Cardinal Education Journal

Blog

May 24, 2021

How to Avoid Competitive Majors

Maybe it’s your dream to be an engineer. Or you really love working with computers. Or you managed to score a notoriously impossible 5 on the AP Biology exam, and you took that as a sign of things to come. You may be tempted to mention on your application that you want to apply to […]

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May 24, 2021

What To Do When Waitlisted

You open up the latest email from your top choice college, which says there’s an update to your application. You go to the application portal, with the moment of truth just one button click away: here is where you find out whether you’re going to your top choice in the fall. Taking a deep breath, […]

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May 21, 2021

The Real Value of Advanced Placement/AP Exams in College Admissions

Every April, high school students and their parents’ stress levels skyrocket. Finals are just around the corner, but even closer, a more terrible kind of examination looms: the Advanced Placement subject exams. Students cram study sessions wherever they can as their parents seek out all the extra support they can muster. APs, they’ve been told, […]

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May 19, 2021

Flashcards and Its Effects on Student’s Study Habits

Flashcards form the backbone of most students’ study habits. As soon as a new chapter or vocab unit is introduced, outcome the index cards and sharpies. Though this style of rote memorization has been around for decades if not centuries, what many students do not realize is that the standards and styles of modern education […]

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May 19, 2021

When to Visit Where?: The Two Phases of College Visiting

Spring break always brings travel plans, but those plans are seldom more important than in a student’s junior year as they and their families hit the road touring a long list of colleges to kick off what is essentially the opening stages of the college application process. What many families do not know, however, is […]

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May 19, 2021

When Should Your Child Finish Their Essay?

Starting in middle school, students deal with all manner of projects and assignments that involve some kind of essay writing. These essays graduate into full-blown papers in high school, and balancing their deadlines against other schoolwork becomes a central focus of time management. It is an axiom that you shouldn’t finish an essay the night […]

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May 18, 2021

When Should I Start My College Applications?

When should I start my college application? The answer to this question can affect every element of your application, especially if you get started too late to adequately prepare. When is too late? When is too early? Is there even such a thing? Indeed there is, and with the guide below, you should be able […]

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May 18, 2021

What the New AP Exams Format Means for Aspiring College Students

COVID-19 has upended countless pillars of education in the past three months, from changing class grades and canceled finals to an uncertain college testing and admissions landscape. Perhaps the least discussed shift, however, has been CollegeBoard’s pivot on AP testing for the spring of 2020. Rather than cancel its iconic advance placement topic exams, the […]

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May 12, 2021

What is a Strong Legacy School Connection?

While it has come under fire recently, legacy admissions remains a strong influencing factor for college admissions to many American schools from the Ivy Leagues to public universities. Families understandably want to take advantage of any possible connection they have in an admissions landscape that is increasingly ultra-competitive. What, then, serves as a connection that […]

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May 11, 2021

GPA and the World’s Worst Grade

Grades occupy a place in privilege in the American, and really any, school system. Parents and students obsess about GPA, and for good reason. GPA remains the most important single factor in college admissions, often either opening or closing doors to elite universities before any other criterion is taken into account. The best grade in […]

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