Seth Godin offers us "Reject the tryanny of being picked" It's a cultural instinct to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission and authority that comes from a publisher or talk show host or even a blogger saying, 'I pick you.' Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going […]
Read More >Are you making a difference?
If you stopped showing up to water polo practice, would it make a difference? Would your absence be noticeable? Would it negatively affect the team? If you're a great player or the team captain, the answer is probably "Yes." But even the kid who sits deep on the bench can still play an important role, […]
Read More >Impress colleges by learning what you want to learn
Here's one of the surest ways to impress any college, including the most selective ones: Find what you love to learn, and learn more of it. Several years ago, one of our students wrote his college essay about his obsession with decoding the meaning of the last sentence of 100 Years of Solitude. After he […]
Read More >Ivy league prep for nursery schoolers?
If you're a parent who paid $19,000 to send your daughter to nursery school, and the school didn't teach what it promised it would teach, you have the right to be upset. You may even have the right to demand your money back. But if you file a lawsuit claiming that the nursery school has […]
Read More >What colleges want
What colleges want actually isn't all that complicated: 1. Students who enjoy learning and are excited about doing more of it in college. 2. Applicants who will become a part of the campus community, like playing saxophone in the marching band, doing improv with the drama club, or staying up late doing physics problem sets […]
Read More >An inside look at MIT admissions
This post, written in 2006 by MIT admissions officer Ben Jones, gives you a great look at just how personal–and difficult–the process of selecting a freshman class can be at a highly selective college. They spend November-March deciding who they want to admit, people they are sure deserve to attend MIT (and you can imagine […]
Read More >Colleges love nice kids, and so do we
I think every kid who wants to go to college and is willing to do the work deserves to go. But if you want people to help you, you've got to be nice. You should be appreciative, and you should respect the time and effort the people who are helping you are expending. You get […]
Read More >For parents: Five things to consider before you hire a tutor
When a student is struggling in a class, a lot of well-meaning parents throw a tutor at the problem. A good tutor can be wonderful for a student who's struggling. But if you want the investment of your money and your student's time to pay off, here are five questions to consider before you enlist […]
Read More >A Stanford grad with a lot left to learn
I got a call once from a graduating senior at Stanford asking about our "engineering opening." I told him we didn't have an engineering opening, and it became clear pretty fast that someone in their career center had goofed and listed our job opening incorrectly. But this Stanford grad just refused to believe it. No […]
Read More >How stories make your activities stand out
It's hard to make your activities stand out on a college application when you have to list them like this (the numbers are the grades in which the student participated): Varsity soccer: 11, 12Key Club: 10-12, President (12)Spanish Club: 9-12, Treasurer (11) This student should be proud of his involvement. But it's not going to […]
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