I hope you enjoyed your break, and that you're coming back to school with new energy for your academics and activities. You should also be getting more focused on college planning, starting with college research. You can explore the Academics and Student Life sections of...
PSAT scores are out and if you haven't already done so, it's time to finalize your testing plan. Compare your PSAT with a practice ACT score (making sure to use a PSAT comparison chart, not an SAT chart), choose your test and map out your...
Juniors are generally busy in October with increasingly challenging academics and extracurricular activities that are ramping up. I hope you're enjoying your classes and finding enjoyment and meaning in your sports, visual and performing arts, clubs, and other things you spend time on. This is...
I hope back-to-school season has been treating you well. It’s an exciting time for the Class of 2026 with the year’s new academic challenges, extracurricular involvement and increased focus on college planning. If you set goals for the year (which I suggest you do), experts...
Class of '25, get ready—the Common Application is open! Many of you have already been working on your basic information, activities and essays. If you haven’t, it's a good idea to take advantage of the remaining time you have to do as much application work...
Many of you are in the midst of AP exams and I hope they’ve been going well. Once you get through this crunch, you'll be in the homestretch of the year! Your top priority remains finishing the year strong in all of your classes, especially...
As the Class of 2025 application cycle approaches, I’m hearing from students wanting to know how they can get a head start. Although getting the best grades you can in your classes should be the top priority, you might want to get started filling out...
The Common App has announced that the essay prompts for the Class of 2025 will be the same as they were in this application cycle. You can view the prompts here, but I don’t recommend starting to work on essays until the school year is...
Right now, juniors are getting focused on standardized testing and test prep. Congratulations to those of you who took the ACT last weekend, and good luck to those preparing for the March SAT. Many of you are also working with your parents to plan campus...
Last month I recommended that juniors research colleges online by checking out the Student Life or Campus Life sections of schools' websites. This information, along with what you learn from the Academics pages, can give you a sense of whether a particular college might be...