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There isn't a 'right' way to apply to college. Here's a truth: college applications follow a formulaic regimen of essays, questions, grades, recommendations and so on and so on. But-
The experience of muddling through these requirements is overwhelmingly full of ups, downs and uncertainties, but there is one absolute: applying to college forces students to think about who they are, what they want
08/02/2020
The is up and running, kicking-off the 2020-2021 application seasion
All Hail the Common App It’s the dog days of summer, and we’re all sweating like sinners in church. This year, more than ever, summer is bittersweet: we enjoy the beautiful sunshine at a distance, faces covered (hopefully) by masks, grasping for normalcy while Purelling our hands, despite a global health crisis, social...
03/20/2020
and , present, future and past- check out my new column on and the importance of thinking ahead, especially when it feels impossible.
Absolute Uncertainty by Elaine Carsley Humans thrive on absolutes. We like structure and answers and guidelines- it’s how we’re wired.
10/16/2019
Helpful hints for and scrambling to write their
and deadlines are fast approaching; Collegial Admissions can help!
Freeing Passion from the Project When you work in words, as I do, you’re bound to have routine run-ins with all sorts of turns of phrase- some writerly, some prolific, and others considerably less so. And as a college admissions advisor- I’ve seen it all.
09/11/2019
Great article about us by Linda Zlatkin via The Suburban
Tapping into your unique self when applying to university The reality of getting into college today is a more complicated picture than it ever was. Kids today have a harder time standing out in a pool of equally smart,
08/29/2019
Hard Work and Hail Mary's We mark our time in moments. Like animals, we can almost intuitively sense timeframe; we’re cued by lunar patterns and change and continuity, and if one day humans did away with the Gregorian calendar, I suspect we’d all manage just fine.
08/01/2019
All Hail the Common App It’s the dog days of summer, and we’ve all been sweating like sinners in church. Humans are curious creatures, we whine about oppressive heat, while footnoting our complaints with the admonition that winter is worse, and that 40 degrees centigrade is preferable to its below zero iteration.
05/29/2019
The Pomp and Circumstance of the SAT Adversity Score Once upon a time, in a world far and foreign from the one we now know, students relied exclusively on hard work to get into college. The rules were fairly straightforward- work hard in high school; attend a college your parents can afford; take classes that expand your mind; maybe turn political or
05/09/2019
Waitlisted, now what? You’ve mastered and the French Horn, built houses in , canoe-camped through cellphone-free parts of the frostbitten wilderness, served as captain of every team for every sport, and maintained a perfect grade point average- all before your 18th birthday. You’ve done every...
05/02/2019
A disaster waiting to happen:
The Things Elizabeth Warren Gets Wrong In Her College Plan Senator Elizabeth Warren's expansive college plan would wipe out most student debt and make public colleges tuition free. Although these two ideas have great appeal to many progressive, a closer look reveals major concerns and difficulties with both policies.
04/26/2019
Rex Murphy: The worst crime in the university admissions scandal? Harlotry Universities don’t just have ethical boundaries, ethical codes. They are supposed to be the expositors of ethics