tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56254291424174831802026-06-02T03:11:31.153-04:00Learn How to Stand Out and Get InUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-34680294304508851052015-10-26T09:07:00.001-04:002015-10-26T09:11:10.776-04:00

The following is a guest post from Aayush Upadhyay: Want to know what separates successful Ivy League applicants from the rest? I did back in 2008 when I was a high school sophomore. I was a bright kid in your typical public school, and I figured I was on the fast path to Harvard. One day I discovered a forum called College Confidential and I was stunned to find so many kids with insanely

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-2758749207638553672015-10-21T11:48:00.000-04:002015-10-27T12:28:39.463-04:00

When I first started the college admissions process, I hated it. It was a major roadblock standing in the way of my dream: to get into a top college, win large scholarships, and have a successful career. Although my test scores and GPA were below the norm, I still managed to become a high school superstar and get into the Ivy League. Over more than a decade, I've helped

Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-9318879086214271692015-09-01T10:00:00.000-04:002015-10-09T09:19:42.675-04:00

College essay writers' block is incredibly common - you're not alone. Writing about yourself for college essays is tough! Here are some writing prompts to help you make it past writer's block and get down to business. 10 College Essay Writing Prompts to Help You Get Over Writer's Block: 1. My proudest achievement is … 2. My first exposure to my primary area of interest was

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-22061931437549089772015-07-28T09:00:00.000-04:002015-07-28T09:22:32.340-04:00

This is the second part of a two-part guest post from Tom Miller of WTFProfessor.com (See An Engineer's Guide to Engineering School: How To Get In for part 1.) How to Crush It In Engineering School: My Top 10 Principles (1) Get in a groove early Engineering courses and their pre-requisites are notoriously jam-packed with material, and move fast each week. So if you find yourself getting

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-80435424851791785172015-07-20T08:00:00.000-04:002015-07-28T09:23:03.277-04:00

This is the first part of a two-part guest post from Tom Miller of WTFProfessor.com (See An Engineer's Guide to Engineering School: How to Crush It for part 2.) Lazy High School Junior to Top 25 Engineering School "Sooo... I guess I'll do engineering." That was how it started: a lackluster decision, the result of some prodding from my parents and high school teachers. At the time I was just

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-6999989868325220262015-07-01T10:00:00.000-04:002015-07-01T10:00:01.535-04:00

After you've written rough drafts of your college essays, use these questions to help you make some serious revisions. Writing is a process, and you should go through several drafts of your college essays in order to make them improve them as much as possible. 14 Questions to Help You Edit Your College Admission Essays: Have you communicated your direction in life?  Do you have a clear

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-7353091914834839382015-06-15T10:00:00.000-04:002015-06-15T10:00:01.748-04:00

A journalist recently interviewed me about my advice on writing the college essay. I'm including an edited excerpt of the interview below. *** 1. What did you select as your admission essay topic and how did you choose it? I wrote about my experience as a youth delegate to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. My participation in this

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-62533060055326142462015-05-31T09:00:00.000-04:002015-06-03T07:44:41.828-04:00

It's all about quality, not quantity. Focus your time on a one thing (or a few) that you truly care about. Pick something you'd enjoy doing even if you knew that colleges wouldn't ever learn you'd done it. Too many students join a million clubs simply to "build their resumes," do nothing significant in them, then list them on college applications. Those don't "count." If you want an

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-12365254610406529222015-05-15T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-15T11:19:18.009-04:00

Towards the end of the school year, many high school seniors are featured in local newspapers. Articles about them typically mention which colleges they'll be attending in the fall. Pay attention to these articles. They'll often mention local scholarships those students received. Keep a list of these scholarships. The organizations that give them away will likely be running these

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-91541294055653673292015-05-12T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-22T14:28:14.480-04:00

I've published a college application checklist and timeline to take you through the college admissions process from start to finish. This is the seventh and final article in the series. (Read the first article.) *** 2-3 months after submitting your college applications You should have received some kind of notification from schools indicating that your application is complete. If you haven't

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-53430748770917879642015-05-11T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-11T10:21:54.730-04:00

I've published a college admissions timeline to take you through the college admissions process from start to finish. This is the sixth article in the series. (Read the first article.) *** 1-2 months after submitting your college applications  Submit any applications for financial aid, scholarships, private loans, etc. In December, file your taxes (or have your parents file their taxes

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-92007032634444839102015-05-10T10:00:00.000-04:002015-06-03T07:44:53.949-04:00

1. Liberal Arts Education One of the major differences between American and European colleges/universities is the fact that American schools allow students to enjoy a liberal arts background. In the U.S., as you know, students do not immediately begin career-focused education (like law, medicine, business, etc.). For example, some schools like Columbia University require students to take

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-59661142758527183292015-05-08T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-22T14:26:33.906-04:00

I've published a college application planning timeline to take you through the process of applying to college from start to finish. This is the fifth article in the series. (Read the first article.) *** 1 month before submitting your college applications: Check your application account(s) to determine whether your recommenders have submitted their recommendation letters for you yet. Also,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-80159857871617699952015-05-07T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-22T14:25:41.268-04:00

I've published a college application planning timeline to take you through the college admission process from start to finish. This is the fourth article in the series. (Read the first article.) *** 3-4 months before submitting your college applications: Focus on your college essay. Write an initial draft of 1300-1500 words, wait a few days, then aggressively reduce its length so that it

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-23570377344246578322015-05-06T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-11T10:20:49.970-04:00

I've published a college admissions timeline to take you through the college admissions process from start to finish. This is the third article in the series. (Read the first article.) *** 5-6 months before submitting your college applications  Open a Common Application account. Fill out all the simple stuff you can complete now, like your personal details (address, etc.). Look at the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-51996084516319585432015-05-05T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-22T14:23:51.973-04:00

I've published a college application planning timeline to take you through the process of applying to college from start to finish. This is the second article in the series. (Read the first article.) *** 7 months before submitting your college applications: Start thinking about the colleges to which you want to apply. Although you may not have your actual SAT/ACT score yet,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-48169117097570904002015-05-04T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-11T10:18:49.877-04:00

I've published a college application planning timeline to take you through the college admissions process from start to finish. This is the first article in the series. *** By the time you've completed this college application planning timeline you will have submitted complete applications to the colleges to which you are applying. The parts of the college application include: -college

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-10956726473466478152015-05-01T15:00:00.000-04:002015-05-01T14:39:56.605-04:00

Many students just want to go to the best college possible. However, how should you define "best"? "Best" isn't simply what the rankings say. It's the school that fits your needs and preferences. This post will help you figure out how to choose the right one. Questions to help you pick the right college: 1. How large is the student body? Do you want a large community with a ton of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-17046002870755159612015-05-01T10:00:00.000-04:002015-05-01T10:56:28.151-04:00

The following is an exclusive excerpt from the new college application essay writing guide, Essay Hell’s Writing Survival Kit. Illustrate Your Main Point One of the most popular writing techniques used by essay writers is the anecdote. This is a fancy word for telling a real-life story, usually one that lasted only a few minutes and is recounted in a paragraph or two. An anecdote is

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-23707106585858988662015-04-27T11:00:00.000-04:002015-04-27T11:26:12.650-04:00

When giving feedback on my students' college essays, I place myself in the position of the admissions committee. I look to see whether the college essays answer the following 10 questions. These are the 10 questions college admission officers want you to answer in your college essays: 1. Do you love knowledge, and can/will you pursue this love of knowledge through higher education? 2. Do you

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-23356242373916534082015-04-27T10:00:00.000-04:002015-04-27T10:00:00.041-04:00

The best way to make the most of college campus visits is to thoroughly research the list of colleges that you're considering before you visit them. There's no reason to visit a school that you would later eliminate for reasons you could have determined beforehand with a little research. You can use social networking to research colleges and find out the "real deal," cutting out the sterilized

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-81086133972868651762015-04-23T10:00:00.000-04:002015-05-20T11:31:44.925-04:00

A few years ago, MIT professor Cal Newport featured me in his book, How to Be a High School Superstar (relevant pages: bottom of 220-222)*. In his book, and in a related blog post, he argues that I got into Columbia due to what he calls the "superstar effect" or "failed simulation effect." Cal defines this effect as: Accomplishments that are hard to explain can be

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-11972250306720975732015-04-20T11:00:00.000-04:002015-04-20T11:32:31.482-04:00

7 months before you'll submit your college applications, you should start thinking about the colleges to which you want to apply. Although you may not have your actual SAT/ACT score yet, your GPA thus far (and your projected SAT/ACT score) can help you select a few schools to consider. (Now is a good time to clean up your online trail so that colleges won’t find anything bad about you when they

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-24214036317891419412015-04-18T10:00:00.000-04:002015-04-20T11:33:12.754-04:00

The most valuable piece of information about the college essay I can give is that you should focus on yourself. It may seem cute to write a story about your friend or your goldfish, but admissions committees are considering you for admission. You can talk about how someone else affected you, but make sure that the topic describes how that someone has affected you.  Discuss a specific

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625429142417483180.post-76293170388133522482015-04-17T08:00:00.000-04:002016-04-23T09:31:49.447-04:00

Cal Newport featured me in his best-selling book, How to be a High School Superstar.  Why? My GPA and test scores weren't outstanding. They were actually below the norm. However, Columbia University accepted me because I wowed them with an amazing story about attending a UN conference in South Africa the summer before my senior year of high school. (My primary

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0