Posts by Dave Bergman:

An Ode to Jalen Hurts

Posted on: 16 Feb 2025

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster  And treat those two impostors just the same;” – “If” by Rudyard Kipling Hours after the Philadelphia Eagles decimated the upstart Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game, I, an elated longtime Birds fan, took an hour or so to fulfill my fatherly bedtime reading duties (Harry […]

College Admissions in San Antonio: What High-Achieving Students Need to Know

Posted on: 12 Feb 2025

San Antonio occupies a singular place in Texas. It is the state’s second-largest city by population and one of the fastest-growing metros in the country. Military heritage, biomedical research, and Tejano culture coexist here in ways that shape both the school landscape and the college admissions experience. For ambitious high school students, that combination creates […]

Mountain Town, Big Ambitions: How to Get into Top Colleges from Asheville, NC

Posted on: 12 Feb 2025

Asheville occupies a singular position in the American cultural imagination. Nested in a bowl formed by the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains, it attracts artists, scientists, environmentalists, and entrepreneurs. Few mid-sized cities can claim numbers like these. It is, simultaneously, an Appalachian mountain town, a nationally recognized arts hub, and an ecologically rich gateway […]

Case Study: How One Asheville Student Turned Appalachian Foodways into a Selective College Acceptance

Posted on: 09 Feb 2025

Families across Asheville and the surrounding Buncombe County area know that selective college admissions have grown more demanding each year. High-achieving students at schools like Asheville High School, the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences (SILSA), T.C. Roberson High School, Erwin High School, and West Henderson High School often carry strong grades and take multiple […]

Best Private Schools in Houston – 2025

Posted on: 05 Feb 2025

With 100+ private schools to choose from in the Houston area, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed as a consumer. And, it goes without saying that this is more of a high-stakes decision than other scenarios in which you are overwhelmed by an absurd number of options (e.g. the toothpaste aisle of the grocery store). As […]

Best Private Schools in Austin – 2025

Posted on: 03 Feb 2025

The population of Austin, Texas has grown by 290% since the early 1980s. In that time, the number of private high school options available in the area has grown commensurately. Many of these private Austin high schools now serve as feeders into the nation’s biggest-name colleges and universities. Of course, as parents, there are a […]

How to Write an Appeal Letter for College (and Whether You Should)

Posted on: 31 Jan 2025

If you are a fan of podcasts like Serial, documentaries like Making a Murderer, and the billions of similar wrongful convictions stories that have been chronicled across various mediums in recent years, then you are already somewhat familiar with the concept of an appeals process. Fortunately, if you are reading this article, it is more […]

How to Write a Financial Aid Appeal Letter

Posted on: 31 Jan 2025

For students lacking inexhaustible higher education funds, finding out whether or not you are accepted into your dream college is only one battle in a broader, fast-unfolding conflict. Upon learning of one’s acceptance (congrats!), the locus quickly shifts to the other envelope/email before you—the financial aid letter. However, a lower-than-expected offer can be a genuine […]