Category: College Admissions

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 […]

COVID-19 has brought with it more challenges than simply keeping up with schooling as education moves online. Bereft of the traditional routine of school and activities, students are by now beginning to show signs of serious mental strain and even depression and anxiety. What can students do to prevent these adverse effects of remote learning? […]

COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns may be the most significant event in education in our lifetimes. In many cases, schools were the first institutions to shut down and attempt to move to a remote learning model as students remained at home. This has been met with a variety of successes; some schools have been able […]

Perhaps the number one concern between parents and students in the modern landscape of education is the time students are expected to spend on everything from school to homework to sports and other activities. How are they supposed to get all of this done? The answer may be simpler than you think: use Google calendar. […]