Our Blog

January 31, 2014

I got a letter from the Dean! I’m in! For a high school student, there is something undeniably exciting about being the recipient of an unsolicited brochure from a...

December 31, 2013

With FAFSA season fast approaching, you no longer have the luxury of long-term financial planning for college unless you happen to stumble upon a 1985 Delorean fully-loaded with a flux capacitor...

December 26, 2013

Deferred.  It’s a word that every early applicant dreads. Neither accepted nor denied, deferred students often feel as if they have been banished to college admissions purgatory, sentenced to...

December 20, 2013

The lure of an elite undergraduate institution is undoubtedly very powerful.  And if you have the credentials and money to comfortably matriculate, by all means… However, if finances are...

December 2, 2013

If your high school career has been an uninterrupted parade of top notch grades, near perfect standardized test scores, and saintly behavior then you can stop reading… Except you...

November 5, 2013

The vast majority of college admissions officers rarely, if ever, Google applicants names, rifle through their Facebook accounts, carefully pore over their archived tweets, or analyze their “selfies” on...

October 30, 2013

It is common knowledge that private colleges and universities are typically eager to recruit out-of-state applicants in order to help enhance the geographic diversity of their freshman classes. However,...

October 16, 2013

On average, college applicants tend to underestimate the importance of recommendation letters, but they shouldn’t.  Letters of recommendation provide context to your application in a way that other credentials...

September 24, 2013

The basic rules for writing a stellar college essay vary little from the general guidelines for producing any strong piece of written work: be authentic, tell a story that...

September 18, 2013

Last week, U.S. News & World Report released its highly anticipated, and highly controversial, annual college rankings. Like most people, we love ratings systems and refer to them when...

September 10, 2013

As colleges move to data-driven means of tracking information on prospective students, they have become increasingly savvy about predicting enrollment behavior and gauging an applicant’s true level of interest.  Schools...

August 2, 2013

Early decision has never been a popular choice among college bound seniors. For some, it’s about maximizing their chances of being admitted to the school of their dreams. For...

July 26, 2013

“It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.” This age-old maxim applies not just to sports, but to high school and to college admissions...

July 7, 2013

When most high school students and college students think about their summer break, most usually don’t think about taking summer courses.  Increasingly, colleges have realized this as well and many...

July 2, 2013

Mark is a highly accomplished senior with excellent grades and stratospheric test scores.  He recalls a friend of similar class rank who was admitted into Princeton just last year,...

July 2, 2013

Andrew recently contributed to a report that is making news today, and warns against the potentially negative impact of federal financial aid reform.  Check it out.

June 20, 2013

Most college-bound students are aware of the importance of having a “safety school,” an institution where obtaining admission is pretty darn close to a statistical guarantee. However, for anyone...

June 18, 2013

Since 2011, major news and media outlets have devoted substantial attention to the rise of Massive Online Open Courses, better known as “MOOCs.” Journalists and educators alike have lauded startups...

June 15, 2013

For those who still think of acceptance into an Ivy League School as a sole guarantor of future success, a classic article worth reading. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/06/business/the-humbling-of-the-harvard-man.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Takeaway: Grit* and tenacity...

May 23, 2013

Despite belief (and perhaps wishes) to the contrary, summer plays an extremely important role in the college admissions process.  These next few months give rising seniors, many of whom...