“The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” -Ben Stein. Building one’s list of prospective colleges is the key first step in the college admissions process. If an applicant’s list is appropriate, the college process will be far
Read more →
“Learn to cultivate your own garden.” – Voltaire. Your high school guidance department probably does not officially start the college application process until January of junior year. That timing is partially driven by staffing, since during the fall of your teen’s junior year, the guidance department is focused on seniors
Read more →
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” -Plato. As a college admissions consultant, I often hear parents and their students ask at the end of junior year of high school, “What can we be doing during the summer to prepare for the crazy senior year
Read more →
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill. This post offers suggestions for next steps after receiving a deferral or denial from an Early Action or Early Decision college, with advice from Admissions Matters: What Students and Parents Need to
Read more →
“We convince by our presence.” -Walt Whitman. In the adult career world, the interview is pivotal to landing a job. It is natural that parents would expect interviews to play a key role in the college process as well. Client families often come to me feeling stressed
Read more →
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” -Steve Martin. While guiding suburban high school students in New Jersey and New York as they apply to college, I have become acquainted with many distinctive, talented adolescents. I have also observed many similarities, such as the colleges to which they
Read more →
“My secret is practice.” -David Beckham. The alarm clock rings, startling me out of sound REM sleep. I grab it furiously, switch it off, and hurl it to the floor. Then I glance at the time, and—YIKES! I’m late! I leap out of bed. It’s Saturday morning
Read more →
“I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.” -Noam Chomsky. Weather? You might be surprised how often this topic comes up with my clients when discussing all the dimensions of college choice. Somewhere between the dimensions of institutional prestige, availability of programs of interest,
Read more →