Why Do You Want to Attend College?

As an educational consultant, when I ask the question in the title, students and their parents are often stunned and momentarily speechless. Parents usually look at their kids, shrugging their shoulders, as if to communicate, “She’s asking you, you answer.” Then, kids often confess that although they expect to attend college, they’ve never really considered…

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A Break from The Extraordinary

Seemed apropos for these extraordinary times, as parents worry their children are falling behind in their learning, high school students worry they will be less competitive for college admissions with Pass/No Pass marks this spring, continuing college students worry they aren’t experiencing the quality of education through distance learning, isolated in their homes, not gaining…

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College Waitlist Leverage

Ahead of the traditional, widely accepted national enrollment deadline of May 1 for first year college students, although some colleges have extended the enrollment deadline to June 1 due to the COVID-19 health crisis, college admissions officers are already extending offers of admissions to waitlist candidates. I contacted two different admissions officers on the West…

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Ahead of the Curve: Week of April 27, 2020

Amidst the COVID-19 health crisis disrupting educational and instructional continuity, students, parents, and educators are asking and being asked questions about the current educational process, which is also spurring discussions about the value of education.   The following is a selection of education-related news stories from the past few weeks, offering insights about the shifts…

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Opportunity amidst upheaval

The continued COVID-19 health crisis, and its impacts both economically and socially may have wide-ranging consequences for colleges throughout the United States. Families confronted by an array of changing circumstances are recalibrating their educational decision making processes, especially for high school seniors choosing between multiple colleges or deferring enrollment, as well as continuing college students…

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Imagine

A Renaissance in the Midst of COVID-19

Educators and students, participants in the Modern American Educational Industrial Complex, are mere glimmers of the Jeffersonian ideals of “essential merit”, which historian Joseph F. Kett defines as:  …merit that rests on specific and visible achievements by an individual that were thought, in turn, to reflect that individual’s estimable character…’Merit’ was that quality in the…

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University of California Responds to Creative Marbles Consultancy

The above letter is a response from Han Mi Yoon-Wu, Director of Undergraduate Admissions for the University of California Office of the President, after I emailed both UC President Janet Napolitano and the UC Board of Regents to request a response to my recent Open Letter to the University of California. I’m sharing Ms. Yoon-Wu’s…

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Easy Does It

School district officials around the country are struggling to define how instruction will continue, and more importantly how students will be evaluated, given that school sites will be closed through the end of the school year. Some district administrators have decided to emulate the actions of many US colleges, and implement a Pass/No Pass grading…

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