Colleen at Collegewise

08/07/2021

I got to talk to NBC Bay Area about the new Pass/No Pass option! Let me know if you have questions about what you should do.

Across California, the deadline is looming for students to decide whether to trade last school year’s letter grades for a simple pass or fail and that deadline can vary by district.

12/15/2020

Great message to keep in mind as early admissions decisions start arriving. One college’s decision is just that - one decision. Whether it’s a yes, no, or maybe, there is so much for students to look forward to. The best is yet to come!

10/02/2020

I like to tell my students that filling out their college applications is a lot like playing with dominoes.

About a month after I start working on the Common Application with my students, I notice that they begin to get a little squirrelly. We’ve spent a few weeks doing some straightforward data entry;...

09/25/2020

It’s been a very long week, starting with the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and continuing with the infuriating news that none of the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor will be indicted. The world feels heavy, and I don’t have a lot of cheer.

But then I go back to work and I’m reminded of the next generation of wildly impressive, ambitious, compassionate, and engaged young people.

It’s been a very long week, starting with the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and continuing with the infuriating news that none of the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor will be...

09/18/2020

This week, I want to address the deeply disappointing report of racism and discrimination in the admissions office at Loyola University Chicago, my alma mater. I will be following this post up with direct communications to Loyola's leadership team. I would encourage you to read Marcus Mason's resignation letter and reach out to LUC's administration.

Office of the President, Jo Ann Rooney, JD, LLM, EdD: [email protected]
VP of Enrollment Management and Student Success, Paul Roberts: [email protected]
Marketing and Communications, Jeremy Langford: [email protected]

Earlier this week, I saw a post in my ACCEPT Facebook group addressing a letter from Marcus Mason , a former admissions officer at Loyola University Chicago. Mason addressed, in-depth, the consistent...

09/11/2020

I have two pieces of good news to share this week: our latest edition of the Common App Guide is here, and we have officially launched Runway, our collection of free college application resources for high school students and parents. Check them out!

It’s the most wonderful time of senior season – Common App Guide Day! On Wednesday, we released the newest edition of our annual guide to filling out the Common Application , a project that I am...

09/04/2020

When I was 17, I took one of the best classes of my high school career, American Government and Economics. But the experience that has stuck with me the most over the years is the day I spent working at my local polling station.

When I was 17, I took one of the best classes of my high school career, American Government and Economics. My teacher, Mr. Larsen, was one of the first people I knew who had given immense thought and...

08/28/2020

On August 7th, The Daily published an interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey titled, “Jack Dorsey on Twitter’s Mistakes.” There were a lot of different directions this interview could have gone in – but one thing I never expected was for Dorsey to make a compelling case for the value of the liberal arts.

One of my favorite podcasts is The New York Times ’ The Daily . Whatever your feelings about Michael Barbaro and his interjected hmm’s, it’s the perfect slice of current events and great...

08/21/2020

Last month, I was pleased to hear that the California State University system had approved a new required course on ethnic studies and social justice for all of their students. But what I did not realize was that this requirement is actually the culmination of protests that began 51 years ago.

Last month, many of my colleagues and I were pleased to hear the news that the California State University system had approved a new required course on ethnic studies and social justice for all of...

08/14/2020

For the most part, kids have gotten wiser in the seven years I’ve been working with students on their college essays, and less and less frequently do I have to gently nudge a student away from a traditionally overused topic. That does not mean, however, that teenagers have stopped relying on clichés in their stories. They’ve just found new ones. So today, I’d like to submit two new tropes to the college essay pantheon.

This week, I’m volunteering at a local high school, doing a virtual essay workshop for their new seniors. This is the seventh year I’ve been visiting this school, and I always look forward to...

08/07/2020

If standardized tests are genuinely not feasible for applications this year, then they are equally infeasible for scholarships . If colleges have made a decision to go test-optional, they should be test-optional for everything. And if they are not *really* test-optional, this is the time to say so, in clear language, at the top of their admissions webpage. This mixed message is not okay.

Last week, I sent what is usually a low-key email to my students, letting them know that registration was now open for this fall’s ACT test dates. In a typical year, no one ever mentions this email...

07/31/2020

When I was a little kid, I loved the Dr. Seuss poem, “Too Many Daves.” The characteristically irreverent poem tells the story of Mrs. McCave, who “had twenty-three sons, and she named them all Dave.” The consensus at the end of the poem is that Mrs. McCave made a terrible mistake, and the result is too many Daves. The reason I bring this up is the terrible mistake that I see many seniors about to make: too many reaches.

​When I was a little kid, I loved the Dr. Seuss poem, “Too Many Daves.” I even memorized it and performed it for my class in 5th grade. The characteristically irreverent poem tells the story of...