Activity sections in college applications look different than they used to. In the years before I started Collegewise in 1999, many applications simply asked students to list each activity, along with any titles or associated recognition. But that made it difficult for a college to tell how committed a student had really been to one […]
Read More >Sharing advice…and responsibility
Something starts happening around this time of year for counselors working with seniors and their families. As application season moves into full swing, some families seem to listen less to the counselors who’ve been there, and start seeking (and taking) new advice from other sources. They add or remove colleges from the list on the advice […]
Read More >Unspoken, unexplored, or unresolved
Counselors, if a family believes that attending a prestigious college is a necessary precursor to success (or if they believe the corollary—that attending a less selective school is an inherent life disadvantage), chances are, it will be difficult for you to change their minds. No matter how many statistics, studies, or anecdotes you may bring […]
Read More >Are you doing drive-by charity work?
Frank Bruni’s recent New York Times piece, To Get to Harvard, Go to Haiti? explores the trend for college applicants to engage in what he calls “drive-by charity work,” the “so-called service that’s sometimes about little more than a faraway adventure and a few lines or paragraphs on their applications to selective colleges.” If you’re […]
Read More >Our 2016-17 Common App Guide is here!
Today, we’re releasing version 1.0 of the Collegewise Guide to the 2016-17 Common Application—revised and updated to reflect the most recent version. We’re announcing it to blog readers first, and once again, it’s available to download free of charge. You can get your copy here. Here are a few suggestions for how you might use our […]
Read More >Getting the most
Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, in response to “What got you interested in technology?” “I went to Stanford and started my pre-med classes. After my freshman year, I went back to Wausau [her hometown in Wisconsin], and I realized that I was learning all the same things that all my friends who went to the […]
Read More >Speaker’s block
I frequently come back on this blog to give examples of companies and organizations apologizing poorly. The whole, “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused” just raises my hackles. But why is that topic appropriate for a blog about getting into college? Because words matter. Because kids, parents, counselors, teachers, and colleges communicate […]
Read More >What you’re not learning
For the last few weeks, I’ve been trying an experiment at Collegewise. Once a week, I send an email to everyone with the subject line, “What do you think?” Each email asks for their opinion about some aspect of our company, our work, and our culture. What are we not as good at as we […]
Read More >Thrilled just to be there
With the Summer Olympics in full swing, imagine the difference between the athlete who arrives with one goal in mind—to win the gold—and the athlete who’s thrilled just to be there. One will leave fulfilled or defeated, with no in-between. The other has already won their prize. Some college applicants approach the process like a […]
Read More >Recurring roles
Many of the roles students can play in high school are recurring. Whether you’re the editor of the school paper, the shortstop on the softball team, or the second lead in the school play, someone played that role before you, and someone will play it again when you move on. So how will you be […]
Read More >- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- …
- 380
- Next Page »