Posts by Andrew Belasco:

Top High Schools in the Round Rock, TX Area: How They Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 06 May 2025

Round Rock, Texas, sits fifteen miles north of downtown Austin. Dell Technologies is headquartered here. The surrounding technology corridor has reshaped Williamson County’s demographics, income levels, and educational expectations. The result, accordingly, is a school district that performs well above its size nationally. Public schools here offer IB programs, AP coursework at scale, Early College […]

Inland Empire, Outward Bound: How to Get into Top Colleges from Riverside, California

Posted on: 30 Apr 2025

A City with More to Offer Than Most Applicants Realize Riverside is easy to underestimate. Sitting roughly 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, it occupies a curious position in California’s cultural geography. Too far from the coast to feel glamorous and too sprawling to feel like a college town, it is too often reduced […]

Tampa Bay’s Top High Schools: How They Really Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 29 Apr 2025

If you’re raising a college-bound teen in the Tampa Bay region, you’re probably experiencing a mix of excitement and confusion. Tampa, St. Petersburg, and their surrounding suburbs offer a remarkably wide range of strong high schools, large public programs with AP depth, smaller magnets with accelerated pathways, and private schools with national reputations. In fact, […]

Where To Take the Best AP Courses Online

Posted on: 29 Apr 2025

Here at College Transitions, students often ask us, “Where should I take AP courses online?” There are a variety of reasons that high school students seek out online Advanced Placement (AP) course opportunities. However, the most common types of students who desire a remote-based AP course are: Those who want to take an AP course […]

Case Study: How One Riverside Student Turned the City’s Agricultural Heritage into a Standout College Application

Posted on: 28 Apr 2025

Families across Riverside and the surrounding Inland Empire know that college admissions have grown more competitive every year. High-achieving students at schools like Martin Luther King High School, Polytechnic High School, Ramona High, Arlington High, and John W. North High often carry strong grades and enroll in multiple AP courses. Yet many find themselves asking […]

The Twin Cities’ Top High Schools: How They Really Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 24 Apr 2025

Families in the Minneapolis–St. Paul Metro quickly learn what Fairfield County parents already know: when you live in a region filled with high-achieving public and private schools, everything looks excellent on paper. Wayzata, Minnetonka, Edina, Eagan, Eastview, SPA, Blake, Breck, the list of standout schools is long and, for many families, overwhelming. Add in additional […]

Top High Schools in Marin County, CA: How They Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 22 Apr 2025

Marin County is one of the most scenic and affluent communities in the United States, perched between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific. It is also home to some of the strongest public and private secondary schools in California. Families here tend to be highly educated and college-minded, and the county’s schools reflect that orientation […]

Is Essex County a Good Place for College Admissions?

Posted on: 16 Apr 2025

Essex County, Massachusetts is not a single place in any meaningful sense. It spans wealthy coastal towns like Manchester-by-the-Sea and Marblehead, academic enclaves like Hamilton and Andover, historic cities like Salem and Newburyport, and struggling urban communities in Lawrence and Lynn. That internal diversity is the most important fact about college admissions from this county. […]