Creating a college list is akin to chiseling away at a piece of stone to create a sculpture. You don’t have to do it all once; you can chip away at it little by little and eventually – optimally by August before your senior year – you’ll have a strong, workable list that will lead you to your best buffet of options when decision day arrives.
Topics: College Counseling, College Planning, Going to College, College Visits
Read MoreTopics: College Counseling, College Planning, Going to College, College Visits
You open your laptop to create your college list, then your head begins to spin. Seems everybody’s got opinions about where you should go to college. Your mom was a Florida Gator and likes the idea of you staying in state. Uncle Joe is a proud Ohio State Buckeye and tells you there’s nothing like being in the stadium for a Big Ten showdown. Your guidance counselor is extolling the benefits of attending Oberlin, a small liberal arts college. Google searches are little help. The options are dizzying and you’re not sure where to begin.
Topics: College Admission, College Counseling, College Planning, College Choice, Going to College
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Counseling, College Planning, College Choice, Going to College
“When should I start applying to college?” is a question we hear frequently from our rising seniors at the beginning of summer. Should I apply now, before I go back to school? Should I wait until the fall? In today’s post, we’ll answer these questions – and more – about the college application timeline, and share some tips to help you stay on track in order to apply in a timely manner.
Topics: College Admission, College Counseling, College Planning
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Counseling, College Planning
Whenever we meet with students about their college aspirations, we stress to them how important it is today to take charge of their future. And then we give specifics about what exactly a student can control in the admissions process. One such lever of control within the student’s grasp is surely entitled, demonstrated interest.
Topics: College Admission, Demonstrated Interest
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Demonstrated Interest
As you finish up junior year of high school and move into the summer before senior year, your thoughts are likely turning to college applications and their accompanying components: essays, transcripts, letters of recommendation, deadlines…the list goes on and on. Feeling intimidated by the work confronting you? Not sure where to start? Don’t stress – you and your family have plenty of excellent resources at hand to manage this challenging process. Read on to learn more about five ways to get help with college applications.
Topics: College Counseling
Read MoreTopics: College Counseling
What does it take to write a good supplemental essay that responds to the prompt, “Why are you applying to this college?”and other college-specific questions? It takes planning, and two of the best planning techniques are to doing some research and brainstorming. Take a few minutes to understand how the question may be tied to the college’s mission statement.
Topics: Common Application
Read MoreTopics: Common Application
Students and their families often ask us how to get into college. Whether it’s into a small private college or a large public university, the steps are the same—adhering to purposeful planning, and getting an early start. Below, we’ve provided our top seven tips to help make admission to your dream school a reality. Let’s get started.
Topics: College Application Essay, College Admission, College Planning, Educational Consulting
Read MoreTopics: College Application Essay, College Admission, College Planning, Educational Consulting
The Common Application (www.commonapp.org), accepted by more than 900 universities, undergoes annual changes to improve the application. This year’s changes are primarily based on removing barriers to application completion, thus ensuring equal opportunities for all students. The Common Application will be down for a few days in the last week of July to be updated for next year, and the new application will be launched on August 1st. However, you should be working on this year’s application now as your application will “rollover” to the new application when it launches. At that time, you’ll be walked through a series of screens to initiate the rollover. All seven sections of the Common App will rollover; however, your answers to changed questions will be blank, necessitating your answering the revised questions.
Topics: College Admission, Common Application
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Common Application
Most questions on the Common Application’s Education page are quite straightforward. Here are some tips for those questions that are not:
Topics: College Admission, Common Application, Tutoring, Educational Consulting
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Common Application, Tutoring, Educational Consulting
Junior year is the ideal time to select the teachers who will write your letter(s) of recommendation for college. Your core academic teachers are usually the best recommenders because they are more likely to have taught you in a high-level course, perhaps know you for several years and can speak to your growth. A teacher’s recommendation carries weight in the college admissions process because the teacher can evaluate − relative to other students − your work, intellectual vitality, resourcefulness, collaborative spirit, and more.
Topics: College Admission, College Counseling, Letter of Recommendation
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Counseling, Letter of Recommendation