I’m consistently reminded that the people who ask great questions contribute as much as, if not more than, those who have great answers. It takes time, brains, opportunity, and luck to be the smartest person in the room. But the field to be the most inquisitive is often wide open. A faster path to indispensability: […]
Read More >Better practices for panels
For me, Wharton’s Adam Grant has become the thought leader who always delivers something smart, insightful, and immediately useful. His new piece, “How to Run a Conference Panel That Isn’t Horrible,” does it again. If you’re a counselor or admissions officer assembling, moderating, or joining a panel, it’s well worth the read.
Read More >Rarely just one chapter
The high school The essay The connection The hook The background The interview None of those things alone get a student into college. They can influence a decision in some cases, but they don’t have the power to change an admissions “no” into an acceptance. So be wary when someone claims a student “got in […]
Read More >More on strengths over weaknesses
The research and the experts keep showing up to endorse focusing on strengths—our own, and our kids’—rather than fixing weaknesses. Lea Walters is a positive psychology researcher and the author of The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish. As shared in her recent piece: […]
Read More >When kids tell the best stories
Today I’m doing my annual essay workshop for the Collegewise families in our Bellevue, Washington, office. In the early years of Collegewise, I was in front of families 2-3 times a week to discuss some element of college planning. And while those opportunities are a lot more infrequent now that Collegewise has grown and my […]
Read More >Doing more than dabbling
A student asked me this week if writing a feature-length screenplay this summer would be a strong addition to his college applications. “Will this look good?” queries pop up all the time for college counselors, and it’s easy to have a visceral reaction when we assume this is yet another student intent on making every decision […]
Read More >Ability vs. willingness
When I first started Collegewise in 1999, I enrolled in a course through the UCLA extension program to learn more about financial aid for college. I still remember one particularly pithy piece of information from the instructor, who’d worked as a director of financial aid for several prominent colleges and universities. “Financial aid is designed […]
Read More >We’re all average
Somewhere along the American college planning and career line, “average” got a bad rap. Unexceptional, unremarkable, wallowing in perpetual mediocrity. Nobody aspires to be average. And for many parents, we couldn’t bear to hear that word applied to our kids. But here’s the thing. With the rare exception of the truly exceptional, we’re all average—you, […]
Read More >Rest to take and work to do
Sports fans (and sports participants) understand the role of the off-season. It’s a time for athletes to heal and to take a break—physically and mentally—from the day-to-day grind of practice and the relentless pressure of competition. But the off-season is also a time to prepare, to study, and to improve. Athletes will train, work on […]
Read More >One room, smart people, and no agenda
Sometimes the best ideas—for a company, for a school, for a club or organization—come from the newest members. This week, I joined Collegewise Orientation for Class 40, a crop of seven new Collegewisers finding their footing during their first week of work. While enjoying dinner on night one, Zain, one of our new online counselors, […]
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