No matter the goals of the students I am working with, one of the most common qualities they focus on when choosing colleges is a “good” school. They frequently say something like, “I’m pretty open-minded about where I go to college. I know that one college isn’t necessarily better than… Read more

I recently met with a potential student client and their family. The student was serious about their academics and had many compelling ideas about their future. They enjoyed school but were honest about their strengths and weaknesses in different classes.  The student had a list of exciting and enjoyable extracurricular… Read more

Writing the personal statement for a college application can feel like a daunting task. How do you start? What is the right format? How do you find the one topic that will get you admitted to your dream school?  Less Is More In most cases, keeping it simple is probably… Read more

In my previous post, “Are You Standing on Hot Coals?”, I described the phenomenon of high school students and families feeling like they are standing on hot coals when they believe they are late getting started on the college admission process.  Hopefully, students who found themselves in that situation called… Read more

There are two types of people who like gambling in casinos.  The first type thinks that going to a casino is fun; it’s entertainment similar to going to a movie or a great way to spend vacation time. Realistically, they’re not too invested in winning and, in most cases, are… Read more

I often remind students that they need to be realistic about their chances of admission to highly selective schools and resist the trap of believing they must get into one particular college (see “The Fourth Rule of Applying to College”). However, if a student is still determined to apply to… Read more

College admission is not a zero-sum game. Shortly before admission decisions were expected to hit inboxes, the parents of a student I had been working with through the arduous process of applying to college asked to meet with me alone.  When they came into my office, they sat down with… Read more

This is my third post addressing the college admissions process for introverts. The last two posts in this series addressed extracurricular activities and the admissions interview.  Let’s now turn to the letter of recommendation.  As an introvert myself, I’ve had to ask many people to write letters of recommendation for… Read more

As I mentioned in my last post, “Applying to College as an Introvert: Extracurricular Activities,” introverted students sometimes feel that they are disadvantaged in the college application process, especially where extracurricular activities are concerned.  In this post, I would like to discuss how to approach admissions office interviews.  A Heads-Up… Read more

Recently, I was sitting across the desk from a parent and student whose transcript was filled with excellent grades and rigorous courses. The student enjoyed school and had SAT scores that were well above average.  As I’ve written about in many other blog posts, grades, academic rigor, and standardized test… Read more