When applying to college, a lot of students express their big plans for the next four years. They’ll tell interviewers or write essays about how much they want to: Help people Learn about business Get involved in student leadership Meet people from different cultures Take advanced mathematics courses Play club soccer Study abroad Take the […]
Read More >For private counselors: Let yourself occasionally get burned
If you run or work in a small business, you have to make frequent choices whether to trust your good customers or protect yourself from the occasional bad apple. When in doubt, go with the trust. We leave copies of many of our materials on our waiting room table so potential new customers can look […]
Read More >Leave a big void
My first job out of college was at the local office of a major test prep company. It was easy to see early on which one of my co-workers was the office MVP. He was the only one who could do everything that needed to be done in that office, from delivering seminars about any […]
Read More >Seventh semester opportunity
Seniors, if any of your chosen colleges ask for seventh semester transcripts, that means that once you complete this upcoming semester, you’ll need to forward those grades to the school before an admissions decision is made. Many students treat seventh semester transcripts like an application afterthought. It doesn’t feel as important as the rest of […]
Read More >When you have a financial aid question
Every time I have a question about college financial aid or scholarships, I’ve been able to find the answer by either: 1. Typing “Mark Kantrowitz” into Google, followed by the subject of my question (ex: “Mark Kantrowitz common law marriage financial aid”) Or 2. Going directly to finaid.org, viewing their site map, and finding the […]
Read More >For private counselors: Do your preferred customers prefer their treatment?
At Collegewise, we buy all our office supplies at Staples. For several years, I got an annual phone call from an account manager telling me I was a preferred customer which entitled me to special discounts. It sounded great, but what it really meant was that my account manager called me once a week to […]
Read More >Drive-by viral doesn’t convert
Whether you're a private counselor, a high school, or a college, if you need to attract customers, one viral ad, tweet, video or posting will never be worth as much as permisison to communicate over time. As Seth Godin puts it in "Converting viral traffic": How many eyeballs are passing by is a useless measure. […]
Read More >How to address an envelope
I remember the first time I came across a student who had no idea how to address the envelopes she needed to give her teachers along with her letter of recommendation packets. It was confirmation that I was much, much older than the students I was working with. Now it happens all the time, as […]
Read More >Don’t fit in
High school students who want to go to prestigious colleges have a lot in common with college students who want to be doctors. In Is There a Future Doctor in the House?, I described how typical collegiate premeds work like crazy to do everything the other premeds are doing. They follow an identical path together […]
Read More >George Costanza’s take on SAT scores
Here is one of my favorite Seinfeld exchanges between George and Jerry. For context, bear in mind that before 1970, the highest you could score on the SAT was 1600, and it was possible to get a score not divisible by 10, like 1409. GEORGE: I'm sure I have a low IQ. I've been lying about […]
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