Don’t Panic! How the economy should impact your college search

As markets continue their roller coaster ride while the candidates sling invective at one another’s financial bailout plans, I hear daily from people reacting to the financial situation as it relates to colleges.  On the college side, college administrators are concerned many of you will stay home, or at least closer to home than you [...]

At long last, I’ve become a wholly owned subsidiary.

No, you’re not having déjà vu – it’s very possible that what you’re reading here you are also reading on Admissions.com.  Here’s the scoop: Even as I rant about the evils of marketing in admissions and all the ways that colleges seek to manipulate you, I’ve cut a deal with the powers that be at [...]

Better recommendations for college admissions

It’s important to remember, whether I’m writing about essays, recommendations, or other non-academic pieces of the application, that these are FAR less important than your academic records.  It seems worth repeating that test scores are likewise far less important than academic records– but that essays and recommendations are given even less weight.   Since recommendations [...]

What is the best recommendation for college admission

I promised I’d get around to writing about recommendations, and at long last I have.  Colleges look at recommendations, first and foremost, to get additional information about what kind of student you have been and will be.  It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, then, that the most important recommendations are usually from teachers. There [...]

Why and how do universities offer scholarships before I apply?

I returned from the national admissions conference to a slew of questions about our scholarship standards, mostly from prospective applicants wanting to know RIGHT NOW (before applying, before we’ve started reviewing any applicants) whether or not they will receive a scholarship.  Given the financial climate, that may not be surprising, but I think it’s also [...]