September 2011 - Common App Personal Statements In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on the Common App personal statement and, through a few vignettes, we’re going to show you some common mistakes that students make to see if you can pinpoint what exactly they did wrong.
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July 2011 - Private College Counselors We're in this business because when we receive those phone calls from our students informing us that they got into several of the most selective colleges in the country (their top choices), they couldn't be happier.
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December 2010 - And now just a few more... So now that you’ve hopefully completed the essays for the Common Application as well as for the Supplements and think that you’re all finished, you see that there are also short answer questions.
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July 2010 - What are Respectable SAT or ACT Scores? For this newsletter, we’re not only answering this question, but we’re also giving you the statistics of the 25th – 75% percentiles of SAT and ACT scores for the freshman class entering all eight Ivy League colleges in the fall of 2010.
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May 2010 - Can I Get A Little Advice Here?: “Most young adults who go on to college believe that the advice they got from their high school guidance counselors was poor or fair at best, according to a recent survey by Public Agenda for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Asked about their experiences with their counselors in high school, nearly half (48%) say that they felt like ‘just another face in the crowd.’
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April 2010 - Waitlisted? Welcome to Limbo!: As high school seniors are opening their admissions decisions from the colleges to which they applied, many students are finding that they are neither accepted nor rejected. |
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March 2010 - YouTubing the College Admissions Rapids: On Tufts University’s supplemental application there are several choices for the optional essay question. This essay is in addition to the three required essays on the supplement, and the two required essays on the Common Application. Optional essay choice #6b, states: “Share a one-minute video that says something about you. Upload it to YouTube or another easily accessible Web site, and give us the URL. What you do or say is totally up to you.” Out of approximately 15,000 applications that Tufts University received for their Class of 2014, about 1,000 applicants chose #6b. |
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January 2010 - On Being Deferred: It's the middle of January and you've submitted your regular decision applications. This wasn't your original plan, because you had hoped that you would have been accepted at your early decision / action college. But on or before December 15th, you heard from the college to which you applied early. You were neither accepted nor rejected; you were deferred! |
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December 2009 - 'Twas the Night Before Deadline: Regular application decision time is near. Applications need to be completed to enjoy the end of year. So dream your dreams, and may your wishes come true. Here's hoping that the college of your choice quickly accepts you! |
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November 2009 - Playing the Admission Card: There are ways to gain an edge in the college admissions process. What many students don’t know is what it takes to be considered a “special” applicant, one that gets flagged for more attention than the other thousands of applicants. |
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April 2009 - Need Blind Admissions-Does it Really Exist?: What need-blind admissions actually means is that a type of firewall exists between admissions and the financial aid office through which information does not flow. Yet, in the real world of college admissions, there are other ways that a need-blind college can figure out if the applicant will need aid. |
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March 2009 - Meet The Ivy Coach in a Live Online Presentation: Bev Taylor, The Ivy Coach, will be appearing at College Week Live, the largest virtual college fair, on March 26, 2009 at 3:00 PM (EDT). The Ivy Coach’s live video keynote presentation, in a Q and A format, will help you to understand how to make the most of “The College Interview and Visit.” |
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March 2009 - Campus Visits: College websites and brochures can have idyllic scenes and can tell you almost everything you might want to know about a particular college, but only a campus visit can help you decide if a particular college is the appropriate place for you. |
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September 2008 - Discipline Questions on the College Application: The Common Application, used by 346 colleges and universities across the country, has recently added two questions regarding discipline. Although these questions first appeared on the 2007-2008 application, students and parents are becoming increasingly more aware of it and it has been the cause of some legitimate concern. |
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May 2008 - Advanced Placement Courses: Advanced Placement courses are college-level classes taken by high school students that can give an applicant an edge in the highly selective college admissions process. The College Board that administers these tests offers 34 different courses and exams including... |
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March 2008 - Waitlists for the Class of 2012 Reach New Highs: In the March 27th edition of The Boston Globe, the article, “Student agony grows along with top colleges' wait lists,” mentions specific numbers of waitlisted students at some highly selective colleges in the northeast. While this is by no means a new phenomenon, for the Class of 2012, the number of waitlisted applicants has reached record highs... |
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December 2007 - Searching for Colleges: Ask a Student: Searching for Colleges? Ask a student. During the college search process while on your campus visit and anywhere else you meet students, listen to... |
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September 2007 - The College Essay : A powerful essay could be the one part of the application that gets you noticed and as a result, gets you in. |
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July 2007 - Ten Reasons Gaining Acceptance at a Highly Selective College is Not All about the Numbers: Of course it's about your grades in the most rigorous core courses and your scores on standardized exams, and anyone who tells you it's not is misinforming you. It's just that it's not all about the numbers since so many other factors are also considered. |
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June 2007 - Making the Most of Your Summer Experience: How you choose to spend your summer vacations can have a definite impact on whether or not you are admitted to the college of your choice.
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May 2007 - Who Gets Accepted?: When competition is as keen as it is with these highly selective colleges, all factors play a role in the admissions process, but the two basic factors continue to be exceptional academic and personal accomplishments.
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April 2007 - Admissions Class of 2011: A Record Breaking Year for Applications to Ivy League Colleges: If you are a student applying to college in the next year, or two, or three, dont just assume that your stats alone will win you admission to the college of your choice.
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March 2007 - Senioritis: An Affliction Affecting High School Seniors: Senioritis, a common ailment amongst high school seniors that affects their performance typically in their second semester and once they have been accepted at the college of their choice.
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February 2007 - Are there Mixed Messages in College Admissions?: It's to be expected in a college system as diverse as ours, I suppose, but students often have trouble wading through the sometimes contradictory messages colleges send out. |
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January 2007 - FAQ's Course Scheduling: Since I've worked really hard in high school, I’m going to drop science, math and foreign language in my senior year. Won’t admissions counselors agree that I deserve to have it easier in my last year? |
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December 2006 - Colleges with Optional SAT Policies: The highly selective colleges that do not require SAT scores still want to see a stellar academic record in the most challenging courses, powerful personal statements, dynamic teacher recommendations, evidence of talent in significant extracurricular pursuits, and through personal qualities and interests, an applicant who has the potential to make a difference. |
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November 2006 - What's Important?: Valedictorians with scores of 2400 on the SAT & two or three scores of 800’s on Subject Tests may not be good enough…Too often these students feel that they have achieved a sense of entitlement, and after admissions counselors at highly selective colleges read their applications, these candidates often come off one-dimensional, sometimes sounding pompous and arrogant. |
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October 2006 - Standardized Testing: Standardized testing helps admissions counselors compare students from high schools with different levels of competitiveness from across the country and around the world. While a student’s grade point average is one objective criteria, standardized test scores is another. |
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September 2006 - Early Action vs. Early Decision: Applicants need to understand the ramifications of applying early decision and the different early action options, so that they make informed decisions about whether or not it is in their best interest to apply this way. |
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August 2006 - Ethnicity as an Admissions Factor: If a college needs to report X number of Under-Represented Minorities (URM) applicants, then that college will very likely include that applicant in their minority statistics. |
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July 2006 - Effective Letters of Recommendation: A powerful teacher letter of recommendation is going to depend upon how much you have impressed your teachers. |
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June 2006 - Can Students Find Happiness at Less Selective Colleges?: With more than 3700 colleges and universities in the US, only about one percent of those are considered highly selective. |
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Monday, 01 May 2006 10:46 |
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May 2006 - The Choice Between A Liberal Arts Or A Pre-Professional Education: With the vast array of colleges and universities in the U.S. some offer an education in the liberal arts and sciences, while others are more specialized or pre-professional. |
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