A few months ago a family approached me and asked for help in their college search for their daughter. They came prepared for the meeting and had a list of schools that satisfied both the academic and social needs of their daughter. What they wanted from me was to gather information for them about the safety of the campuses they had chosen. And with that charge, I began my search and discovered  an actual piece of legislation called The Clery Act which requires schools that receive federal aid to publish and disseminate an annual security report (ASR) to its faculty, students, and the public . This report must contain statistics of campus crime (for the preceding three years) and include information about criminal activity on [...]

On January 19th, 2021, the College Board shook the college admission community with news that it will no longer offer Subject Tests or the writing component of the SAT. Already the current class of 2022 is feeling the pressure of not knowing what the admission landscape will look like amidst an ongoing raging pandemic. But to add salt to some already fresh wounds, they hear this news. High school counselors are applauding the announcement--less administrative responsibilities on their part and one less worry for their high school students. But we should all understand, this is far from an altruistic move on the part of the College Board. We can surmise that they ran the numbers and saw that the subject  tests were losing popularity to [...]

It seems to me that the college application season is growing shorter and shorter. When I first began working with high school students, I made sure to limit my travels to after December in case more time was needed to submit applications. But this timeline is changing and it is changing fast.   University of Virginia recently announced that after a ten year hiatus from offering an Early Decision, it has been reinstated as an option for the 2019-2020 admission cycle. But the announcement did not end there, the deadline for this applications will be October 15, 2019-two weeks earlier than almost any university that offers an Early Decision option. This will leave  teachers, counselors, registrars, and most importantly our students as little as six [...]

I love how Lawrence Momo captures the disappointment of the potential denial of deferral from a college, especially as colleges are beginning to release  Early Decisions. I remember making many trips with my daughter to the local ice cream store after she began hearing from her schools; I bought her anything she wanted and gave her a day to mourn the college that did not accept her. It is so hard watching young people experience rejection, and for many it is their first time around. Do not make her rejection your own. Be honest with friends and family so she sees that there is no shame in a rejection. After all we all know not getting what we want when we want is part of [...]

  Demonstrated Interest is all the buzz when talking about the college admission process. But what does it mean? And how can you be sure to make sure I show demonstrated interest? There are many different ways an applicant can show interest and it does not only involved buying costly plane tickets and spending a weekend out of town. Here are some helpful pointers that can let admissions offices see your interest. Do you know all those emails that you colleges send you daily? Some schools actually collect data and see who is opening their emails. So open the email, actually read it, maybe you will learn a thing or two about the school, and in the process you have begun to demonstrate interest. When [...]

In order to decide which is best for you, it is first important to understand what each college admission process means.   An Early Decision application is when students make a commitment to a first choice institution where, if admitted they will definitely enroll. The decision is binding.  The application deadline and and decision deadline occur early. A Regular Decision application is when students submit an application by a specified date and receive a decision in a clearly stated period of time. The decision is non binding.     Early Decision has become a more popular route that students are choosing, especially those who know exactly where they want to attend school. The advantages of Early Decision admission is that students who choose to apply [...]

A New Trend in the Right Direction As seniors across the country open their Common Application, they will notice on the Testing section of the Common Application, there may be an opportunity for them to self-report their standardized test scores.  This is something new. In the past, students were required to go through the College Board or the ACT to have their scores sent to the various schools that they were applying to. The rising costs of the college application process has pushed some schools to allow their applicants to self-report their scores via the Common Application at no charge. However, once a student is admitted and decides to enroll, official scores must then be sent to the school. This is under no uncertain terms [...]