College Preparation
Guiding Students and Families Through the College Application Process…
Our college counseling team includes advisors, teachers, the Academic Dean, and the Head of School, and works closely with students throughout the college application process. As a longtime college preparatory school, the Cascadilla School prepares students for all sorts of colleges and universities and is committed to closely assisting and guiding students and their families through the college admissions process. Cascadilla School’s college acceptance record is excellent. As soon as a student enters Cascadilla, our advisors and teachers help choose an appropriately challenging class schedule and give advice on pursuing extracurricular activities and taking standardized tests. As these are important parts of a Cascadilla student’s life, they are likely to become key components in their eventual application to college.
The Cascadilla School is particularly well-suited to help international students apply successfully to an American college or university. In addition to preparing students for the Test of English as a Foreign Language Exam (TOEFL), Cascadilla’s English faculty gives all international students substantial individual assistance in assembling the necessary forms and letters needed to apply to college and successfully making online applications. The School’s library maintains a large collection of admissions catalogs for colleges and universities in the United States. Many useful resources for applying to college are also available nearby at Cornell University. In writing application essays, getting strong letters of recommendation, and having the opportunity to take AP courses, international students at Cascadilla have a significant advantage.
Letters of Recommendation
The art courses at Cascadilla are taught by practicing artists who bring their insight to their classes. Students can easily explore their artistic ideas and themes with the close individual attention common to many Cascadilla classes. Our students who wish to pursue the arts in college have enrolled at such institutions as the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television at the Tisch School of the Arts (New York University), the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
College Application Essay
The School’s faculty work closely with each student coaching and inspiring them as they write—and rewrite—their all-important college application essay. The faculty will work one-on-one to help students discover their life stories and ambitions and then write effectively about them.
Advanced Placement (AP®) Courses
The School’s faculty work closely with each student coaching and inspiring them as they write—and rewrite—their all-important college application essay. The faculty will work one-on-one to help students discover their life stories and ambitions and then write effectively about them.
Cascadilla and College: Tools and Information
Standardized tests like the ACT exam provide opportunities for a student to demonstrate reasoning abilities or mastery of a specific subject and are standard credentials used by many colleges and universities to help them make their admissions decisions.
ACT
The ACT (originally known as the “American College Test”) is a three-hour standardized test plus a 30-minute optional essay that, like the SAT, assesses critical reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning ability. The standardized test consists of four multiple-choice section in English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. The ACT is preferred by many Midwestern and some Western colleges and universities in the U.S. as a required test for admission. Since some students perform better on the ACT than on the SAT, Cascadilla counselors may recommend that some students take both the ACT and SAT in order to give them more options when submitting scores to the colleges and universities to which they are applying.
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
The TOEFL Exam tests a student’s ability to read, write, speak, and understand Standard American English and is regularly required for non-active speakers for admission to U.S. colleges and universities. The TOEFL Exam is given by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the Ithaca, New York area — in Syracuse and Rochester, New York — about twelve times a year and may be taken two or more times.
SAT Subject Tests
The SAT Subject Tests are one-hour multiple-choice tests on specific subjects in about 20 different subjects and are scored like the SAT on a scale of 200-800. The most competitive colleges in the U.S. may require prospective students to take an SAT Subject Test. The Subject Tests may be taken any high school year, on dates determined by the College Board, but it is more appropriate to take a Subject Test when the student has just completed a course in the corresponding subject.
The current list of SAT Subject Tests:
- Literature
- U.S. History
- World History
- Mathematics, Level 1 & 2
- Biology-E (Ecology) & Biology-M (Molecular)
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Chinese with Listening
- French & French with Listening
- German & German with Listening
- Spanish & Spanish with Listening
- Modern Hebrew
- Italian
- Latin
- Japanese with Listening
- Korean with Listening
SAT Preparation Courses
Because standardized tests like the SAT play a significant role in the admissions process at many colleges and universities, we want to make sure that Cascadilla students are aware of and use online SAT preparation courses such as Kaplan SAT Prep. Whether or not students take an online SAT preparation course, we strongly urge all students to take their standardized test preparation seriously. Cascadilla teachers are always available to assist students in preparing for these tests.
Juniors (11th year) can take the ACT as early as April (or June) of their junior year.
Seniors (12th year) can take the ACT on three possible dates in the fall of their senior year.
The Cascadilla School’s high school code is 332530.
Standardized tests like the SAT Exam provide opportunities for students to demonstrate reasoning abilities or mastery of a specific subject and are standard credentials used by many colleges and universities to help make their admissions decisions.
The SAT is a three-part test lasting three hours and 45-mintues that assess critical reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning ability. Each part of the SAT is scored on a scale of 200-800. It is administered by the College Board seven times a year in the U.S. and is required or accepted by many colleges and universities in the U.S. for admission.
Juniors (11th year) should take the SAT in January or May of their junior year.
Seniors (12th year) should take the SAT in October of their senior year. The December and January exam dates during the senior year can be then used as extra “fail-safe” dates in case a student needs or wants to take the test at the end of the college admissions process.
The Cascadilla School’s high school code is 332530.
Cascadilla’s English teachers and College Counseling staff closely monitor each student’s progress in English and will recommend when and how many times a student should take the TOEFL Exam.
In October, all juniors (11th year) take the PSAT which assess critical reading, writing, and math. Each part of the PSAT is scored on a scale of 20-80. Taking this test provides practice in test-taking and is a diagnostic tool to better understand a student’s testing pattern. Many merit scholarship programs, especially the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, use the PSAT administered in October of their junior year. All students taking the PSAT are registered by their schools.
SAT
Test Center is Ithaca High School; Test Center Code is 33517
- August 28, 2021
- October 2, 2021
- November 6, 2021
- December 4, 2021
- March 12, 2022
- May 7, 2022
- June 4, 2022
View SAT Administration Dates and Deadlines here.
ACT
Test Center is Ithaca High School; Test Center Code is 182100
- September 11, 2021
- October 23, 2021
- December 11, 2021
- February 12, 2022
- April 2, 2022
- June 11, 2022
- July 16, 2022
View ACT Registration Dates and Deadlines here.
PSAT/NMSQT
Students are registered by the PSAT by the Cascadilla School.
- October 13, 2021
- October 16, 2021
- October 26, 2021
AP Exams
All AP Exams will be administered at the Cascadilla School.
- May 2-6 and May 9-13, 2022
View AP Exam dates here.