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We love student questions! Yvonne wrote in concerned that she doesn’t have enough rigor in her high school schedule, and wanted to know what to do about it. Megan walks us through how to think about “rigor” in high school, and gives some recommendations to Yvonne for what to do next.

Here’s her exact question:

My name is Yvonne and I love your podcast. I truly find it very educational, insightful, and most importantly, entertaining. I really appreciate your efforts. 

As I’ve researched  and learned more about the college admissions process, a subject that’s not talked about a lot in your podcast and that’s vague in many college admissions websites is course rigor. I know AP/IB and honors classes are considered rigorous, but how many of these rigorous classes should I take to be competitive in the top 100 schools?

 I’m planning to apply EA to many schools in order to meet priority deadline for their most prestigious merit scholarships, so when I get my applications in, my transcript will only show the 3 AP and 2 Honors classes over I’ve taken over my high school career, not including the 3 AP classes I’m taking senior year. As I understand, this is on the lower side for competitive universities.

My school offers a lot APs in various subjects and Honors classes in math, but I’ve chosen not to take a lot of APs my sophomore and junior year to make room for foreign language and choir. I didn’t take the honors math classes because I plan to major in something related to humanities. 

I’m worried my rigor will be seen as uncompetitive and be counted against me in the admissions process. After all, I haven’t taken the most rigorous classes available to me at my school as most highly selective universities and merit scholarship committees prefer their applicants to have done. 

What can I do to make up for this low rigor? Can great extracurriculars make up for it? 

Thank you very much,

your friendly neighborhood stressed high school student 

The post 437: How & Whether to Build More Rigor Into Your High School Schedule appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

Gretchen’s former client Tatiana had a bumpy transition into college and quickly dropped out. Tune in to hear her tell her own story and learn how she went from despair to elation, eventually transferring to her dream university.

This episode first aired on September 30, 2019 as episode # 284.

The post 436: How a Student With F’s and ADHD Got Into Her Dream School (from the Archives) appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

Megan and Gretchen catch up, sharing stories about their epic adventures this summer– including international travel, new experiences, and family updates.

They also look ahead to what exciting things are coming for the fall. Gretchen has big plans for the next couple years in her business. Megan is getting ready to start another season of SAT and ACT preparation with students.

The post 435: Megan & Gretchen Review Their Summer and Plans for Fall appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

August means back to school for many students. Even if you don’t return to school until September, there are some planning issues you may want to work through now. Gretchen shares what she considers key issues for academic planning in the month of August.

On the college admission side of things, August signifies the start of application season. High school seniors can begin submitting applications this month. Juniors should take time to plan for standardized admissions tests like the SAT / ACT / PSAT.

The post 434: This Month in August– College Planning & Academic Issues appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

Over the years, Megan has tried a lot of approaches to helping students choose careers and college majors, but she still doesn’t feel there is an ideal approach. In this summer episode, she and Gretchen outline what they do know about how to help students reflect about future careers, and where they still feel off.

The post 433: I Wish I Knew How to Best Offer Career Counseling to Students appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

This summer Gretchen is unpacking 9 totally valid cognitive challenges that she wishes she’d known more about earlier in her career. Today we look at the limitations of selective attention and the constraints of mental effort and selective attention. To download the full list of nine barriers to student learning, go to www.gretchenwegner.com/challenges

The post 432: I Wish I Knew: How to Help Students Better Pay Attention to Attention appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

This summer Gretchen is unpacking 9 totally valid cognitive challenges that she wishes she’d known more about earlier in her career. Today we look at the ineffective learning strategies and students’ struggles to transfer learning. To download the full list of nine barriers to student learning, go to www.gretchenwegner.com/challenges.

The post 430: I Wish I Knew: How to Talk to Students About “Learning Transfer” appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.

When Megan started out working on college admissions, she had know idea how many parents are micromanaging their kids’ college experience. In this summer episode, she shares some stories about the lengths parents seem to go to shield their students from difficulty.

The post 429: How Many Parents Micromanage Their Kids’ Education?! appeared first on The College Prep Podcast.