of information you can gather right from your home.

Admissions Updates
The College Board AP Updates
ONLINE COURSES TO HELP YOU PREPARE

For those of you who are preparing for the AP exams, The College Board is offering online courses where they will be covering the content that they are planning to add to the online exams coming up. Please click the link below go to their website and you will see courses based on the AP exam. These courses are on-demand so you can watch when you have the time. I believe these are important supplements to what you may or may not be receiving in your online courses but more importantly, they are made by the organization that will be deciding what is on the test which makes them all the more important to review. 

APRIL 8TH AP EXAM UPDATES & KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Multiple-choice is out. All questions will be free-response questions (FRQs)—mainly essays and short answers, with some speaking exercises for language exams.
  • Students can choose between May and June testing windows, but June is intended as a backup/make-up date. Note: if students have technical difficulties on the June date that prevent them from testing or submitting their answers, they WON'T be able to retake the exam. Exams will be administered at the same time worldwide.
  • Exams will be “open note/open book,” with anti-cheating tech systems in place.
  • Students with accommodations will still receive them. CB claims they will be automatically factored into the testing experience provided for the student.
  • CB is “working with partners to provide thousands of Chromebooks and tablets” to students who do not have computers if their schools cannot. Students need to reach out to CB before April 24 to request tech resources.
  • Many people have been curious about whether colleges will really offer credit for this year’s AP exams. In a webinar, Trevor Packer, Senior VP of the AP program, reassured counselors of CB’s conviction here. He noted that the majority of AP scores are sent to only about 200 schools and that colleges themselves are already grappling with college credit for their currently enrolled students and courses. The University of California system has also already announced it will accept this year’s AP exam scores for credit.
  • See CB’s FAQ for more info.

Our Takeaway: Most students should plan on testing in May. Because of the timing of each exam, students outside the time zones of the contiguous U.S. need to be ready to test at odd hours. We agree with CB’s confidence in colleges’ likelihood of giving credit for exams, if only because this is not a good year to rock the boat when it comes to generosity. 
Test Optional Schools!

Because of CORVID-19 many colleges and universities have eliminated or suspended the SAT|ACT requirement for next years applicants.

To read about these recent developments CLICK HERE

To learn more about test optional schools, please check out FAIRTEST.org
Service Spotlight
Is your student unsure of what they want
to do as a career in life?

Is this causing your college search t
o come to a complete halt?

Is it causing frustration in the family
around this whole process?

Many students have not received much guidance about what careers might line up well with their specific interests. Parents just don't know all the jobs that are out there. It's impossible to know where to look or how to do this unless you make it your full-time job and you already have one of those!

Some students just need to know where there strongest interests are so they can develop them and prepare themselves for a job of the future that isn't yet defined.

If this sounds like your situation, click below and schedule an I-Strong Interest inventory assessment and counseling session. It will create the foundation you need to move your college search process along.

FINANCIAL AID UPDATES
During this time of financial uncertainty families should consider not only their ability to afford a certain college or university but the financial health of those institutions and their ability to afford their students in the foreseeable future.

Forbes recently released a list of over 900 colleges and their measure of their financial stability. It's important that families make this a part of their vetting process while searching for a college or university.