Imagine being 16 years old, awake at the crack-of-dawn on a Saturday, sitting in a classroom “listening” to a test proctor who might as well be a sloth, awaiting the start of a three hour and fifty minute test in which the results seemly determine their lifelong success…or abject failure. If only the SAT were…
Guest Post: Dealing with a Shrinking Ego
Author’s Bio: Ashley is a recent graduate from Rocklin High School and will be attending Oregon State University this Fall. Being a levelheaded student applying to a dozen schools, I knew there were inevitable rejections that would be sent my way. In February, after lots of mental pep talks and indulging in too many hot…
A Neat Interactive on College Majors and Earnings
A neat interactive on earnings, occupations, and college majors from the Brookings Institution. You can view the median earnings for various careers over time based on factors like age, sex, college major, and whether you attended graduate school. The disparities in median earnings between the sexes are especially notable. Try putting in your own information…
Email: America’s Past-Time (Literally)
The typical teenage inbox … because email is Snapchat’s great-grandmother. Photo credit: Hubbubbaloo Creative, 2017
Creative Marbles Summer College Essay Intensives
In August 2017, the experts on Creative Marbles editing team will offer Summer College Essay Intensives for a select group of seniors. Not only will participants begin the complex drafting of their life stories, they’ll develop a college essay writing strategy with educational experts, who have twenty years of experience helping students be competitive in the admissions process.…
The Bittersweetness of Choosing a College
“We live in a house around the corner from my parents. He’s gone to all the same schools I went to, and his grandfather went to. We’ve lived this suburban, settled lifestyle. And, now, we’re telling him we want him to dream and live a life in the arts, if that’s what he wants.…
Congrats to the Class of 2017!
Creative Marbles Consultancy’s consultants are proud to assist the Class of 2017 seniors in starting the next chapter of their lives and continue maturing into the new generation of global leaders. Congratulations on their many college acceptances! West Coast Colleges & Universities California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) California State University, Chico California State University, Humboldt California State…
“The Road Less Traveled”
Life begins with a finite period of temporal existence baked into the cake. Somewhere between the innocence of our youth and the reality that balancing needs with wants is a tricky business, lies a narrowly defined period where any choice made can have a disproportionate (positive or negative effect)—exacerbated at times by the hand of…
Tuition Surging at California Public Universities for 2017-18
University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) students will pay more tuition for the 2017-18 school year. For the first time in six years, both the UC and CSU boards have approved tuition and fee increases. At the same time, Governor Jerry Brown proposes to phase out the state-sponsored Middle Class Scholarship program for students…
BUYER BEWARE: Federal Student Loan Interest Rates Set to Rise for 2017-18
Being informed about the costs of taking loans before signing the promissory note is prudent, especially with rising college tuition and average student loan balances totaling $30,000+ for Class of 2017 graduates. However, college students don’t know the exact student loan interest rates before enrolling in the new school year. Federal educational loan interest rates are set each year in…
“Free” Speech?
Debate, questioning, argument are central to education. From Aristotle to John Dewey, educational theorists and teachers have long touted the benefits resulting from the meaningful dialogue, including a spectrum of viewpoints. Yet, given today’s increasingly polarized society, educators, like Dr. John Etchemendy former provost of Stanford University, are making public declarations warning, beseeching students, faculty and…
University of California Admissions Decisions Timetable 2017
In the post-college application response period, high school seniors are eagerly (sometimes anxiously) anticipating admissions decisions from colleges. The University of California campuses will be returning Freshman admissions decisions along the following schedule: Limited Release Mid-February & Late March UC Irvine UC Berkeley Early March UC Merced UC Riverside Mid-March UC Davis UC San…
Changes to Common Application Essay Prompts for 2017-18
The Common Application members have changed the prompts for current juniors in the Class of 2018, who will become college applicants in Fall 2017. The word count remains unchanged at a maximum of 650 words. Applicants will still be required to only choose one of the seven prompts listed below. The Common Application administrators have…
Grammar Shmammer
The rules of grammar can be annoying, especially when an English paper is “bleeding” with red ink marks, noting every single punctuation and grammar error. However, the purpose for grammar, which is to articulate the author’s ideas clearly to the reader, can get lost in trying to follow the rules of grammar. To help all the college…
Selfish Caring
Not a day goes by, when I don’t hear from a concerned parent that their kid isn’t doing enough community service. The unsaid part of the concern is “not enough for a competitive college admissions resume.” Although community service IS recalled in college applications and can matter in demonstrating the interest and commitment of an…