College Admissions

April 10, 2026

Your GPA is one of the first numbers a college admissions officer sees on your application — and one of the most misunderstood numbers in the entire process. Students...

April 9, 2026

You just got your PSAT scores back. Maybe you did better than expected. Maybe you were hoping for more. Either way, the question in your head right now is...

April 9, 2026

You took one test and your friend took the other. Your college has a scholarship threshold in ACT points. A school you’re researching lists its middle 50% in SAT...

March 27, 2026

A college’s financial aid offer can sometimes be the difference between a college acceptance feeling like a dream come true or a very rude awakening. But this reality check,...

March 25, 2026

In 2020, the Common App added a new optional prompt to the Additional Information section that gave students extra space to detail the impact of COVID-19 on their lives....

March 20, 2026

If you’re living in the United States and getting ready to apply for college, it may feel inevitable that you will end up at a university here in the...

March 12, 2026

Getting waitlisted or deferred: the limbo of the college admissions world. No doubt, it can certainly feel like purgatory for some. For the most part, all you can do...

March 12, 2026

After battling through the epic journey of the college application process, with all its emotional twists and turns, the torturous anticipation, the potential heaven of acceptance or hell of...

March 11, 2026

March begins the grand finale of the college application season. Most schools will release their admissions decisions in mid- to late-March or April, and by May 1st (National College...

March 9, 2026

So you’ve decided (or you’re seriously considering) taking a gap year. Maybe you’re burned out after years of pushing through an increasingly high-stakes academic grind. Maybe a rare opportunity...

March 5, 2026

The folks at the Common Application have officially announced that the Common App essay prompt menu for the upcoming 2026-27 admissions cycle will remain exactly the same as it...

March 3, 2026

Maryville University is a private, nonprofit institution founded in 1872 in St. Louis, Missouri. It holds HLC regional accreditation reaffirmed in 2025, has a majority online student body with...

February 10, 2026

So much of the college application process is every bit as regimented and time-sensitive as the everyday lives of teenage applicants. After all, you’re used to the alarm on...

February 6, 2026

The college application process—particularly the timeline—can be fraught and opaque (not to mention full of confusing acronyms: EA, ED, ED2…). In all the chaos, perhaps you’ve fallen a bit...

January 30, 2026

The Outer Cape’s Admissions Landscape Cape Cod’s college admissions picture looks different from town to town. Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis is an IB school. It ranks fourth...

January 29, 2026

Ask a State College teenager where they picture themselves in ten years and Old Main’s lawn is often mentioned. Growing up beside a major research university changes daily life....

January 28, 2026

State College sits inside Nittany Valley, wrapped almost entirely around Penn State’s University Park campus. That geography shapes nearly everything about applying to selective colleges from here. Families often...

January 28, 2026

Two bridges connect Cape Cod to the Massachusetts mainland. That physical separation shapes the peninsula’s high schoolers lives. For example, traffic backs up for miles on summer Fridays. The...

January 27, 2026

State College sits at the center of Pennsylvania’s Nittany Valley. Penn State University defines nearly every part of local life. Consequently, the school landscape here looks different from most...

January 27, 2026

Cape Cod does not look like a typical college-admissions market. Instead of one dominant district, the peninsula is stitched together from fifteen towns, each with its own high school...