While for many years, the University of California has utilized Comprehensive Review, comprised of 14 different criteria guiding admissions officers evaluations of applicants which already creates a degree of subjectivity, since SAT and ACT scores are optional starting in Fall 2021 and beyond, subjectivity in admissions may increase. To help applicants plan or revise their…
On Friday, July 17, in response to the growing numbers of confirmed COVID cases statewide, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all public and private K-12 schools in 33 of 58 counties, affecting nearly 80% of all Californians, to begin the school year with distance learning. As we discussed in Managing a return to normal in…
In mid-March 2020, under threats to public health associated with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, government officials acted swiftly, instituting a series of closures that disrupted our lives, especially for college students who were summarily sent back to their childhood homes, halting their coming of age process. As of May 2020, officials believing the worst was…
With nearly half of all American adults out-of-work and a second wave of the coronavirus making itself known with governments at the state, federal and local levels issuing varying orders affecting daily life, new entrants into the labor market, the young college graduate or not, are rightfully concerned. Nearly half of the population is still…
We’re grateful each fall to collaborate with undergraduate and graduate school applicants to help them gain a greater confidence in their inherent abilities as defined by the totality of their experiences in order to effectively complete the college admisisons process, thus increasing the likelihood of obtaining value in their educational investment. May all have continued…
As the UC eliminated the SAT and ACT testing requirement for Fall 2021 and beyond, the subjectivity in the admissions evaluations will likely increase, as admissions officers will interpret applicants’ qualifications for admissions without the more objective test scores as a metric. In this fifth installment in the series about the University of California’s (UC)…
In a 2015 seminar, Reflection on Your Life, Harvard Professor Richard Light asked a group of first year students: Would you rather understand one idea fully or many ideas at a reasonable surface understanding? Seems like a reasonable question to ask 18 year olds so they can more likely live purposefully during their limited college…
Typically during summer, parents add “Visit College Campuses” to their family vacation itineraries. Many parents will exclaim in rationalizing college visits, “I want to expose my kid to college life, since they don’t have an idea what college actually is.” Translation: parents want to impel their children to start the college application process, sometimes well…
“If I could bubble wrap them, I’d do that,” said Pavanish Nirula, of San Jose, whose 15-year-old daughter will be starting 11th grade this fall, while his 17-year-old son goes off to college. EdSource June 29, 2020 In conversations I’ve had with parents of late regarding the upcoming school year, they have echoed Mr. Nirula’s…
Soon-to-be Class of 2021 college applicants are delayed in engaging the college admissions process as it was defined pre-March 2020. With cancelled SAT and ACT tests this past spring, closed high schools and college campuses, no sports games sidelines or Science Olympiad stands where parents can congregate and share notes about college admissions, fewer high…
The 2020-21 school year plans of 1075 colleges, almost a third of all colleges in the US, as compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education While the pandemic shows no sign of abating, increasingly college administrators are wrangling with how to maintain the efficacy of their institutions in a time of crisis. As crowded school…
On this July Fourth, to commemorate the actions of those revolutionaries who eloquently proclaimed the separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, we recall the legacy of liberty we inherent and recommit to honor their actions by striving to realize freedom in all our affairs. Realizing…
Although statistically the young have proven not to be affected medically by COVID-19 like more vulnerable populations of all ages with pre-existing conditions as well as those over the age of 50, doesn’t mean they have no risk of serious health consequences. Yet, knowing college-aged students can spread the virus to others at greater risk…
College administrators are proposing two scenarios for the 2020-21 school year, first, a hybrid model of modified residential on-campus living + online instruction + limited in-person instruction and secondly, continuing distance learning with no on-campus residency. With either model, students’ college experience is severely curtailed. Incoming UCLA freshmen, who are not able to acquire housing,…
