Kevin McMullin

College admissions advice for students, parents, and counselors

The real person

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I’m so lucky that just about all the feedback I get about my blog posts is at best positive and at worst constructive. But every now and then, I’ll get a reply that makes it clear my posts and this particular reader are just not a good match. I usually send a short reply expressing […]

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Pressure off, focus on

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Patrick O’Connor always seems to show up for counselors and students with just the right message at just the right time. And his latest post for counselors, “Talking to Anxious Juniors About College,” is no exception. If you feel juniors ratcheting up the panic around their impending process, his recommended messaging will take some pressure […]

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Make it easier

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Last week, I needed to cancel our Collegewise account with DocuSign, as we’ve recently found a new tool that replaces it. And as I logged into my account, I braced myself. I was expecting the same routine I’ve found with multiple other services. You want to upgrade and pay us more? Great! We’ll make it easy—just […]

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Beating the reality drum

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Good college counselors, and I on this blog, routinely beat the drum that all the headlines about the absurd selectivity of American colleges are only news because they are anomalies. We remind families that highly selective colleges make up only a tiny portion of available schools, that happy and successful adults hail from hundreds of […]

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Stuck on a past story?

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College admissions decision month presents a separate but related choice many seniors will need to make, especially those who were disappointed with the outcomes: Live with the past story or write a new one. You’d envisioned yourself attending Duke, Pomona or another college you thought was perfect for as long as you can remember. You […]

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Bragging backfires

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Angela Duckworth is a University of Pennsylvania psychologist, the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, and the CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to character development. Her latest newsletter reminds parents that publicly bragging about your children’s college acceptances, test scores, and other achievements can actually have detrimental effects on your […]

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Collegewise scholarships for the class of 2020

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Last year, I announced that we were launching the Collegewise Scholarship Program to formally assist under-resourced students with their college application process. We were thrilled with the results. 27 students joined the program. Together with their assigned Collegewise counselors, they built their college lists, worked on their essays, and presented their very best applications for […]

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Face-to-face, or screen-to-screen?

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An increasing number of families who work with a college counselor at Collegewise do so entirely online via Zoom or Skype. In fact, we now have a growing crew of counselors who are not housed in an office and instead work with families virtually. We’re very comfortable counseling online. We know it works. The experience […]

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(False) merit

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Seth Godin’s recent episode of his Akimbo podcast tackles the question of merit, with a timely look into the highly selective college admissions process. It’s not for those who are looking for the secrets (legit, criminal, or anywhere in between) to cracking the admissions process. But if you’d like to better understand the absurdity of […]

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