If you don’t already appreciate how incredibly stressful applying to colleges can be — and how that stress has serious implications — don’t take our word for it. Here’s a student, Gabriela Nadeau, writing about her feelings in a November 2017 article titled College Applications: I’m Applying to College and I’m Stressed AF [“AF” is a texting acronym for “As F_ _ _”] on teenvogue.com (with all of the emphasis via bold font added):

Topics: College Application, College Counseling, College Planning, Anxiety

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By the start of their second semester, most high school juniors have begun creating and honing a prospective college list, and scheduling college visits. What most don’t realize is that it’s also the ideal moment to begin working on college applications, especially the often-dreaded college application essay (commonly known as the personal statement). Where to get started? What’s the perfect topic? What are college admission readers looking for? These and other student questions oftentimes result in panic and procrastination: I’ll worry about it this summer! Then suddenly, it’s September….

Topics: Essays, College Application, Application Essays, Person Statement

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Last August 13^th, we posted a blog titled “Forget the Worm: The Early Bird Gets Admitted.” That’s why we’ve chosen our title here (“The Past as Prologue”), because what has already happened should dictate our current actions. Here’s the connection: In that blog, we detailed a long-term trend – what has been happening – favoring those who apply to colleges via Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA) over those who apply Regular Decision (RD). That trend has continued, and because ED and EA benefits both colleges and students in unique ways, there’s every reason to believe that it will continue – at an increasing pace – for the foreseeable future.

Topics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, College Planning, Early Decision, Early Action

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Good grades and high standardized test scores help get your application into the room where the admissions committee will make its final decision – and for many years they’ve been the top two criteria for evaluating applicants. As we pointed out in a blog we published in January 2013,

Topics: Common Application, College Application, Coalition App, Common App

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One thing that you absolutely DO NOT want to do is confuse college admissions officers by presenting contradictory – or inconsistent, and, thus, possibly contradictory – information about yourself in your college applications. And there are multiple opportunities for mistakes in most college applications.

Topics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, Activity Resume, Resume

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Topics: College Application, Coalition App, College Counseling, College Planning, Application Essays, Common App, Universal App

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Topics: Common Application, College Application, Coalition App, UF, Application Essays, FSU, UCF, Person Statement

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Part II: Square Pegs

In Part I, Round Holes, we considered how you should look at colleges – the criteria to bring to your search for happiness. In this part, we’ll ask you to get in touch with your gut feelings.

Topics: College Application, College Planning, Educational-Consulting

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Part I: The Round Holes

“I thought the ‘best’ college for me was the most selective - I was wrong”

Topics: College Application, College Planning, Educational-Consulting

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We put you in the shoes of college admissions officers, so that you can sense their point of view with these facts:

Topics: College Admission, College Application, College Counseling, College Planning, Educational-Consulting

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