Posts by Michael Trivette:

Bergen County’s High School Landscape: An Admissions Primer

Posted on: 12 Aug 2025

Bergen County does not lack for strong high schools. Across its dense patchwork of more than seventy municipalities, families can choose between elite application-only public magnets, well-resourced suburban district schools, and single-sex Catholic institutions. Few counties in the country pack this much academic density into so small a footprint. In turn, proximity to New York […]

Top High Schools in the Birmingham, AL Area: How They Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 11 Aug 2025

Birmingham Blends Old-Money Public Schools with Elite Private Options If you are raising a college-bound student in Birmingham, Alabama, you are navigating a distinctive secondary school market. Affluent suburban districts sit alongside a statewide arts and STEM magnet. A boarding school with national reach and several Christian college-preparatory schools round out the field. Together, these […]

The Most Common College Admissions Mistakes Tampa Bay Families Make and How to Avoid Them

Posted on: 07 Aug 2025

Tampa Bay is home to some of Florida’s strongest high schools—academically ambitious publics like Plant, Newsome, Steinbrenner, and Sickles, nationally respected private schools such as Berkeley Prep, Tampa Prep, Carrollwood Day, Shorecrest, and Academy of the Holy Names, and specialized options like Strawberry Crest’s IB program and St. Petersburg Collegiate’s dual-enrollment early-college model. The abundance […]

Frisco, TX: Where Corporate Growth Meets a Crowded Academic Field

Posted on: 05 Aug 2025

Frisco no longer looks like a typical Texas suburb. Over the past two decades, the city has grown from a small farming town into a corporate magnet. It is now home to the Dallas Cowboys headquarters and the PGA of America. The skyline itself did not exist twenty years ago. That same growth has, in […]

Top High Schools in the Santa Barbara, CA Area: How They Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 05 Aug 2025

Santa Barbara Is a Small Market with an Outsized Academic Identity Santa Barbara is not a major admissions hub in the way Los Angeles or San Francisco are. That said, the city carries a distinct identity that selective colleges recognize quickly. Its coastal geography and a flagship research university play a role. So, too, does […]

Case Study: How a Richmond, VA Student Earned Acceptances to Elite Colleges

Posted on: 30 Jul 2025

Families across the Richmond region, from Henrico and Chesterfield to the City of Richmond, know that selective college admission grows more competitive each year. Students at schools like Deep Run, Glen Allen, Midlothian IB, Maggie Walker, and Richmond’s top independent schools often look equally strong on paper. Standing out requires not just effort, but strategy. […]

Top High Schools in the Mesa, AZ Area: How They Compare for College Admissions

Posted on: 29 Jul 2025

Mesa is the third-largest city in Arizona. It sits in the East Valley of metropolitan Phoenix, and its school landscape has diversified considerably over the past two decades. For college-bound families, this market is moreover more complex than it initially appears. Schools here range from one of the top 60 publicly ranked schools in the […]

Making Sense of Score Gains: A Parent’s Guide to SAT/ACT Progress

Posted on: 25 Jul 2025

We get it: people want to improve their SAT or ACT score as much as possible. That’s why there’s a ton of advice online about how to improve your SAT or ACT score. The thing is, what’s often missing from a discussion of How to Improve Your SAT Score 600 points! is a real understanding […]