USA Today published this article last week about a venture capital backed college counseling firm and of course, a dozen people forwarded me the link. First, you should know that the 23-year old New Zealander who founded this company DID, in fact, use an independent educational consultant during his college application process. And second, I’ve … Read more
I’ve been quiet for a little while as I helped my clients finalize their college applications – November and December were packed with activity! I thought I would share this interesting list of the most popular majors from a recent CNN Study: http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/blog/2012/03/top-ten-most-popular-majors Many students who come to me mention some of these as potential … Read more
Yesterday, I hosted my Inaugural* “Let’s Talk About College!” lunch for my high school sophomores and juniors. In addition to the six students who came, I invited a few friends who attended different colleges. Not official admissions representatives, or even interviewers – just normal people who can talk about what it’s like to be a … Read more
Please join us for two free presentations at Temple Adat Shalom this Tuesday, 10/16, and next Tuesday, 10/23 about college admissions. This week, we’ll talk about the basics: what matters in college admissions, how an admissions committee works, what your student can do in 9th, 10th and 11th grade to improve their options when they … Read more
I was behind a car the other day with a license plate frame that said “100% Slug.” Imagine how proud this guy must be of his UC Santa Cruz education. You probably have friends who are alumni of UCLA and USC whose faces contort at the mention of the cross-town rival. Their school pride is … Read more
I wrote a piece for the Century City Patch about tonight’s college fair at the Universal Hilton. The Colleges That Change Lives is a group of 40 colleges, mostly lesser-known, all very small (under about 2,000 students each) liberal arts colleges, selected by the late Loren Pope, former education editor of the New York Times. Pope was … Read more
I recently wrote a piece for the Century City Patch about community service. Can it help you get into college? The answer is this – it can’t hurt. Community service is one of the many ways you can show colleges that you are a real person, with real interests (sometimes referred to as “passion” – … Read more
When I tell people that I received my undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, they usually ask if I am a doctor, or a nurse, or involved in medicine in some way. It’s a question I’ll answer for the rest of my life. I was a political science major. Many people don’t know Hopkins has … Read more
Sometimes we get so caught up in the college admissions frenzy we forget that 70% of colleges accept 70% or more of the students who apply. In fact, the news that generally surrounds the May 1 national response deadline is about what highly selective colleges have “yielded,” that is, what percentage of the students they … Read more
We all remember the first week of school in the fall – from fifth grade to high school – that first week of school always involved clearing out the cobwebs that grew all summer long. A dormant mind grows cobwebs on top of the math and chemistry formulas we used to know, the literary devices … Read more