On one very lazy Sunday afternoon, I went shopping at one of my favorite stores, Barnes and Noble. I could get lost and spend hours looking at random books, CDs, journals and other various accessories in this magnificent store. However, the biography section of the bookstore caught my immediate attention during this shopping trip. On each biography, I saw the pictures ...

I’ve been answering questions that seem to be wildly misled about who actually reads your application. One site refers regularly to the "ADCOMM" -- admissions committee -- likes it’s some alien entity that always acts the same way, and not thousands of individuals. Questions like "how do admissions committees look at essays about my trip to Antarctica?" are almost as nutty ...

Applying to college for the first time is complicated enough, but the process of transferring from a two-year to a four-year college can be dizzying. With little consistency in transfer policies from school to school, there’s a lot to keep track of when changing colleges. Use the tips below to make a smooth transition. Know When to Transfer Prepare for your ...

One morning, a credit card in hand (and Handel’s “Halleluiah Chorus” playing in my mind), I gleefully clicked the ”Submit” button for my Common Application. After I paid the application fees and filled out the school transcript forms, I was finished with the whole process. The thing I was wondering about ever since I was six had reached its completion. As ...

I hear from a lot of people who think the admissions process is unfair because they don’t understand the goals that drive admission. Fair warning – much of this post came from my dissertation research, so it is long, even tedious, and only for those really obsessed with understanding the admissions process. Most people assume that colleges and universities should just ...

Like most misconceptions, community college myths are based on elements of truth. But like most misconceptions, these myths lead to mistaken beliefs that could warp your ability to choose the right post-high school educational path. Knowing the truth about community colleges sets you free from the bondage of what some in educational circles call the “snob factor.” In fact, the facts ...

This December, I'll be graduating from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, with a B.S. in Health Communications with minors in public relations and chemistry. It's been a long road but the reward is in sight. It's such a feeling of accomplishment to know you've succeeded in meeting one of your goals and that you're qualified to enter the field ...

As an admissions officer, I love hearing about all the SECRET WAYS TO GET INTO COLLEGE. These generally focus on some lame way to send your application, or some special club you can join, or worst of all some company that you pay a fortune. There’s never any evidence that any of that works, other than a story about somebody who ...

Just after my last post about grades, I heard from a student who wanted to know if the trends in grade issue (up trends better than down trends -- up all the way along is best) extended into senior year. It’s true that, for the most part, junior year of high school is the most important period for admission as a ...

Need a bigger challenge from your high school classes? Ready to delve more deeply into your favorite subject? Want to save money and advance more quickly once you enter college? It's time to check into AP classes. AP stands for "Advanced Placement," a series of 37 college-level courses available to high school students looking for a head start. AP courses cover ...

In my first week of my AP English Lit class, my new teacher announced that we would begin the school year with one of the most famous works of literature, Dante’s “.” In his epic poem, Dante writes about his journey through Hell and Purgatory to eventually become the perfect man in Paradise. He struggles, hesitates and fails at some tasks, ...

October 2008--As markets continue their roller coaster ride while the presidential candidates sling invective at one another's financial bailout plans, I hear daily from people reacting to the financial situation as it relates to colleges. On the college side, college administrators are concerned many of you will stay home, or at least closer to home than you might otherwise have gone.  ...

In August, I was on a panel with some other folks talking about the local grading scales with a moderator from USA Today. The last time I dug into the subject on my blog I got some great feedback (including being called full of excrement). That kind of robust and thoughtful feedback was probably helpful in prepping for the live session. Here’s ...

After the last few posts on grades some questions were swirling about how we judge courses students take, so I’ll steal liberally from my old posts and add some new stuff to create an overly verbose answer. In answering this question, admissions officers have been infatuated with the word, “rigorous.” I believe this is because it lets us sound smarmy without ...

All I really remember about taking the SAT is dots. A LOT of dots. I think I tried to fill them in so that they formed a bunny. Unfortunately, this did not lead to a higher score (but also not a terrible one). This started a lifelong suspicion that the SAT may possibly not mean much.  As an admissions officer and ...

While most 18-year-olds were packing their bags for college, Bathsheba Demuth was packing her bags for the Yukon. "I had spent my entire life studying," Demuth said. "I wanted to take a break and do something different." That "something different" was an interim program. Taking time off between high school and college, she lived with the Vuntut Gwitch'in people in Old ...

A few months ago, I compared my actual application process to the “Inferno” of Dante’s Divine Comedy. However, in this phase of my senior year, I now find more parallels with the second canticle of Dante’s work, “Purgatorio.” Dante the Pilgrim now needs to wait and reflect upon his life to achieve perfection. For example, the envious must sew their eyes ...

When I picked up Dante’s “Paradiso” of The Divine Comedy a semester ago, I expected the souls in heaven to live the good life. I anticipated the stereotypical floating souls to eat endless buckets of fried chicken and live a carefree existence. Instead, I found Dante’s work very philosophically abstract and difficult to comprehend at times. Therefore, when I started comparing ...

Participating in a summer program is a great way to spend your summer. Not only do you experience life on a college campus, you get to explore new fields, earn college credit and make friendships that last a lifetime. But if you're planning on a summer program, you need to act now! Application deadlines come early in the year. To get ...

Even though I do my best to convince students and families that the standardized tests, the SAT and the ACT, aren’t nearly as important to admission as the media might lead you to believe, I still get begged for advice on how to do better. Can test prep help? The College Board swore prep courses had no impact, but then they ...