Author Archive: James Maroney

Spring of junior year is prime time for standardized testing.  Most students hope to get all of their testing done before the start of senior year.  In order to make the most of the time available, students should make a plan for how they are going to tackle the tests.  The tests aren’t offered every week – so a lack of planning can lead to a lot of stress. No one needs to add more stress to the college application process!  Doing a little research now can save you big headaches in the future.

As students look at the application requirements for various colleges, they may come across something known as the SAT IIs, or the SAT Subject Tests.  What are they? Do you need to take them? How do you sign up for them? All of this is information you want to know.

First, what are the SAT Subject Tests?  They are one hour, [...]

Recently, many students started to hear back from the schools that they applied to with either Early Decision or Early Action. For those of you who received good news, congratulations! Having an acceptance in the bag early is a huge relief.

But what about those of you with less exciting news? What are you supposed to do if you were deferred? What does that mean, and what steps should you take next?

If you were deferred from your first choice school, don’t be disheartened. There are many different factors that can play into this. A deferment means that they are still considering you in the regular applicant pool. Maybe they have a specific percentage of their incoming class that they want to take from early decisions, and you didn’t quite make that cut. Keep your chin up and move forward because you still have a [...]

In this episode James talks toBill Asermley, executive director and coach at the Northeast Baseball School.  Bill talks about baseball and softball recruiting at college as well as his own experiences leading then team at Yale.

Students who took the PSAT in October should have received an e-mail with instructions for how to set up a CollegeBoard account and access your scores. Once you have the scores, the real question is what to do next. How can this test help you prepare for future standardized testing? Most students plan to start taking the SAT in the spring of their junior year. The PSAT can be used as a tool that will help guide you on how to be fully prepared every time you take the test.

The way that the PSAT presents questions is the same as how you will see them on the SAT. So the score from the PSAT can give you a good indication of how you would do on the SAT if you were to take it right now. So if your score on the PSAT is lower [...]

In this episode James talks to Jeff Iserson, principle at NC3 and Co-founder of Stars by NC3 which provides career individual assistance and professional career coaching for college students.  Stars by NC3 gives students the training, tools and insights to maximize their chances of getting hired after college.

Online College Planning gives guidance and insight to make informed decisions to students academic future. They are active in developing new and innovative solutions to help families in the college planning process.

Taking the PSAT in early October often gets students and their families wondering what they should do next.  Often, students will start to see an influx of marketing and mailings from various colleges. It’s and exciting but also sometimes overwhelming time.  It’s important to make the most of it.

One thing that juniors should start to plan are college visits.  Some students may already have a very fleshed out list of what they want in a school, while others may feel like they don’t even know where to begin.  All of that is ok! Even if you feel that you have it all planned out, it never hurts to take a hard look at what you really want. There are so many different factors to finding the right college – it’s not all about where they fall [...]

Struggling with the all important college application essay?  In this episode James speaks to essay writing expert Meghean Gormley, director of essay writing at First Choice College and owner of Rough Draft Essays.

Topics include:

• What makes a good admission essay?
• How can students deal with writers block?
• The right number of drafts
• and more!

Online College Planning gives guidance and insight to make informed decisions to students academic future. They are active in developing new and innovative solutions to help families in the college planning process.