When you're picking your classes, here's something we tell our Collegewise students–challenge yourself sanely. You should take difficult classes to prepare for college. Hard work is good. A little stress is good. The occasional late night is OK. Successful people know how to take on and manage challenges, and a rigorous curriculum helps you learn […]
Read More >Can you ask a teacher for a letter of recommendation now?
A Collegewise parent asked me recently, "If students know which teacher they'd like to write their letter of recommendation for college, can they ask now, or do kids have to wait until they apply?" Good question. Most colleges require that the teachers who write your letters of recommendation either 1) Fill out a form from […]
Read More >Which applicant would you pick?
Imagine you owned a software company and you were hiring a programmer. You narrowed down over 300 qualified applicants to two that you want to interview. Applicant #1 gets genuinely excited when he talks about some of the software he's written. It's obvious he loves computers and programming. Applicant #2 rattles off a list of […]
Read More >Can you really tell the difference between Harvard and other schools?
The American college admission system would have collapsed long ago if bright applicants were actually hurt in any lasting way by not getting into Brown and Amherst. If you don’t think so, ask your boss or your mayor or your school superintendent where they went to college. There are at least a hundred American universities […]
Read More >What to do if you didn’t get into an AP class
So you wanted to be placed into an AP class next year (like Bio, US history or English) but you didn’t get the class. What should you do about it? First, here’s what you shouldn’t do. Don’t send your parents in to fight with your counselor or otherwise put pressure on the school to let […]
Read More >The right tone for college essays
College essays aren’t formal, academic pieces of writing like those you write in your English classes. Instead, they should sound like you so the reader can figuratively hear your voice and get a sense of your personality. Here’s a good way to strike the right tone without being too informal. 1. For everything you write […]
Read More >How can you tell if you’ve chosen good activities?
If a college interviewer said to you, "Tell me a little bit about (insert one of your activities)," what would you say? Would you have stories to tell? Could you give some examples about your participation, what you've given and how you've made an impact? Could you talk about the reasons why you've enjoyed it? […]
Read More >The truth about class rank
Some high schools will assign you a numerical class rank to measure your academic achievement relative to that of the rest of your classmates (Example: you’re ranked 28th out of a class of 214). But many high schools, convinced that class ranks foster too much unhealthy competition between classmates, have abolished class rankings. And no […]
Read More >Start a college visit club
Katie and I have visited 18 colleges between the two of us in the last week–Stevens, Sarah Lawrence, Fordham, Villanova, Princeton, Penn, Duke, Elon, University of Puget Sound and UNC Chapel Hill (for Katie); University of Minnesota, Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf, Grinnell, Cornell College (the one in Iowa), UW Madison and Marquette (for me). We […]
Read More >College prep
Are you really preparing for college? Not just taking classes labeled "college prep," but also developing the important skills you'll need? Getting ready for college means getting ready for life. Here are a few skills you can start developing now if you wan to be a successful college student (and a successful college graduate). • […]
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