Summer before senior year:
- Brainstorm ideas for common app essay
- Create a preliminary list of about 20-25 safety, target, and reach schools
Parent’s Guide to Helping Students with the College Admissions Essay
The college admissions process can be just as stressful for parents as it is for students. Parents feel that they need to manage their child’s time, stress, schedule, and expectations, which can lead to tension. The college process requires students and their parents to be as unified and cooperative as possible. We’ve created a step-by-step guide for parents to help their children with the college admission essay.
Do Honors and AP Courses Matter your Senior Year of High School?
As cliche as it may sound, high school is a marathon, not a sprint. Many students think that colleges won’t look at them unless they’ve had everything figured out since their freshman year. That is simply not true. Admission officers know that a huge part of high school is growth, which is important to convey this in your essays. But, your senior year is a great way to demonstrate what you’ve learned from your experiences in high school.
Six Things High School Juniors can do to Prepare for the College Process
The end of junior year can be one of the most stressful times of the college process. Everything begins to pile up at once and friends start to get competitive. You have to stay focused, organized, and do everything you can to alleviate your stress. To that end, here’s a list of the six things you should be doing at the end of the Second Semester to maximize your time and be efficient:
How to Become President of Every Club
You’re a leader even if you don’t know it yet. If you want to go to a highly competitive school, you already know how much your extracurriculars matter. But, it is the quality of those extracurriculars and your work within them that matters. Schools want leaders who are going to be excited about impacting their college community, not followers looking for a way to stuff their resume.
What are Colleges Looking for
Dear Aspiring College Applicant,
I know you’re telling yourself you’re not going to get into college. Everyone around you is so much more qualified than you are. You could have higher grades, better test scores, more impressive extracurriculars. If you had just put one more hour into studying, you would have gotten an A instead of an A- in that class. That class is the reason why you’re not going to get into Brown. You’ve convinced yourself you’re going to get rejected from literally everywhere you apply, leading to shame, embarrassment, and regret.
Things to do Freshman Year to Prepare for College
The college process starts earlier every year. In our home base in New York City, it seems that it begins around age two when parents start looking at options for Pre-K. By the beginning of middle school many parents are already looking for independent college counselors, consultants, and ACT tutors. This approach might seem aggressive to some, and while we don’t think a ten year old should be thinking about college, ninth grade is an appropriate time to start talking about the future.
Is it Better to Get an A in a Regular Course or a B in an Honors Course?
This is one of the most common questions we get asked at TKG and one of the most pervasive false dichotomies in the college process. The frustrating answer is that if you want to go to a top tier school, you need to have the best grades in the hardest courses. Simply put, you want an A in an Honors or AP course. As acceptance rates plummet and applicants become ever more qualified and impressive, the need to take the most rigorous course available has become more important.
How Important are Extracurricular Activities in the College Application Process?
Think of extracurriculars like a side dish at a restaraunt. They may not be the main event, but they’re chosen deliberately by the chef and without them you’d be disappointed and left with an incomplete meal. The extracurriculars are not the main portion of your application—your grades, scores, and essays will always be more important—but your application, like your meal, would be incomplete without them. You need to decide which activities are going to be the best for you, keeping in mind that they need to elevate you and bring out your best qualities. Colleges don’t want students who spend all their time in the classroom and the library. The more active a member of the community, the better you are as a candidate.
Five Mistakes People Make During The College Admissions Process
The college admissions process is a daunting undertaking. For you students it will require an insane amount of your time, effort, and focus. But you’re probably sick of hearing this. You’ve had this drummed into your heads by college counselors, teachers, and your parents. As consulting professionals (aka people who help get into college for a living) what we want to do is help you identify the five most common mistakes students like you make during the college admissions process. If you learn from these mistakes the whole process will undoubtedly go much smoother and you’ll have a much better chance of ending up at the school of your dreams.
43 Phrases You Should Never Use In A College Admission Essay
When most students are writing their college admission essay, they aren’t thinking about the Essay Readers at colleges whose entire job is to sort students’ essays into NO, MAYBE, and YES piles. As hard as you’ve worked on your essay, you may get exactly two minutes of a Reader’s time if he or she feels your writing is boring or unoriginal. Unfortunately, a huge percentage of essays fall into this category. On the other hand, the few essays that show clear, original thinking get promptly placed into the YES pile. The admission essay is one truly personal section of the college application; if your essay stands out, your chances of getting into your top choice school goes up dramatically. Therefore, take careful note of these 43 phrases. Using them might spell NO for your admission chances.