Fresh New Going to College Content - for the test-takers

Now that we have your attention, let's point out some of the stuff that you should already know about...but may not know about because, well, stuff changes so quickly.

1 - SATs and ACTs are increasingly less important. Want proof. 775 schools, per the folks at FairTest.org are now "test optional."

2 - Does this mean you should blow off the tests? Not necessarily. But you should take a look at whether your hit list of schools is covered here.

3 - Test optional means, well, just what it sounds like. Sure if you get high scores and think that'll help you stand out, by all means have them sent. If not, don't.

It's been widely reported that George W. Bush got an 1160 under the old scoring system. You can decide whether that's a predictor of success or impacted his ability to get into Yale.

An Interesting Twist from Texas: College, or a Car?

Fans of this blog know that we make a lot of comparisons between the process of car-shopping and that of picking, applying to, and ultimately deciding on which college or university makes sense for the student (and family).

We found a site from Texas -- Texas College Money -- that actually takes the whole thing a step further.

Click on the left hand button that says "Invest in College." For purpose of this comparison, we went with a good, affordable family car (Hyundai Elantra) vs. a good, quality, institution that's part of the UT System (in this case, UTEP).

Though it can be a lot more expensive to pay for college when compared to an automobile, they actually compare the value of the car 4 years later vs. the value of the degree.

Great way of looking at this whole comparison -- in ways that (maybe) the average family might relate to.

We're getting close to 100,000...

Wow. What a response from the U Sphere community to our contest with Brickfish and the JMC Academy in Australia.

We are inching closer and closer to 100,000. This is just from digital artists and those who want to study in Australia -- so those who are entering represent just a small slice of the U Sphere populace (SAT word). For instance, in the US alone, 2 million students will start college for the first time this fall.

So obviously we have just scratched the surface of those who want colleges to compete over them.

Anyway, you're probably wondering what's next. Ahoy, people, this is just the first of lots in store. It is only September after all.

And if you're NOT an art person, don't do photography, not an animator...well, there are schools out there as part of the U Sphere universe that are looking for you.

Hey, Check Out Our Re-Launched Blog

Today, we're pleased to relaunch our blog -- complete with a cool new template.

The flow of information should get more rapid, too -- in addition to the hundreds of facebook friends we've made and the thousands of visitors we've had over the summer, U Sphere is working on a few more super-secret things as part of our commitment to U -- the college-bound student, the parent of the college-bound student, and the university looking to find U.

We're also pretty pumped about a couple partnerships we'll be announcing in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned: and you can always send us a note if you want to weigh in on something.

Standardized Tests Less Reliable as Predictor; But Grades Still Matter - Study

Bob Schaeffer, Director of FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, shared something today that's important to note. (And, since his thoughts on the validity of standardized tests are always on the mark, we thought we'd pass it along.)

A study of students at the University of California campuses (done by a couple UC researchers) tells us that grades in high school are a more accurate predictor of collegiate performance than standardized tests.

You can link to the study here.

BTW, nearly 740 schools are now "test optional."