Posted on: 24 Sep 2015
In our last post, we covered how to brainstorm and prepare to write. Our advice was to: Tell a compelling story. Write something! Write anything! Don’t beat yourself up! These things take time. Write down or record random thoughts. Now let’s consider some suggestions for how to tackle the actual writing process. Write around the […]
Posted on: 17 Sep 2015
In recent posts, we provided a few strategies for brainstorming and mapping your admissions essay. In this post, we’ll cover some strategies for turning an idea into an essay. Tell a compelling story. Rather than writing an analytical essay like you would for a class assignment, focus on telling a story. Most successful Common App […]
Posted on: 01 Sep 2015
As private college counselors, we are well-versed in the criticisms of school-based counseling. Unavailable, inexperienced, misinformed—these are the words that some within our industry often use to describe the professionals who work hardest to establish safe and supportive learning environments for our children. Research consistently shows that school counselors improve the academic achievement, health and […]
Posted on: 10 Aug 2015
One of the most memorable essays I ever read was written by a student we’ll call Sam, a rising high school senior from Massachusetts. He had written at least a dozen drafts trying to rehash his impressive résumé as a computer science whiz, and despite my urging to try a different approach, he was insistent […]
Posted on: 24 Jul 2015
A few weeks ago, I wandered across a blog post titled “How Understanding ‘Toy Story’ Can Get You into College.” As a lifelong Pixar fan, I was intrigued by the title and eager to see how the author advised college-bound writers to apply a well-known plot structure to writing an admissions essay. While the author […]
Posted on: 15 Jul 2015
Now that you understand what research has to say about the contextual and often-limited benefits of attending a highly-selective school, you may have opened your mind to a few less competitive yet wonderful institutions. However, we’ve worked with enough cream of the crop high school superstars to know that for many, the lure of prestige […]
Posted on: 01 May 2015
We begin with an analogy. Three racehorses: Cream of the Crop, Above Average, and Run of the Mill are selected by three trainers of varying quality to prepare for the Kentucky Derby. Trainer A is world-renowned, highly sought-after and thus has his pick of the litter. Without hesitation, he scoops up Cream of the Crop […]
Posted on: 04 Feb 2015
A simplistic view of higher education is that people emerge from four years of college with a specific skill related to their primary area of study: Education majors learn how to teach, accounting majors learn how to crunch numbers, allied health majors learn skills particular to the healthcare profession, and so on down line. Yet, […]