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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Waitlisted, Not Denied

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 else?”—followed by the “shoulda’s” and…

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College Acceptances Are Conditional

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 condition is that students pass…

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Comic: If I was the teacher, I'd give this kid an A...

How Many Years of Language Other Than English (LOTE) Should I Take?

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 variety of colleges.  However, students…

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Tips for Researching Colleges Whether Virtual or In Person

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, considering the following questions:  Then,…

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Should I Take the SAT or ACT for Fall 2024 Admissions?

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 opportunities for admissions.  First, know…

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Advice for Completing the University of California Activities & Awards Section

For those of you applying to the University of California (UC), completing the Activities & Awards section can require several hours of brainstorming, drafting and editing, over multiple drafts.  Thus, many teens will postpone drafting the detailed descriptions or conversely they may focus on drafting the descriptions, postponing their essay writing.  To balance the work of both drafting the PIQ…

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Do’s & Don’ts of Answering UC Personal Insight Question #7

Serving others, suppressing our innate self-centered human tendency, can be a valuable lesson in generosity, the equanimity of humanity, and even in reverse, a confidence in oneself as a valuable member of society.  In the race for the most elite college admissions, often many students have added (or been compelled by assignment and the chase for grades) volunteer work to…

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GIFF: Spongebob Prepare to Be written

The Patience of a Writer

Teenagers must write their autobiography as a requirement for college applications, which is a complicated task. Writing one’s life story requires reflecting on intricate, existential questions, like “Who am I?” and “What’s my purpose in life?” And, most teens quickly recognize they have little self-awareness, just the first in a series of writer’s blocks.  However, as Tim O’Brien in The…

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Metaphorically Speaking

Teenagers are often inexperienced in self-reflection, thus lacking awareness about the meaning of their young lives, as well as confidence to assert what they do know about themselves. Thus, in college essays, many obscure awareness in metaphor, which not only exposes their lack of confidence, but also forces the admissions evaluator to infer (at best), and guess (at worst) what…

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