When do I need to respond to a university about my Fall 2023 admissions? May 1, 2023 is the general nationwide response date for all US colleges when a first year student will need to both confirm their enrollment and submit a deposit to hold their seat. Is my initial enrollment deposit refundable? Getting a…
Often families mistake college affordability as “lowest price”, yet few consider the potential opportunity costs of an (un)realized genius. Thus, as high school seniors, transfer students, and their families weigh the awesome choice of one college acceptance over another (often while grieving an admissions denial), exercising patience and careful consideration is most prudent. While every…
Few applicants expect to be waitlisted—not admitted, not denied, but may be considered for admissions after May 1. The disappointment is palpable. Then, the neurosis gets loud, some version of: “Why was so-and-so (usually someone believed to be less qualified) admitted and I wasn’t?”, “Does this [being waitilisted] mean that I won’t be accepted anywhere…
In Spring, Seniors can experience “Senioritis”, needing more effort to complete everyday homework, while coping with anxiety of waiting for college responses. In some cases, such a lack of motivation can lead to strategic missteps, from which the consequences can be destructive, especially for college admissions. All college acceptances are conditional or provisional. Often, one…
Updated March 11, 2023 As of March 1, 2023, Columbia University admissions officers declared a permanent test-optional admissions policy for all first year applicants, starting with the Fall 2024 cycle. We have designed our application to afford the greatest possible opportunity and flexibility for students to represent themselves fully and showcase their academic talents, interests…
Students generally need to study two years of the same Language Other Than English (LOTE) in order to meet minimum college admissions eligibility standards. (The caveat is some colleges, like MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, do not require LOTE courses for admissions eligibility.) So, families should check eligibility requirements for first year admissions at a…
Students often ask, “How many AP’s (Advanced Placement), IB’s (International Baccalaureate), Honors, and Dual Enrollment (taking community college courses while in high school) courses should I take?” with the “…so I can be accepted into a college of my choice” left unstated. In asking, families mistakenly prioritize competitiveness for college admissions over the interests and…
With self-reflection in conjunction with thorough research of each college, families can conscientiously select a campus where a student is most likely to discover even more about their aptitude as well as fits the budget of the family, reducing the risk of malinvestment. First, students should reflect on their ideal college experience, both socially and academically,…
In the seeming neverending quest for college admissions, Juniors (and parents) fret over taking or not taking the SAT or ACT, wondering if the test score (or absence of) will be a strategic blunder, as in the reason for being denied admissions. However, with guidance, students and their families can reason a choice without reducing…
On Friday, January 20, 2023, according to a newsletter sent to counselors, the University of Southern California (USC) admissions officers admitted its first ever class of approximately 2400 Early Action candidates, a 5.9% admit rate. 40,600 first year applicants requested admissions by the November 1, 2022 Early Action deadline, which was also the deadline for…
Thus, possibly for their parents… May students’ fingers be swift, memory banks quick to recall significant life-shaping experiences, and word snipping their quintessential memoirs to just 250 words be effortless. And, may all parents be assured that if servers crash, admissions officers (within hours) extend deadlines, and trust that their children’s efforts (be it last…
Often when a written response is “optional” on a college application, especially when the admit rates are 3.96%, like at MIT, students accustomed to following every direction, and seeking every advantage in such a low probability admissions process, usually pause to consider, “How optional is ‘optional’?” Yet, after talking with admissions officers at MIT, optional…
In the next few weeks, students who applied early admissions, both Early Action and Early Decision, will be: Admitted, Denied, or Deferred to the Regular Decision pool. Yet, in Teenager the three admissions responses (respectively) translate to: Validated (or Vindicated), Rejected and In-Between rejected but not a rejection. For students (and sometimes parents), the admissions…
The short answer is, “Yes, one can always clarify their sentences to more accurately reflect the meaning intended, all in the quest to be understood by the admissions officer.” Students can use the definition of “to edit” as a guide when considering any changes: Yet, to “prepare (an autobiographical college essay) for [re]publication”, students must…
To borrow the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate…” any student’s choice to share their personal COVID-colored experiences. In an informal query of admissions officers around the United States from highly selective to not-so-selective universities, the consensus is be judicious, if choosing to share a COVID-related experience. Most admissions officers advise students…
