This past application season, I presented a student with a preliminary list of colleges and explained, as I always do, that the list is just preliminary and purely for research. I intend for plenty of discussion, soul-searching, and decision-making to follow. And, like most counselors, I try to present students
I’m sure many of you have followed the pair of lawsuits that challenged colleges’ affirmative action policies. One focused on the University of North Carolina, and the other on Harvard. Both cases, which were decided in June, essentially claimed that the two schools favored applicants from certain racial backgrounds
Earlier this year, a student asked me what I think the purpose of college is. That’s not a question I consider very often. I deal with college all the time. The whole point of my profession is to usher people into college (or, more specifically, selective four-year colleges) and,
(Content warning: Mildly crude language and heaps of irony.) In observance of the recent reboot of “Beavis and Butt-Head,” I would like to revisit the supremely obvious, but also hilarious, disclaimer that preceded every episode. It warned that the titular idiots’ antics “would cause a person to get hurt, expelled,
During college application season, I think of my one of my favorite Andy Warhol quotes: “If everybody’s not a beauty, then nobody is.” I don’t know of a college that evaluates applicants’ beauty as such. But, if you substitute “unique” for “beautiful,” you can unpack one of the
I could not, and probably would not, advise students on college applications if the English language did not fascinate me. Thanks to the volume of material I read and to my exposure to a particular demographic group — high school seniors — I get a privileged view of linguistic trends. Sometimes these
A cathartic analysis of unduly awkward, challenging, and nonsensical college essay prompts from the 2021 application year.
Going to college is usually fun no matter where you go. But applying to college is a strange way to have fun.
A record number of college applicants will be disappointed this year. The system has to change.
College applications are up, admission rates are down — and applicants need to stay upbeat.
Many college applicants strive to describe “personal growth” in their application essays. Here’s why they shouldn’t.
Every theater production goes through weeks of rehearsal. Football teams practice formations and plays dozens of times before running them in games. Chefs create tasting menus, militaries run drills, surgeons do internships, and pilots fly simulations. No one is expected to get it right — whatever “it” may be — on the