The late winter run-off from 12 years of school melting during the latter half of a high school senior year can create an emotional flood. A confluence of Senioritis and waiting for college admissions responses quickly overruns the levees built during a senior’s youth-limited life experience. Seniors decry, “When will I hear from colleges?” or…
Tag: Common Application
College Acceptances Are Like the Oscars for Seventeen Year Olds
Receiving a college acceptance letter can feel like a Sally-Field-Oscar-Acceptance-Speech moment. ;> Cheers to everyone receiving more than one!
In the Midst of College Admissions, Brilliance is Born
The Daily Academic Dilemma Director: Surya Sundararajan with an assist from Hubbubbaloo Creative
Early Admissions: “The New Normal”
In what’s increasingly becoming an “Arms Race” of admissions, more and more students are applying early admissions. The higher admit rates during early admissions in comparison with the regular decision period seemingly indicates greater chances for admissions. For the current Class of 2021, 14.5% of Early Action applicants to Harvard were admitted, while during Regular…
College Admissions: Controlled Chaos
How college applicants view college admissions officers: And, how college applicants view themselves: Then, how parents of college applicants feel: For all, Sir Winston Churchill offers sage advice: ‘Cuz in the end:
Harvard’s Going to Admit Less Kids to “Play”
Everyone knows someone’s daughter’s boyfriend’s cousin’s auntie’s neighbor’s niece who was a 4.0+ GPA, perfect 1600 SAT scoring, president of her class who didn’t get admitted into the university of her choice. Being admitted to college only on one’s merits is a persistent expectation, despite the evidence of “worthy” students being denied admissions every year.…
College Admissions Season is Now Open
Is she mad? She just ate her first pop-tart!
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.…
“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…
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…
“I Have Student Debt?”
[Sung to the tune of Heigh Ho from Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs] “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go…” Even though I remember singing this refrain in jest, Millennials, the current generation between age 18 – 35 , may not be so light-hearted. According to Bloomberg News in April 2016: A…