The essay is one of the most revealing pieces of the college application process. Not only are you expected to bare your soul in 650 words or less, but you’re also offering a window into how you think. Most of you do it subconsciously, which can lead to mixed results. When, however, you become conscious..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Unlike the rest of your application—which is about telling colleges what you’ve done—the personal statement for the Common App is about telling them who you are. That’s a daunting task for anyone, but often what it really comes down to is helping admissions officers understand your personal qualities. For many—dare I..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Having read the title of this post, you probably believe that it will give you all of the information you need to ensure your extracurricular activities will impress even the most jaded Ivy-league application reader. You would be wrong. If you believe that a blog post can give you that, I’d..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. In a recent conversation with a student, something bothered me about her ideas for community service. It also bothered me that something about wanting to help others was somehow problematic. As I listened to her explain that she wanted to join an organization, similar to the National Honor Society, that..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. For many students, landing on a college waitlist hurts. Some even (wrongly) perceive it as a failure (trust me, it’s not). They might even question what they didn’t do right or what they could have done better, and they may even blame the system that is drenched in secrecy, and..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. No college information session would be complete without a colorful Powerpoint peppered with grandiose value statements. Diversity! Sustainability! Intellectual excellence! If you’re bored yet, I get it: so am I. As a college consultant, I have a professional obligation to attend many such sessions, so allow me to share a rather..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. In one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, “Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade,” Bart and Lisa are both moved into the third grade. Bart moves down from fourth, because he fails a standardized test, while Lisa moves up from second, because she excels on that same test...
By Dr. Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Allow me to begin this post with a vast understatement completely belying its content: writing college essays is hard. As I repeatedly find myself telling students, the college essay is a genre unto itself: peculiar, idiosyncratic, and for most students, entirely novel. It also demands that students produce something exceptional..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Many people sent me a copy of the Wall Street Journal article, “To Get into the Ivy League, ‘Extraordinary’ Isn’t Always Enough,” the day it came out. I obviously couldn’t not read it given the panic it was causing. So I sat down at the kitchen table with my morning..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Social media is no less ubiquitous in the college application process than everywhere else in our daily lives. Just as a potential employer may search for your name on Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram (to name a few), the practice is gaining increasing acceptance in the world of college admissions,..