Scattergood is a college-preparatory high school that prepares students for college and later life through our challenging academic program and emphasis on community living. Our classes focus on helping students develop the knowledge, values, and skills that they will need to be successful in all areas of life, including being well-prepared for college. While not all of our students choose to go to college immediately after graduation, all of our students are required to be accepted to an accredited four-year college as a graduation requirement.

In their Junior and Senior years, all Scattergood students take a semester-long seminar in which they focus on the college admission process and work on strategies for the ACT and SAT. In addition to this college seminar, they spend a semester taking composition and writing a ten or twenty-page research paper. This process serves as the capstone of our skills program and allows students the opportunity to practice the skills of independent research, writing, and editing that they will need in college.

During the college seminar portions of the year, juniors spend time searching for colleges and universities that match their interests and begin the process of developing an admissions portfolio. Seniors go through the process of applying to colleges, searching for scholarships, and learning about financial aid.

Because most colleges require that applicants take standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT, we help students learn strategies for test taking in a low-stakes environment throughout their years at Scattergood. While we do not place much emphasis on the tests for ninth and tenth graders, it is important for students to become familiar with the format of standardized tests since they do not encounter such bubble tests in their Scattergood classes. Ninth and tenth graders take a grade-appropriate test designed by ACT to help them see areas in which they may want to focus their efforts as they begin to think about college admission tests. Throughout this process we stress to students that while these tests are important for the college admissions process and that they should therefore work on the necessary strategies and level of comfort that will help them perform to the best of their ability, these tests do not measure their intelligence or worth. Instead, the ACT and/or SAT will provide only one element of their college application and will be supplemented by their essays, activities, teacher recommendations, and transcript. Our ideal schedule for standardized tests is as follows:

After Graduation

Colleges recent Scattergood seniors have applied to:

Colleges attended by recent graduates: