You’d like your prospective college to be your “friend” as you progress through the admissions process, and, according to Dale Carnegie, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Topics: College Admission
Read MoreTopics: College Admission
Colleges have their own ways to view SAT and ACT scores when they’re comparing applicants for admission, and that’s particularly true when applicants have taken those tests more than once.
Topics: ACT, College Admission, superscore
Read MoreTopics: ACT, College Admission, superscore
When colleges evaluate your academic record for admission, your GPA isn’t the first thing that’s considered. Rather, it’s the particular courses you take over all four years coupled with the rigor (degree of difficulty) of those courses. Yes, colleges would rather see you take an AP course and get a B than take an Honors course and get an A. Thus, you should take the most challenging courses you can comfortably handle, and get the best grades you can. Don’t overburden yourself, but, by the same token, don’t wuss out either!
Topics: College Admission, GPA
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, GPA
We counsel our students about the importance of a visit to their prospective colleges. Yes, online admission material is compelling (panoramic website views of stunning campuses, informative virtual tours, and links to social media accounts with engaging content). But nothing truly takes the place of being there, of talking to current students, of sampling a meal at a dining hall or enjoying coffee at the library Starbucks. The task is daunting: in accounting for time, money, and distance, you feel as though you have to be independently wealthy with abundant leisure time. Don’t fret. With some strategic planning, you can make college visits manageable. Plus, if you’re truly unable to schedule a visit, we have some tips at the end of this post to help you plan a stay-at-home college tour – the next best thing.
Topics: College Admission, College Visits
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, College Visits
Over and over in our chapters up to this point, we’ve stated explicitly that your personal statement must convey qualities that reveal your character to the admissions reader. It’s not coincidental that the closing sentences of your personal statement essay should also leave the reader with a final burnished image. In the best case, you tie together your narrative with mature reflection. Therein lies the impact of your writing.
Topics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
In your English and history classes, your teachers have endlessly promoted the use of an outline of principal ideas as an aid to writing an essay. On that outline framework, you “hang” the necessary details to complete your writing. Insofar as the college application personal statement is concerned, such outlines could surely help in developing your ideas. Just as you open your school writing assignment with a thesis idea and end the essay by picking up and repeating the main idea thread, your personal statement can do the same. But there are significant differences between practically all school writing and this college entrance task.
Topics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
Three of the four qualities we listed in our last blog chapter – maturity, self-reflection, and intellectual curiosity – must be combined well in order to be effective; your essay must tell a story whose conclusion demonstrates the fourth quality, the impact as expressed through personal reflection. You are not simply telling a story; you are demonstrating your observational powers at this stage in your life – specifically, how your story affected who you have become.
Topics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
Because college applications are due during the first semester of your senior year, you should begin them now, if you haven’t already done so. Otherwise, they’ll interfere with your schoolwork. Since more than 800 colleges accept the Common Application, we’re going to focus on it.
Topics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Application Essays, Person Statement
What: A recommendation discloses things about student character beyond a student’s academic performance. It is not a recitation of information contained elsewhere in the application or school transcript.
Topics: College Admission, Letter of Recommendation
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In the world of college admission testing, we’re moving steadily towards a future in which testing takes on a very different look. In Part 1 of this blog, we discussed the existing ACT and SAT. Our goal was to help students and their parents make informed decisions when it comes to selecting and preparing for an upcoming exam. Today, part 2, we’ll examine some current trends in testing and consider how they may shape the future. But, first, we’ll take a look at another test that is occasionally used in the admission’s process.
Topics: College Admission, Test-Prep, Subject Test
Read MoreTopics: College Admission, Test-Prep, Subject Test
