Category Archives: Guest Posts

essays, Guest Posts

How to Write a Personal Statement

personal statement

If a private university or college is in your future, the Common App is your one-way ticket. You’ve got one shot at a winning application, and Ethan Sawyer, the College Essay Guy, is here to help!

How to Write a Personal Statement: A 3-Day Live Online Course is the ultimate course for students and counselors to help you knock out your Common App in one weekend.

Throughout the weekend, you’ll have access to:

  • Over 10 hours of LIVE sessions with Ethan, the College Essay Guy
  • Everything you need to write (or help a student write) a beautiful personal statement
  • Daily Q&A sessions to ask ANY questions you like
  • A chance to get feedback on your essay during Ethan’s live workshops
  • Links to recordings of the lessons so you can go back and watch them for a full year
  • The feeling of having completed your Common App essay. #nice
  • So much more goodness.

Click here for more info.

Can’t make a particular session? No worries: You’ll have video recordings of EVERYTHING.

Can’t afford it? Don’t worry, there’s a pay-what-you-can option.

Are you a counselor? You’re invited too!

Click here to reserve your spot.

Guest Posts, letters of recommendation

Get a Great Letter of Recommendation

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letter of recommendation

Most scholarship applications require a letter of recommendation, some will require as many as three. The individuals you will ask to write these letters are called references.

Getting a great letter of recommendation takes a little planning on your part.

Here are 8 tips to keep in mind:

1. Start thinking early about who could write you a good letter of recommendation. Common examples include teachers, your principal, school counselors, employers, community members, church leaders, etc.… Anyone can do this, as long as they are NOT related to you.

Did you know? Teachers are the most common required authors of recommendation letters. It is important to build relationships with your teachers early to ensure that they will be willing and able to write you a good letter of recommendation.

2. Some people will serve as better references for certain scholarships. If you are applying for a community service focused scholarship, it would benefit you to get letters of recommendation from individuals who have interacted with you in this capacity. However, if you are applying for a math scholarship, you will want to ask people who can attest to your mathematical abilities.

3. If you are given a copy of a recommendation letter, make copies and save a digital version. These saved letters can be used in situations that do not require the recommendation to come directly from the author. But keep in mind that original, signed letters may carry more weight than electronic or copied letters.

4. Come up with a diverse list of potential references, e.g. not all teachers.

5. Provide your recommender with your resume. Even though you should be choosing people who know you well, it is helpful to remind them of your activities and accomplishments. This will make it easy for them to talk about your skills and involvement specifically, ensuring a more personal letter. You should also tell them what the recommendation is for, so they can highlight the reasons why you should be chosen.

6. If there are special requirements for the letter, these will be provided to you. Make sure you read them carefully. For example, some committees require:

  • A survey to be filled out by your recommender and accompanied by the letter
  • The letter to be printed on official letterhead
  • The letter be sealed and signed across the seal
  • The letter to be mailed directly from the author

7. It is a nice gesture to provide your recommender with all the materials they will need to deliver your recommendation. If the author needs to mail the letter directly to the scholarship committee, make sure you provide a stamp and envelop, unless it must be sent in an official envelop. Once again, read all the directions.

8. Send a thank you to everyone who gave you a recommendation. Send another thank you if you receive the scholarship, mentioning your appreciation for their role in you receiving the award.

Quick Tips:

  • Start early building relationships with individuals you may use as references.
  • Come up with a list of potential references.
  • Choose people who know you well. Most applications will ask you how long you have known the individual.
  • Make sure your references are good writers and that they are comfortable writing letters of recommendation.
  • Ask early for letters of recommendation, not only is this courteous, it also ensures that they will have plenty of time to complete the letter before the deadline.
  • Don’t expect to be able to read the recommendation for your approval, so choose your references wisely because many letters must be sealed.
  • Follow the specific requirements given on each application.
  • Provide your reference with your resume and any other information and materials they might need.
  • Thank your references, and send another thank you if you receive the award.

______________________________

Today’s guest blog post is contributed by ScholarPrep! The organization brings students, parents, and counselors together to prepare for the college and scholarship application process. The ScholarPrep Organizer saves time and money by encouraging students to start planning for their future now, helping them to set goals, organize information, and track their progress.

college prep, Guest Posts, organization

Three Tips for Time Efficiency

 

This article was originally posted at TheOldSchool.cool by Mr. Jim Whiddon, CEO and founder of The Old School, established to help young men and women gain wisdom and understanding in our day. 

time management

1.     The Traffic Light System

A few years ago, my company implemented a simple system of time management with the goal of freeing up more time for profitable activities which we generally defined as “face-to-face” client interaction. In the business arena, more time in front of customers and prospective customers means a healthier bottom line. Administrative activities – while important – can adversely affect revenue generation. (For students, concentrated study is the most profitable activity.)

The “Traffic Light System” involves carefully reviewing a hard copy of your daily schedule and colored in time blocks as either wasted (“red”), necessary, but non-revenue generating, such as meetings, planning or other administrative tasks (“yellow”), or face-to-face, including any type of customer communication – telephone, email, handwritten cards, etc. (“green”).

The result of this simple exercise was quite revealing for our company. We discovered, on average, that we were losing about 30% of our time to red activities! By reallocating even a portion of this poorly spent time to green activities, we could add enormously to the bottom line (or to your GPA).

This revelation did not result in an onerous new program; only a simple time reallocation. Simply by identifying the opportunities, we were able to dramatically improve our time management skills. Again, how did we do it?  We just looked.

2.     Schedule in time blocks

I had a plastic running watch for at least two decades after college. Even after I stopped running every day, I kept wearing it because of the timer feature it had.  I would constantly set a countdown for finishing a task. I took some ridicule for this from my “cooler” friends, but it worked well for me.

You are no doubt familiar with the mantra of “a goal without a deadline is just a dream.” It is generally applied to long-range planning goals. By scheduling time blocks throughout the day, you are applying this principle of “working to a deadline” on short-term basis as well.  This technique will provide higher percentages of efficiency in the completion of your daily “things-to-do” list.

For example, if you arrive at your workplace at 8:00 a.m. and have a 12:30 lunch meeting, the four-and-a-half hours can be broken into three time blocks of 90 minutes each. By then looking at your prioritized list of tasks, you can evaluate which tasks fit into each 90-minute segment. It is fine to “re-block” the time segments if you get things done in less time than you planned for (which will happen often after you implement this simple tip). And instead of using the old plastic running watch – your smartphone, tablet or laptop all have the countdown feature available and the graphics are outstanding.

If you are a student, use the time block method to segment your study time. This assists you in prioritizing the more difficult or time urgent subjects instead of leaving them for last – as is always the temptation. I estimate this simple tip will add a quarter to a half point to your GPA.

Finally, wait until the end of each time block to check texts and emails. Not only will the attention to organized segments of time help you manage your tasks more efficiently, but avoiding these every-other-minute distractions could do more for your production at work or school than anything else.

3.     GMAD (not ASAP)

The generic answer to the question, “When do you need it?” is most often, “As soon as possible,” or “ASAP” for short. This is not a good answer if you want to get things done efficiently because no one really knows what ASAP means. It is not definitive, and because it is so over-used, it actually loses its meaning of urgency.

A better answer is “Give Me a Deadline.” For short, “GMAD”¹ serves to create a specific day and time that all parties can understand. When you are assigned a task, by asking for the “GMAD”, you are saying “Give me a specific day and time when this is needed.”  This will make planning easier and you will get a lot more done as well. Try it!

“Habits, like trees, are strengthened by age.” –J.C. Ryle

GPA, Guest Posts

Recovering a Tanked GPA

 

GPA

Summer is an excellent time for students to re-evaluate their progress in college. Here are some tips for students whose GPA could be suffering after the first year of college.

The college spring semester has come to an end for most colleges and universities by this point. By now, your student probably has a sense of how well they’ve done in their classes. Soon college grades will be posted and your student’s grade point average (GPA) will be recalculated.

GPA, as many parents know, is an important statistic that can affect their academic and professional career during college and after. Here’s just a few things a low GPA can do:

  • Disqualify students from qualifying for scholarships and grants.
  • Prevent from pursuing degree programs that have minimum GPA requirements.
  • Make it harder to be competitive when seeking jobs or internships after college.
  • Prevent students from qualifying for many master programs. Many masters programs have a minimum GPA requirement of 3.0.

It can be a stressful time for the student and the parent. Did they pass? How will the last semester affect their grade point average and academic standing? When the grades are finally posted, your student reluctantly reveals their final grades. It’s not pretty. Far more D’s and F’s than you would prefer. Their GPA has tanked.

The bad news is that, at least for the next semester or so, scholarships and grant opportunities might be slim pickings. The good news is that if the student is early in their academic career, they will have two or three years to slowly increase their GPA to an acceptable level.

I’ve been there.

My second semester of college didn’t go well. Long story short. I spent more time reading than studying. And I occasionally forgot about important assignments. My GPA sank to around a 2.0.

The report card was a wake-up call. I needed to start taking school a lot more seriously. Instead of spending the entire summer beating myself up over the mistake, I decided to proactively strategize how I would slowly increase my GPA to an acceptable level. By my final year of college, I had successfully increased my GPA to a 3.2.  

Your student made a mistake, but with a little strategizing they can follow a similar recovery path.

Before we delve into tips and tricks to facilitate GPA recovery, let’s pinpoint a GPA goal. Amber Anderson, a career coach counselor, for University of Alabama at Birmingham, is a career expert. Anderson sets the minimum acceptable GPA at 3.0 in a webinar entitled Job Search, Interview, and Business Attire Strategies.

In the webinar, Anderson also points out that students can choose either to utilize their overall GPA or their degree GPA which excludes non-degree courses taken. The fact they can choose the highest score makes GPA a little more forgiving.

Below are strategies to help your student reach the 3.0 GPA they will need to increase their chances of academic and professional success.

Drop the Course

Before the cut-off date for dropping courses, students can determine if there are any classes they have no chance of passing. If it looks likely your student will earn a ‘D’ or an ‘F’ in the class, they might want to drop the course. Just warn them not to drop too many. Dropped courses, while not affecting their GPA, do show up on their academic transcript. If they withdraw from too many courses, it can look bad.

Scope Out the Professor Before the Class

Encourage your student to try to discover how the professor of a class grades while they can still drop the class without it showing up on their academic transcript. I had one poetry professor, for example, who tended to give low grades on almost all assignments. If I had known about that tendency, I wouldn’t have signed up for the class. Your student can get a sense of their future professors by asking his fellow students who have had classes with the professor and utilizing professor rating websites.

Re-Take Classes

Many universities and colleges have policies that allows students to re-take a course to improve their grade and GPA. Depending on the school, the policy tends to either replace the grade entirely or takes the average score of both attempts. Re-taking my math class changed my grade from a low ‘C’ to an ‘A.’ That was a huge boost to my overall GPA.

Appeal for Special Permission if GPA is Barring You from a Degree Path

Teaching, I know, often has a minimum GPA to pursue higher level classes within that degree path. If your student wishes to pursue that career, but does not currently meet GPA standards, he or she can appeal to be granted entrance to that degree path.

Whether not the appeal is granted, will probably be dependent on the reason for the drop in GPA, how far off they are from the minimum GPA, and how much progress they’ve made restoring their GPA to an acceptable level. If the appeal is a semester after the student partied their grade away, I wouldn’t count on having that appeal granted.

Grade point average is an important metric that can lead to academic and career success. A low grade point average early in your child’s academic career, while not ideal, won’t destroy their chances of success in the future. With a little hard work and dedication, students can gradually increase their GPA to an acceptable level by the time they graduate.  

________________________

Today’s guest blogger, Samantha Stauf, was a first generation college student. Since Samantha graduated two years ago, she’s spent her free time writing articles meant to help current students succeed. You can find her on Twitter at the hashtag @samstauf.

 

Guest Posts, test prep, tutoring

The Advantages of One-on-One Test Prep Tutoring

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test prep tutoring

Standardized testing can be stressful at best, terrifying at worst. An experienced private tutor offers students a huge advantage with their preparation. By devising a blueprint to prepare for these exams, students can reduce anxiety and drastically improve their scores. Here are some advantages of one-on-one test prep tutoring:

Stress Reduction

As I mentioned previously, the amount of stress during college application time can be overwhelming. Your child not only has to deal with school, maybe a job, and also think about being accepted to college. A tutor will reduce the stress of having to figure out testing dates, scheduling, and will customize a study plan that is specific to your child’s needs. Your child will also feel more at ease knowing the material they will test on, which will ultimately increase their chances at a higher score.

Target Strengths & Weaknesses

No student learns the same. One one one tutoring is the most customizable way of learning. A tutor will assess the student’s strengths and weaknesses, and customize a study plan. Applying a customized plan, will help your child focus on areas that are challenging that they might have otherwise overlooked. Not all students gain the same knowledge in school.

Strategies That Work

A tutor will instill test taking tactics that will alleviate wasted time. Tutors not only teach vocabulary and math formulas but can also suggest new approaches and strategies for questions. This will in turn help with time management and better decisions during test time.

Quality in Teaching

You get to pick a tutor to best match your child’s learning style, schedule, and your budget. While your child might be in the ten percentile of their class, they are also competing with the rest of the students trying to get into the same college. Not all students get the same background knowledge needed to excel at standardized testing. A one on one tutor will focus on managing your child’s unique learning style.

Motivational Boost

The tutor – tutee relationship can give your child that motivational push by encouraging a higher level of thinking. A good tutor not only provides your child with test taking information and different approaches, but can also help as motivation in this sometimes overwhelming undertaking. Tutors have been in their shoes, and they know what it is to feel overwhelmed during this time.

College Scholarships

Let’s face it, college is expensive! However, some colleges and universities offer awards based on test scores. It is no secret that the higher a student scores the higher the chances of receiving scholarship awards. It is important to note that some colleges give automatic scholarships for SAT/ACT scores. Good test preparation will return more than its cost in scholarship awards.

Ultimately, a good one on one tutor will help your child target strengths and weaknesses, alleviate stress, promote motivation and provide test taking and study abilities they can utilize later in life. A good tutor will strengthen the pathway to your child’s college career.

__________________________________________

Today’s guest post is from Idalia Gastelum, a private SAT tutor for Parliament Tutors. She offers tutoring in Miami, FL.

college prep, Guest Posts

There’s an AP For That: 3 Burning Questions About the Right Prep Classes for College… Answered!

 

prep classes

Sometimes between all the test prep and soccer games and essay-writing, it’s easy to forget that, at the core of it all, the most important factor on a college application is the high school transcript. While test scores, essays and extracurricular achievements are all taken very seriously, the transcript is still the basis for all decision making by admissions officers. Here’s how to ensure that your child is making the most of their time in the classroom:

Is it better to take higher level courses or to ace lower level ones?  

One question that continues to loom for well-meaning parents is whether to push their children into higher level courses, with the possibility that an accelerated class will mean a lower grade. Obviously, the first thing a parent has to do is take into account the real achievement level of their student—but the answer to this conundrum may not be exactly what you might think.

Admissions officers definitely take into account the idea that a student is stretching his or her boundaries when it comes to academics. Therefore, when matching two applicants side by side, if one received all A grades but in lower level classes while the other had A and B grades in advanced classes, the student with advanced classes would always have the advantage. That being said, if your child is taking advanced level classes and getting a C, the supposed advantage is no longer viable. You need to be realistic when it comes to course load and what a student can handle. Ultimately, it’s always best to take classes that stretch the mind (but don’t break it!).

Broad spectrum or laser-like focus?

Another aspect of the application process that is misunderstood is whether there is a need to demonstrate widespread learning or to show talent in one area.

My father used to say that there are only two ways a person can learn:
“Either you can learn more and more about less and less, until you know everything about nothing, or you can learn less and less about more and more until you know nothing about everything.”

In the case of college admissions, it’s much better to know more about less. It’s a little counterintuitive, because many feel that presenting a broad cross-section of talents is good for a transcript. While that’s true, it is only the case if a student can prove he or she is actually adept at these things, and not just dabbling for the sake of a diversified portfolio.

It is not clever to suddenly have your teen filled with seemingly disparate classes and extracurriculars in his or her junior year, with the hope of “fooling” an admissions officer into thinking that they have a larger base of knowledge or experiences. No one is fooled. Ever. A sudden interest in clarinet, Judo, Mandarin and Habitat for Humanity is a dead giveaway.

Instead, have your student focus in one area where he or she has real skill and can build up expertise. If your child is into history, allow that interest to blossom and deepen and perhaps turn into independent study by serving as a History Club officer, or taking AP American History, AP European History and AP World History. A student with a clear focus like that is attractive to a university—it is a narrative about a particular aspect of an applicant’s personality that gives him or her a specific appeal. On the other hand, someone who looks like a dilettante will be difficult to pin down by an admissions officer looking for a reason to accept.

What if the “right” classes aren’t being offered?

Get creative—often, it’s hard to have your teen take the right classes because of scheduling conflicts or the fact that they are not offered at their high school. Fear not! Look around at summer programs as well as toward local community colleges. It is easier than you might think for your student to start earning college credit. Ask academic advisors at your child’s high school to see if it makes sense to (for example) take pre-calc over the summer in order to be able to take calculus senior year.  

The rule of thumb:

Working hard in one discipline is the best representation of a student’s skill and college preparedness. Yes, tests are important, and it’s crucial to have a base of knowledge, but never try to twist the system, and your child will always be on the right path. That means have them take the highest level prep classes they can and learn as much as possible in them, working toward their actual strengths. Your child will be happier, admissions will take notice, and he or she will be able to achieve more in college, too.

_____________________________________________________

About the Author

Ryan Hickey is the Managing Editor of Peterson’s & EssayEdge and is an expert in many aspects of college, graduate and professional admissions. A graduate of Yale University, Ryan has worked in various admissions capacities for nearly a decade, including writing test-prep material for the SAT, AP exams, and TOEFL; editing essays and personal statements; and consulting directly with applicants.

admissions, college guidance, college planning, college prep, Guest Posts

Don’t Let the Wrong Things Stand in the Way of Your Child’s College Dreams

 

college dreams

What are your student’s college dreams?

There are many reasons your child may not get into a specific college—but you should never be one of them.

Sometimes it simply comes down to other applicants being more qualified—whether that be through grades or extracurriculars, maturity level or how admissions officers feel a student will jibe with the university, its mission and the makeup of its incoming class.

But there are many external roadblocks we put on our children that can limit them. Here are three of the most common—and the most detrimental.

  1. Show me… money!

Of course, tuition is astronomically expensive, and no one wants to saddle their child with the huge debts that have been the bane of the current generation of post-grads. That being said, there are always scholarships and fellowships available to people with the right skill level.

If your student has a high level of achievement and is looking toward a trajectory that seems like it will break your bank, start your research on these opportunities early—at least a year in advance of application dates. Many scholarship applications are hard work and require essays, financial statements and recommendation letters.   

College counselors may be able to help outline solutions too, and there are also a great many free college fairs around the country. Check out the calendars for these, because they not only have people there as representatives of major universities, they also have resources to help your student find the financial aid that is necessary for him or her to achieve a college dream.

In the end, if you have to go with loans, don’t fret… it’s possible that all will be forgiven sometime soon!

  1. But where in the world is it?

Many students (and parents) get hung up on staying close to home, with friends, or in a warmer clime. Encourage your student to look deeper into the kind of education they will receive, rather than whether it gets too far below zero (at say the University of Minnesota). What you know (that they likely do not) is that four years is not a long time. Your child can always return to the bosom of the family, or back to sunny California, once they have a solid degree in hand. But who knows—maybe ice fishing will become a favorite new hobby.

  1. I don’t know where I want to go!

Another common roadblock to finding the right university is too many choices when it comes to the future. It’s important to sit down with your child and have a conversation about what they want in a school, even if they keep saying “I dunno.” Keep in mind there is no perfect place and there are many “right” schools to choose from. I know it seems like a massive decision, but it’s one you can get wrong and not suffer too much—a student can always transfer if things don’t work out.

Here are some areas to focus on to help your child whittle down their list of potential schools:

  • Size of school: Would they be excited about the opportunities of a large campus or prefer the individualized instruction of a smaller school?
  • Faculty: Look up the achievements of the professors in certain areas that might interest your son or daughter. Keep in mind elite professors may be on sabbaticals, but it demonstrates a level of commitment to a specific subject at a university. Research opportunities are another part of this. Is the University participating in cutting-edge research in an area that is exciting to your young student?
  • Extracurriculars: Actively investigate where extracurriculars that interest your child are strongest. This will be part of finding the right fit. See if clubs, athletics or performance groups have a high level of achievement.
  • Study Abroad Possibilities: Is this something your student wants to pursue? Make sure the options are available.
  • Post-Graduate Opportunities: It’s much easier to get into grad school at the university where you receive your bachelor’s. If your child is on a path that requires this kind of education, see if this added criteria helps make a choice of where to apply.

Ultimately, it’s imperative to give students the latitude to make their own decisions based entirely on their qualifications for college rather than on any other factor. Everything else can be figured out. Remember, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

___________________________________________

About the Author

Ryan Hickey is the Managing Editor of Petersons and EssayEdge and is an expert in many aspects of college, graduate, and professional admissions. A graduate of Yale University, Ryan has worked in various admissions capacities for nearly a decade, including writing test-prep material for the SAT, AP exams, and TOEFL, editing essays and personal statements, and consulting directly with applicants.

essays, Guest Posts, scholarships

Online Resources to Craft a Great Scholarship Essay

 

 

scholarship essay

Writing an essay is always a challenge. You need to come up with a great idea, organize your thoughts into a concise, easy to follow structure, find supporting resources, and find the right words to make it all make sense. When you are writing an essay for a scholarship, it can be even trickier. There’s more on the line. These online resources will help you write a thoughtful scholarship essay to give you the best chance of success.

Essay Punch

Essay Punch is an interactive tutorial that takes students through all parts of the academic essay writing process. You will work with writing prompts to practice the organizing, writing, editing, and publishing stages of the process.

Thesis Builder

Your thesis is arguably the most important part of your essay. Without a strong thesis, the rest of the paper cannot take shape. And if your thesis isn’t well supported, your paper will likely fall flat. So, it’s very important that you construct a strong, easy to defend thesis. Thesis Builder will take your topic and help you come up with a great thesis.

Ask Petersen

Julie Petersen is an ESL tutor with an awesome website to help writers at all stages of the writing process. The website features educational articles, sample essays, study guides, and tools to help you succeed. There’s also a blog that offers writing tips and student life hacks. So, once your essay gets you into college, you can continue to flourish.

Help.PlagTracker

PlagTracker will make sure your scholarship essay is completely free of plagiarism. If you used any sources as references, even if they were re-written in your own words, it’s possible that the similarities will still be strong and show up as plagiarism. PlagTracker eliminates these sentences and replaces them with original content so your essay is 100% you own.

Step By Step Essay Writing Guide

Imagine that you’re stressed, extremely busy, and panicking because your essay is due tomorrow and you haven’t started yet! If this is the case, head over to EssayMama blog, and read their step-by-step guide to composing an essay in a pinch.

Teen Ink

This online magazine features articles and essays written by students. You can find fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Use the site for inspiration for your own essay ideas or become a contributor.

Hemingway Editor

When you are writing a scholarship essay, it might be tempting to write long, eloquent sentences to show off your intelligence. This can easily backfire and can actually make it hard for your readers to understand your writing. Hemingway Editor will scan your document to make it readable. It will find any confusing or long sentences so you can re-write them. It will also point out instances of passive voice so you can change them to a more assertive active voice.

Citation Machine

When you’re writing an academic essay, you need to include references to show your research. But creating the references page is time-consuming and tedious work. Citation Machine can easily build your reference page for you. All you need to do is choose your citations style and medium and enter the data in the pre-determined fields.

 Writing.com

Become a member of Writing.com (for free!) and you’ll be able to make an online writing profile, get writing tips, and receive feedback on your writing from other members. There are also contests and writing activities to keep you motivated and help improve your writing.

Do you feel better prepared to go out and write that killer scholarship essay? I hope so! Don’t expect the process to be easy. There will be bumps along the way. You’ll get frustrated and want to quit. But remember that there are tools, tutors, and other students to help you through the process and keep you focused. Visit one or more of these sites for inspiration, organization, advice, samples essays, and even one-on-one help. So, go out there and get started. What are you waiting for?

admissions, common app, Guest Posts

The Top 3 Mistakes Students Make on the Common App

 

common appWe are in the midst of the application season, probably one of the most stressful, scary, and overwhelming times for most teenagers and their parents. I want to share with you the top three mistakes students make on the Common Application and how you can make sure your children don’t make them and get into the colleges of their dreams. 

1. Not Telling Their Unique, Compelling Story

Schools are looking for well-rounded student bodies NOT well-rounded students. The admissions committee and anyone else should be able to read through your child’s application and get a sense of exactly who they are and what they care about. This doesn’t happen if your child is president of every club, plays every sport, and volunteers at 20 different organizations.  Your child’s application should focus on depth not breadth, quality over quantity. Don’t just take my word for it. This is what Harvard has to say about your child’s activities:

We are much more interested in the quality of students’ activities than their quantity so do not feel you need to fill in the entire grid! Contributions students make to the well-being of their secondary schools, communities and families are of great interest to us.

Everything from the activities to honors to courses to essays should come together and tell your child’s unique, compelling story. Getting an outsider’s look at your child’s complete application can really help with this.

2. Underselling Their Activities

I’ve seen students do it over and over again. The activities are seen as an afterthought, and students give very little attention to them. They also tend to underestimate the time spent on their activities. This is where your child sets themselves apart from all the other high test score, high GPA students. This is where they become “that girl” or “that guy” – the socially responsible athlete, the engineer who cares about social justice, the piano player who wants to help autistic kids. 

Students are only allowed 150 characters to describe each activity, so the descriptions need to be compelling and concise. All of the tips that apply to resumes apply to this activity list. Your child needs to focus on numbers, like the number of new members they brought into the club, the amount of money they earned/got donated/managed, the number of participants at their events. Make sure they put numbers in every description. If the honors they listed previously were associated with an activity, be sure they tie that back in. The activities should sound as impressive as possible. One tip I absolutely love for this section is to include a website for the activity if there is one.

3. Rushing Through the Supplements

Each college has questions and many of them require writing supplements. These are just as important as the Common Application itself. Students often leave this until the end and struggle with it. Make sure your child spends as much time on and with their supplements as they do with the rest of their application.

Many writing supplements ask “Why School X?”. One tip I give all the students I work with is to mention specific activities, programs, and professors at the school that they’re excited to work with and be involved in. Remember, what the supplements are really asking is why your child should be admitted to that particular college. Make sure their application and supplements describe how they will contribute to the school and its legacy. 

Now that you know the top three mistakes students make on their Common Apps, you can help your child avoid them and get into their dream college. Get my Ultimate Guide to the Common App plus worksheets and tools to help your child create their best application and my favorite college admissions resources and websites. All totally FREE!

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Today’s guest post is from Jessica Yeager, a grad of Harvard and MIT, and a tutor and college coach for high-achieving students and their parents at Impress the Ivies. You can get her Ultimate Guide to the Common App for free.

admissions, Guest Posts

Helping Your Student Make the College Decision

 

making the college decision

The College application season has begun. Students are now feeling the pressure of the college weight on their shoulders, as their future planning starts becoming a reality. But for parents, this may also be an even more stressful time. As a parent, how are you supposed to increase your child’s chances of getting into their top school, and, after that, how will you afford to help pay for the skyrocketing costs of planning and attending a University? I’ve outlined a few key tips that will elevate your child’s application, help you make the college decision and some tips on how you can save costs.

1. College Visits

  • If you are serious about getting your child into their top school, a college visit is a must. College visits provide students with the opportunity to explore the campus and get a feel for the atmosphere they’ll be entering, and it sometimes offers the chance to interact with students and faculty members. However, the cost of college campuses will add up, so it may behoove families to take advantage of guided virtual reality tours, like those offered by SchooLinks; which hosts tours of over 600 high-ranked colleges, including Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and more.

2. Connect with Admission Officers

  • This may seem intuitive, but there are countless families who think a college visit is enough. It is important to get in front of an admissions officer if you plan to visit a college campus. Book an appointment with an admissions officer to show that you are interested in attending the college, and ask questions regarding the applications, school, etc. to show your continued interest in the school. You may not always have the time to meet with multiple admissions officers in person, but you can reach them via email or on SchooLinks where students can connect and interact with School Admission Officers.

3. Financial Aid

  • As I mentioned before, getting into a college may seem stressful, but figuring out how you will afford to pay for college is an even bigger headache. The go-to solution for financial aid is filling out the FAFSA form or searching for scholarships, but even when searching for scholarships, students often overlook many scholarships they may be eligible for. Parents should urge their students to start applying to scholarships early on, as early as 9th grade. My best advice for winning scholarships is to apply to multiple small scholarships, amounting to awards of $250-$500. Those scholarships normally have a lower number of applicants are yield a greater chance of winning. For an easy scholarship entry, parents can have their children enter the SchooLinks $5000 Scholarship, which has no application or essay requirement.

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Today’s guest post was provided by SchooLinks, an online free resource to help parents and students organize and plan college application submissions as well as scholarship applications. Students can connect with School Admission Officers, view guided virtual reality tours, or receive help from consultants. Upon joining, students should fill out their profiles completely, with all of their personal and academic information, in order to provide schools with all the important information they require. This will also allow SchooLinks determine which scholarship students are eligible, which makes the list of scholarships to research much more narrow. To get started, create a profile today!