Applying to college and feeling a little stressed out? You’re not alone. There is good reason to feel apprehensive about the likelihood of being accepted into one’s dream school this year. In 2024, many elite institutions reported both a record number of applicants and the lowest acceptance rates in history for the class of 2028...

  Updated 2024. Every week, I receive dozens of calls from parents concerned about their children’s writing skills. Here’s a sample of what these parents are saying: “He’s very bright, but he just can’t seem to get his thoughts on the page.” “He just kind of...

Besides top scores, colleges want to see evidence of your empathy and passion.In this high-stakes, hyper-competitive academic climate, students often think that colleges only value their academic successes and achievements. This only makes sense. Throughout your...

Empathy, integrity, selflessness, and grit are high on the list of desirable applicant attributesThe National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Character Collaborative conducts a survey of trends in college admission every year. But...

Some predict the worst year ever, but others say that wait lists may only impact students who applied to highly competitive colleges. Theoretically, the Ivy League and other elite colleges will let their applicants know if they were admitted during the next week or...

This year’s unprecedented application numbers worry studentsThe number of college applications are on the rise, and it is getting harder and harder to get into one of the Ivy League schools and other competitive colleges each year. Generally, college applications...

One-on-one tutoring could be the solution to learning loss caused by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemicThe world’s educational systems are facing unprecedented challenges this year as they attempt to respond to the significant and consequential  learning loss...

 Astonishing increase in number of early action and early decision applications received at Ivies and other major universitiesThe first college admissions decisions for the Class of 2025 will be arriving in mailboxes starting around December 15, 2020. While no one...

In case you missed the news, there have been a few recent changes made regarding admissions requirements and deadlines to direct medical programs at a few universities.Here’s the update: Temple University has released a separate Health Scholar application, due...

The “Why Us?” supplemental essay response can spell the difference between acceptance and rejectionDuring last 10 years of unprecedented competition for college admission, the “Why Us?” supplemental essay—the one that asks you to identify your reasons for applying...

College admissions officers are generally personable, generous, empathetic, even at times forgiving. But there are three things they absolutely positively will not forgive in college application essays (aka Common App essay/Coalition App essay) and they...

While college admissions officers used to admit students primarily based on their GPAs and SAT/ACT scores, that’s no longer true.  In fact, during the past 10 years, as competition for college admission has continued to increase year after year, college admissions...

Letters of recommendation help admissions officers determine who is likely to succeed on campus. All of a child’s hard work in high school is reflected in the student’s transcript and test scores, and all of your child’s activities are shown on the extracurricular...

In 2018, when the Students for Fair Admissions alleged that Harvard discriminated against Asian-American applicants, they forced the release of once confidential admissions information, and that exposure revealed much about the inner workings of the admissions...

Since schools shut down, educators have been bracing for the worst academic "summer slide" in history. But new research suggests that the so-called coronavirus or “COVID slide” is going to be even worse than feared.Projections suggest major academic impacts from...

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted every aspect of American life, including higher education. As a result, many are wondering what college life will look like this fall. Will the Ivy League and other colleges be open for business as usual in the fall?Most...

In 2017, I wrote an article titled “Why Students Should Start Working on Common Application Essays the Summer Before Senior Year.” Because the Common Application essay is an essay the likes of which you’ve never written, in that article, I strongly encouraged...

In a recent Fox Business report titled “Coronavirus is Changing the College Admissions Process, Especially for Elite Schools,”  Ann Schmidt suggested that college applicants’ chances at admission will be significantly handicapped this year due to coronavirus test...

During the past few weeks, Cornell University, along with a number of other top-tier colleges and universities, announced that students applying to Cornell this year will not be required to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their admissions applications. This...

After years of record low acceptance rates, this spring, Harvard University, Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania posted increased acceptance rates for the first-year class that will begin in the fall of 2020. This comes as a surprise to many who...

If you’re a high school sophomore or junior, you’re probably feeling like your plans for developing your college application have come to a screeching halt due to the global pandemic (COVID-19, aka coronavirus). After all, school has closed and you’ve already...

In Dante’s Inferno, those souls neither graced by fortune nor completely damned by fate are consigned to Limbo. Limbo is neither here nor there; not heaven but also not hell. It’s kind of a squashy place characterized above all else by indeterminacy. If he had...

In an earlier post, we noted the declining number of students who applied through Early Action and Early Decision programs last year. But there are other interesting (and puzzling facts!) about those who applied to become members of the Class of 2024 that reveal...

As college applicants begin to anticipate receiving admissions acceptances, data about the Class of 2024’s profile is beginning to leak out. And the information we’ve received points to some optimistic and some puzzling trends for those applying for Class of 2025....

The novel coronavirus is already having an impact on college admissions, and has specific implication for those students interested in applying to be members of the Class of 2025.Coronavirus is expected to significantly change this year’s college admissions...

In a year in which some highly selective universities received fewer applications, once again, New York University received more applications than ever before. NYU continued to attract more applicants than ever before, continuing their streak started 13 years ago....

Given the unprecedented competition for college admission, your child’s junior and senior years can be pretty intense. Besides working to maximize GPAs, eleventh and twelfth graders need to prep for AP exams as well the SAT and/or the ACT, they need to continue to...

In a news release on October 8, 2019, the ACT announced several key changes that will take effect in September 2020. ACT test changes may mean higher scores, especially for the wealthyThey include: 1.  Retakes As of September 2020, students who have already taken...

There are many excellent reasons to transfer from one college to another. You might want to transfer after reconsidering what you want out of college. Or you might want to transfer because you’ve decided to change majors and don’t feel you’ll be adequately educated...

Penn received 6,088 early decision applications for the Class of 2024 — a more than 14% decline from last year's number of applications.The popularity of Early Decision continues to grow, so what happened at Penn?That’s a striking drop. To put the numbers in...

While the majority of college application deadlines fall somewhere between November 1 and January 1 of your senior year, there are many good colleges that accept applications throughout the spring of your senior year and even during the summer after your graduation...

The University of Pennsylvania is one of the eight Ivy League universities (along with Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Cornell, Yale, and Columbia). As such, it’s hard to get into.It’s not easy to get into Penn, but with the right strategy, you can boost your...

With the regular decision deadline just weeks away, students need to work fast to get all the required application essays written. In addition to the Common App essay / Coalition App essay, many colleges require 3-5 (if not more!) supplemental essays, and that...

The findings of the 2019 Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Admissions Officials were recently released, and they indicate considerable concern among the 336 admissions directors who responded about a wide array of issues including the...

In this era of unprecedented competition for college admission, it’s important to exploit every available opportunity to get an extra edge on your competitors, including the Additional Information section of the Common Application.The information you include in...

As soon as your child’s senior year begins, college admission stress skyrockets. In addition to keeping up with senior year homework, tests, and extra-curricular activities, the time has now come when your child has to communicate to college admissions officers who...

Just how hard is it to get into the Ivy League? Very hard. But impossible? Not at all. With acceptance rates at top colleges and universities falling to record or lows, high school students face increasing pressure when it comes to applying to the Ivy League Let’s...

When creating their college lists, some students look for colleges that will offer them opportunities to learn and accumulate knowledge in a particular field. For these students, learning for the sake of learning is the primary if not the exclusive purpose of going...

The Common App essay is one of the most important essays your child will ever write.   Why? Because the college application essay has a huge role in determining whether or not your child will be admitted to college. In fact, some admissions officers tell me that at...

In a press release recently issued by the Office of the President of the University of California, Janet Napolitano noted some interesting facts about who is admitted to the UC system, who isn’t, and why it’s hard for some students to be admitted.If you’re first...

Senior year of high school is perhaps the most stressful time of a student’s life.  College-bound seniors know that there’s a lot that needs to be done—keeping up grades, retaking standardized tests, writing college application essays and supplemental...

When advising their children about the college admissions process, parents often encourage them to explore an array of extra-curricular activities so that when they apply to college, they will appear well-rounded. While that strategy worked when parents were...

While all colleges hope that applicants will demonstrate passion, leadership, initiative, and intelligence in their application essays, the colleges and universities in the Ivy League as well as the Seven Sister schools and other top-tier colleges expect to see...

This year, six Ivy League colleges and universities including University of Pennsylvania,  Columbia University, Yale University, Brown University, Harvard, and Dartmouth  established record numbers of applicants (over 43,000 in Harvard’s case) and as a result all...

Given the unprecedented competition for college admission, many students think that they should apply to 20, 25, even 30 colleges to boost their chances of winning admission to college. While that looks like a smart strategy—the more colleges you apply to the more...

The College Board’s new adversity index has been on the minds of everyone during the past few days and I’ve received many calls from concerned parents wondering how this new SAT “score” will affect their children’s admissions chances. The College Board claims the...

For most students the most difficult part of the already fraught college application process is coming up with topics for the Common Application essay and the supplemental college application essays. The Common App essay and the supplemental application essays give...

Applying to college is a fraught process, and even families who’ve gone through the process before often feel intimidated by the sheer number of things that have to be done, and done on time.Playing catch-up can lead to unnecessary stress, and weak applications To...

In an effort to sort through a growing number of applications, about a decade ago, colleges began tracking applicants’ “demonstrated interest.” This new measure sought to calculate the seriousness of the applicants’ interest in the college and took into account,...

A week ago, Dartmouth College published stunning application stats. Despite recent scandals and a lot of bad press, the College received a record number of regular decision applications for the Class of 2023: 23,641. This, a whopping 7.3 percent increase over last...

In Dante’s Inferno, those souls neither graced by fortune nor completely damned by fate are consigned to Limbo. Limbo is neither here nor there; not heaven but also not hell. It’s kind of a squashy place characterized above all else by indeterminacy. If he had...

Finally. You’ve clicked “submit” for the last time. The college application process is finally over. You lean back in your chair, close your eyes, and think… “Now what?” The anxiety around college admissions decisions can cause even the most stalwart students to...

Recently, there’s been an upsurge among college students interested in reviewing their application files. This review of personal educational records is permitted by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). But will perusing your application file...

More and more students are busting to apply to college prior to the regular decision (RD) application deadline through Early Action (EA) and Early Decision (ED) programs.  But is all that stress worth it?The University of Pennsylvania admitted only 1,279...

During a college admissions interview, the interviewer will be asking you questions designed to elicit responses that will provide the interviewer with a sense of the you who exists beyond the transcript and test scores. In other words, the admissions interviewer...

College admissions officers use college interviews for two main purposes. First, they want to get a better sense of you as a person. In other words, in part, the interviewer is conducting the interview to assess your personality, sociability, and likeability....

What happens after you submit your college application? How do admissions officers review your college application? College and university admissions offices consider many factors when reviewing college applications. These include SAT/ACT score, GPA, the Common...

Writing your Common Application essay and the Coalition Application essay can be tricky. You have to brag but remain modest. For many applicants, this can be hard balance to achieve. How do you show off and at the same time remain humble? Mastering the art of...

Students often approach their college application supplemental essay responses much the way they do a homework assignment they know the teacher won’t count too much. Perhaps not indifferently but certainly a little casually.  But in this era of unprecedented...

For college applicants and their families, November can be a tough month. College-bound students feel tremendous pressure to maintain good grades, often in multiple AP courses. At the same time, both applicants and parents frantically struggle to find the most...

Given the unprecedented competition for college admission today, you need to write an application essay that shows how you stand out from your competitors. Last year, colleges across the country received record numbers of applications from excellently qualified...

Colleges all over the country are expanding their waiting lists. In fact, at many competitive colleges the number of wait-listed applicants is three to four times the number of students enrolled in the incoming first-year class.  Good news for applicants? College...

When I was in high school, I got a D minus minus in Algebra II. My teacher’s explanation for this dubious gift was as follows: if Timmy, my older and always straight-A brother, could get a A in her class, then certainly I could too. I applied to college with a D...

Every college applicant wants to stand out, but a recent analysis of college application essays shows that students often lapse into clichés when writing their common application essays. When excellence has become standard, you need to show that you are outstanding...

Applying to college is stressful. And without a doubt, writing the application essay is the most stressful part of applying to college. I suppose I didn’t need to write that. Don’t let common mistakes hurt your admissions chances Most of the students with whom I...

You’ve heard it before but I’m going to say it again: In this age of unprecedented competition for college admission, the first sentences of your college application essay matter more now than ever before. Ordinary college application essays don’t get read.  ...

If this year is like last year, colleges and universities will receive a record number of applications this year. Given that we are living through an era of unprecedented competition for college admission and an era of unprecedented teen rates of anxiety,...

If you’re a parent, you’re probably trying to wrap your mind around how much the college admissions process has changed since you applied to college. You might even be trying to figure out how much the process has changed since your older child applied just four or...

As a college admissions tutor and counselor and long-time Rutgers professor, I have had an opportunity to speak with many folks in many admissions offices, and while schmoozing with college application readers, I’ve learned a few things that every college applicant...

Sometimes it can feel like the college admissions system is rigged. And if you live in a relatively affluent area of the country or a university town, it can sometimes feel like you’re the only one around who doesn’t have connections. Tales of millionaires and...

If you think that the college admissions process becomes more confusing, intense, and demanding every year, you’re right. Applying to college is widely held to be as stressful as taking an additional AP course in senior year. Think of it this way. When your child...

  Most Ivy League colleges want to see a composite SAT score of 1500-1600 and a composite ACT score of no lower than 33. Does that mean that you shouldn’t apply if you don’t have these scores? Not at all. However, if your score is less than the school’s...

  Too often, students are given bad advice when it comes to participating in high school extra-curricular activities. A lot of that advice sounds like this:             “Join every club that you can!”             “Work your way into every leadership position...

  You can take hundreds of virtual college tours and browse through multiple electronic guidebooks, but there’s no better way to see if a college is a good fit for you than by visiting the college and talking face-to-face with the people who make up the...

  When high school students begin the college admissions process, many feel overwhelmed. Trying to manage all that has to be done can be stressful and can take a toll on academic performance, friendships, and health.   How to avoid it? Start early. While some...

  The college admissions process can feel overwhelming. For most students, the long slog starts in September of junior year. When should I take the PSAT? The SAT? Should I take the ACT as well? What’s the best way to prep? How many times should I retake each...

  You’ve just opened a letter from your dream school and discovered that you’ve been waitlisted. Your heart sinks. Now what? If you are waitlisted, contact the admissions officers at that college and remind them why you are a perfect fit for their school. Once...