Every year, mothers and fathers take their high school juniors and seniors on college visits.  Parents know that they need to do this.  The visits help their children build human connections to schools that would otherwise be imagined as a jumble of acceptance rates, possible majors, climates, and sports teams.  Nothing turns a school into a real place, a potential home for four years, like a college visit.   And though parents might not always like to admit it, the college visits matter for them as well.  In a matter of months, their children will leave home and begin to experience new “firsts” without them.   The college visit will be one of the last significant shared experiences between parent and child […]

1. Write your story Every college will want you to write about yourself, no matter the specifics of their essay questions.  If you write a personal statement about how you’ve become who you are, using details from your life, you’ll be able to modify that essay for all your applications.  It’s much easier to think about this question before school begins. 2. See how colleges will see you Fill out a little bit of The Common Application every day for a week.  This very thorough application can serve as the prototype for all other applications.  In the college’s eyes, this application is you. 3. Talk to your teachers Yes.  Talk to your teachers during the summer.  Letters of reference come […]

When many college applicants think about the best schools in the country, they think of schools like Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale, Duke, Stanford, and MIT.  When these schools think about the best college applicants, they think of standardized test scores.   While student transcripts are the most important part of a college application, standardized test scores serve as sort of truth test for competitive colleges, who need to find which transcripts are worth considering.  Applicants who are excellent test-takers – who can earn SAT scores in the 730s on Verbal, Writing, and Math sections, and in the 740s on their SAT Subject Tests – will surely have their transcripts respectfully considered at most of the elite schools listed above. […]

Most parents and students think that SATs are a fact of life for every college-bound teen.  Is this true? Yes, and no.  No, you can’t ignore them, but your score isn’t some predetermined measure of your intelligence either.  There are strategies and options to consider when you see the SAT on your horizon, and many of your decisions will come down to how far ahead you’re planning.  Commit to college early-on – as a freshman – and you will be more prepared to deal with the SATs by the time you’re a Junior. First and foremost, know your options.  You can take the SAT, or you can opt not to take it at all.  If you decide to take the […]

According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, about 35% of colleges report rescinding college acceptances. In fact, the University of California and the University of Colorado typically take back several dozen acceptances each year. With long waiting lists at many colleges, there is no trouble filling those vacancies. Why do colleges reject students after they have been accepted? One word: Senioritis. It’s an insidious and highly contagious disease that the American Psychological Association doesn’t recognize. It affects only a small subset of society, high school seniors, and strikes almost exclusively in the springtime. The Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines Senioritis as “an ebbing of effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” Parents are often caught […]

A friend from Maryland sent me this article about community service in public high schools. Unlike other states, Maryland requires that high school students complete 75 hours of community service, or service-learning experiences, to graduate. As most colleges have sent out their admissions decisions, it’s far too late for Maryland seniors to do community service for college consideration. At the same time, it made me reflect on why colleges value community service, and how your son or daughter can use it to improve his resume. Activities that fall under the label “community service” can be quite broad, but there are a few things you can do to leverage your experience: Make Community Service about Your Community Community service is about […]