Category: College Admissions

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 […]

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 […]

So much more than the traditional educational landscape has been changed these past few months as a result of COVID-19. The closure of schools and non-essential businesses means that as online schooling has taken hold, most of the students’ other activities have been shut down. Does this mean that college applications for the next few […]

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 […]

Thursday, May 24, 2020, may well go down in history as the day the SAT and ACT began their final decline. For the past two months, American colleges have added their names to a growing list of institutions that would make the SAT and ACT examinations optional for students applying in the fall of 2020 […]

What is the most important year of high school? Countless families ask this question as they hope that it hasn’t passed their students by with mediocre results. Some might say senior year. After all, that’s when students apply to college, right? In reality, colleges see at most the first half of senior year, and many […]

One of the most important decisions a student will make in the course of their college application process is exactly what program of study they wish to apply for. The choice of major is more than just an answer to the question “What do you want to do when you grow up?” It is a […]

No matter what schools they apply to or when they submit their applications, all students applying to American universities will need to write a personal statement essay: 650 words that sum up their life experiences and why a college would want to admit them. This is a tall order, and there are many different ways […]

May brings with it the third month of COVID-19 lockdown and online learning for students in the United States. Most schools have severely reduced students’ workloads. Many have cancelled final exams, and some have even taken the ultimate step of moving to a pass/fail grading system. Like students since the beginning of time, many met […]

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, more and more students are finding themselves adrift with no plans for the summer. An increasing number of summer programs are being cancelled or, in the case of Yale Young Global Scholars and other elite programs, cut down to accommodate a smaller number of students than were originally admitted. If […]

One of the most crucial elements of a high school student’s education is seeking help from teachers. Modern secondary education recognizes that students should not be expected to go it alone, and so every teacher is expected to make themselves available to their students for assistance. Seeking out teachers in this way can be the […]

Reading is the most fundamental skill students will develop during their early years, and even throughout the rest of school up to and including college. At all levels, students perform the weakest on the reading sections of standardized tests, and reading consistently takes the most time and effort to improve if students slip behind. Weak […]