By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. It’s my favorite time of year. There’s (finally) a chill in the air. My daughter and I take walks through the park and crunch every possible fallen leaf underfoot. Pumpkins adorn doorsteps, ghosts hang from windows and trees. Every evening, we get a faint whiff of a neighbor’s bonfire through our..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. My daughter recently said to me, “You are surprisingly athletic.” While certainly a loaded statement, to be honest, I’ll take this 70% compliment, 30% insult from her. Being athletic has been important to me ever since my best friend and I owned the boys on our elementary school’s kickball field...
By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. Every student I work with receives the same exhortation as we talk through their summer plans. Between the summer classes, the sports camps, the internships, and the travel, please, I beg them, please, make time to read a book by the pool. It isn’t really about the pool. A creek, a..
By Adrian Cho, Ph.D. The summer is upon us! A time of beach vacations, mountain getaways, Fourth of July barbecues, and the 2026 World Cup – in other words, parties. Some amount of revelry is not just understandable but well-deserved after a long school year. When it comes to college life, however, a school’s partying..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. To tell a story is hard. Or is it, a story is hard to tell? Or maybe, hard it is to tell a story? These variations on the same theme reveal the difficulties you face when trying to write, let alone trying to develop your college essays. Where do you..
By Adrian Cho, Ph.D. The note arrives before the thought does. A high E, fortissimo, shouting into the crowd: “Barabbam, oder Jesum?” In J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Pontius Pilate asks the gathered crowd of Jews whether they would rather free Barabbas or Jesus, and for that moment, I am Pontius Pilate. Of course,..
By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. Have you ever heard Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way?” It’s kind of a dirge, and honestly I don’t really recommend it. I only listened to it for the first time when I learned about the phenomenon of “My Way” karaoke murders (absolutely worth a Google). But there’s a reason it’s so..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Besides the bursts of pink cherry blossoms, the sugary gooeyness of Cadbury Crème Eggs, and the mulchy petrichor following drizzly afternoons, nothing says spring quite like high school juniors’ brag sheets. These often lengthy questionnaires, sometimes referred to as Counselor Forms, Junior Packets, or other less-than-creative names, are like the..
By Adrian Cho, Ph.D. Happy New Year, dear readers! As we begin 2026, the time comes to begin seriously considering the list of colleges you will build (if you are a junior). It’s not just about finding schools that might accept you. It’s about identifying places where you can genuinely thrive. Building your college list..
By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. It doesn’t take a deep dive into college admissions Reddit, TikTok, or discussion boards to encounter tall tales about the mythical creature at the center of it all: the Admissions Counselor. The Admissions Counselor is larger than life, all-knowing, the keeper of the keys to your future. The Admissions Counselor throws..