Go to top
Blog – College Dollars and Sense

What Makes an Elite Essay

  • Distinctive College Consulting
  • Admissions
  • 1,606 views
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…
Read More

Focus on Your… Flaws?

  • Distinctive College Consulting
  • Admissions
  • 1,482 views
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…
Read More

Waitlisted? Now What?

  • Distinctive College Consulting
  • Admissions
  • 1,710 views
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…
Read More

What Do You Really Care About?

  • Distinctive College Consulting
  • Admissions
  • 1,554 views
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…
Read More

Could ChatGPT Write Your College Essays?

  • Distinctive College Consulting
  • Essays
  • 2,099 views
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Perhaps you’ve heard of ChatGPT. Introduced in November 2022, it has been one of the greatest disruptions to our sense of selves as human beings in history. Its ability…
Read More

Admissions Is in the Details

  • Distinctive College Consulting
  • Admissions
  • 1,469 views
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…
Read More