The Writing Center of Princeton’s Coronavirus Update

A Message From Dr. Osborn

During the past few weeks, I’ve fielded many calls from parents and students who are concerned about their educational plans. Upcoming college applicants whose schools have switched to online instruction and who are now using a pass/fail system for grading are wondering how a pass is going to look on their high school transcripts when they apply to college in the fall. Parents are worried about how the recent changes will affect their student’s ability to continue developing the academic skills and confidence needed to succeed in school and when applying to college.

Certainly COVID-19 (also known as the coronavirus) has temporarily changed the high school and college admissions landscape. But that doesn’t mean that your efforts to succeed in school and as a college applicant have to stop.

Here’s what we are doing to keep you on track:

1. We are open and are here for you, and we will continue to work with you via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, Google docs, and phone until we can reconvene in person. (As many of you know, even before the coronavirus outbreak, we worked with many clients around the country using online videoconferencing platforms.)

2. If you are interested in SAT or ACT prep, we will email you official copies of the tests. Test prep sessions are then structured and conducted just as they are when you work with me in person. If you’d like to start prepping for either test call me.

3. The pandemic is unfortunate. However, the coronavirus outbreak does provide students with ample opportunities to build extracurricular profiles that will help them show the three cardinal qualities that college admissions officers are looking for in college applicants: leadership, initiative, and independence. If you would like to discuss these opportunities, please reach out to me so that we can start working right now to boost your college admissions chances through your extracurricular profile.

4. Finally, we are monitoring the changes in the testing and college admissions landscape and will continue to advise you through our monthly newsletter and our blog.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we’ll come through this stronger than before.

Susan Osborn, Ph.D.