As college students prepare to return to college campuses, scattered in varying locales around the nation, to begin the 2020-21 school year, it will not be business as usual given the surrounding outbreak of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus; therefore, monitoring the fluid situation, locally, regionally and nationally, will be of vital importance. The New York…
In response to the COVID-induced disruption of education, the college admissions process is changing. Many parents and students are now questioning how applicants will be evaluated for Fall 2021 admissions and in years beyond. Traditional metrics for evaluating admissions, like GPA, are less reliable, given many high schools implemented Pass/No Pass-style marks in spring 2020,…
Being our authentic selves often requires courage. And, for college applicants who will write their autobiography many times over in their college essays this fall, knowing themselves can be a tall order, but a challenge that can and must be overcome. In order to qualify for college admissions, students have to satisfy a standard set…
Reason #1,345,765 that applying to college is complicated by competing interests, in reference to the meme above, a parent’s intellect vs. a parent’s heart. The possible fear and excitement of the unknown, a new chapter separating parents’ and children’s lives by beginning college in the next twelve months, may be a bittersweet reward for decades…
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…
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…
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…
Like Bart Simpson above, college applicants typically are nervous about taking tests, yet with the lingering pandemic, their anxieties may be more complex. Both the ACT and The College Board added testing opportunities, beyond the usual test schedule, to compensate for cancelled Spring 2020 tests. Between July and December 2020, the ACT will be offered…
We are grateful for having the opportunity to advise students who were accepted to 90 universities and medical schools throughout the United States for Fall 2020 admissions during our seventeenth college application season. Each year, students trust us to generously share their life’s stories with us as they articulate their vision and define their purpose…
This past week, three more U.S. News & World Report top #25 universities Georgetown University, Stanford University and Princeton University suspended the requirement of SAT or ACT scores for Fall 2021 first year applicants. One Stanford student, amongst others, were frustrated by the policy changes, as for many years, they believed (and were taught) that…
Following both Brown’s and Yale’s test-optional announcements, yesterday evening, June 15, Harvard became the seventh Ivy League college to suspend the requirement of SAT and ACT scores for Fall 2021 first year applicants. Why is Princeton, as the last remaining Ivy League, still requiring standardized test scores for Fall 2021 first year applicants? Since the…
