Prepare for College with Ivy West's '2 Minutes to College' Video Scholarship

Video Scholarship Challenge Encourages Students to Achieve Their College Admissions Dreams

LOS ANGELES- With the end of the summer months, high school juniors and seniors are gearing up for college entrance exams. College preparation means being ready - academically and financially. To encourage students as they prepare for college, Ivy West, California's premier provider of one-on-one, in-classroom, online and in-home test preparation for the SAT , PSAT , SAT Subject Tests(TM), ACT and high school admissions tests, is offering the "2 Minutes to College" Video Scholarship contest, with the chance to win $2,000 scholarships. The challenge is open to high school juniors and seniors residing in California, and submissions end on October 10, 2009.

"Today's high school students are submitting, on average, seven to nine college applications, a marked increase from the two to four applications submitted just 10 years ago. This fact, coupled with the reality that a person with a college degree earns over 70 percent more than someone without one, raises the stakes in the college prep environment," said Jen Mathews, Director of Operations for Ivy West. "We understand how expensive and challenging the process of preparing for college can be, and we hope this contest will not only provide a creative outlet for students as they prepare for college, but also give them a chance to win college funding and help them achieve their dreams."

Participating in the video contest is easy. Interested students need to create a video of no more than two (2) minutes in length in which they describe their dream college and explain why the dream college should accept them. The video entry should then be hosted on the video site of their choice. Finally, students should email the active, URL video link to videos@ivywest.com.

Participants must also provide contact information and the name of the high school they are currently attending. A panel of judges will select 25 finalists throughout California from which five (5) $2,000 scholarship winners will be selected. Winners will be notified by November 19, 2009.

To further help local students prepare for college, Ivy West offers a range of programs and partners with families, high schools and community organizations to help students achieve their college admission goals. Ivy West offers academic assistance to prepare for SAT , PSAT , SAT Subject Tests(TM), ACT and high school admissions tests.

In addition to creating the "2 Minutes to College" Video Scholarship contest to help local families fund their children's college education, Ivy West is offering $100 off their custom, one-on-one SAT/ACT test prep program for contest entrants.

"We know how important the SAT/ACT scores are in the college application process, and we are happy to offer a discount, coupled with our scholarship contest, to help area students prepare for college," said Mathews. "Ivy West believes that great tutors, preparation and technique are the cure for testing anxiety; that practice is the key to achieving comfort on tests like the SAT and ACT; and that scores can and will improve with diligent work and focus."

To register for Ivy West's "2 Minutes to College" Video Scholarship, and for more information about the contest's rules and how Ivy West can help build your teenager's confidence to take the test and maximize his or her college potential, visit www.ivywest.com.

About Ivy Wets:

Ivy West is the premier provider of one-on-one, in-home, classroom and online test preparation for the SAT , PSAT , SAT Subject Tests(TM), ACT and high school admissions tests. Ivy West offers a range of programs that are designed to target the test preparation needs of individual students with strategies and instructional pacing that are tailored to students' strengths, weaknesses and testing habits, and tutors are matched to the personality and learning style of students to further enhance the learning experience. Ivy West offers one-on-one, in-home tutoring -- both in-person (face-to-face), and, for SAT preparation, online. Additionally, Ivy West continues to develop and provide new and improved methods for test preparation with innovations like our proprietary PrepMap Assessment(TM), which is the most detailed and prescriptive diagnostic tool available in the test prep industry today. Visit www.ivywest.com for additional details.