Choose a College Wisely 

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 person seeks the highest quality…

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Comic: I'm more confused than a chameleon in a bag of skittles

JUST THE FACTS

A college acceptance isn’t a cure-all, get-out-of-jail-free card, where untold riches and lifelong prosperity are as plentiful and readily flowing as red cups filled from a college party keg. Instead:  FACT: 37% of all students transfer colleges at least once in a six year period. FACT: 33% of first year students don’t re-enroll for the second year at the same…

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Is Fall 2021 University of California Applicant Increase Year Over Year Due to Change in SAT/ACT Policy?

According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, preliminary application counts for Fall 2021 released by the University of California show a 15% increase from last year’s Fall 2020 applications, netting nearly 250,000 single applications. Yet, will increases in applications render to more acceptances and more enrollment? Some speculate that the increase in applications is a consequence of newly implemented…

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Put Down Your #2 Pencils: The University of California Eliminates SAT/ACT Scores, COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW: Part 9

As the University of California (UC) admissions officers evaluate every applicant according to 14 Comprehensive Review points, understanding each criteria is useful for applicants to prepare accordingly, knowing that the totality of their high school experience will be considered when determining their admissions.  The UC admissions evaluators seek a thorough understanding of an applicant’s high school academic performance, including GPA,…

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Put Down Your #2 Pencils: The University of California Eliminates SAT/ACT Scores, Comprehensive Review, Part 6

While for many years, the University of California has utilized Comprehensive Review, comprised of 14 different criteria guiding admissions officers evaluations of applicants which already creates a degree of subjectivity, since SAT and ACT scores are optional starting in Fall 2021 and beyond, subjectivity in admissions may increase. To help applicants plan or revise their admissions strategy, in the sixth…

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College Modified

College administrators are proposing two scenarios for the 2020-21 school year, first, a hybrid model of modified residential on-campus living +  online instruction + limited in-person instruction and secondly, continuing distance learning with no on-campus residency. With either model, students’ college experience is severely curtailed.  Incoming UCLA freshmen, who are not able to acquire housing, which is traditionally guaranteed, are…

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Put Down Your #2 Pencils: The University of California Will Eliminate SAT/ACT Scores by 2025

Yesterday, Thursday, May 21, the University of California (UC) Board of Regents unanimously voted to eliminate the SAT and ACT as a requirement for all first year applicants by 2025. Over the next five years, the UC will phase in the elimination of the SAT and ACT scores from consideration in first year admissions. For Fall 2021 and Fall 2022…

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University Of California Application – Activities & Awards Section

The University of California (UC) Application for Fall 2020 admissions includes many opportunities for applicants to explain the significance of their hours spent on the field, on the court, in a lab, on a stage, serving others, working in the mall…etc in the redesigned “Activities and Awards” section of the UC Application. In text boxes, which can include up to…

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The Final Lap

California’s high school seniors (and increasingly non-Californian high school seniors) will be eating  turkey, yams and mashed potatoes and gravy in the glow of a computer screen, as they complete their University of California (UC) applications.  Any parent who believes that Thanksgiving will be an incentive to finish college applications early will be sorely disappointed.   In fifteen years, 85% of our clients…

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