Ask almost any college and they’ll likely agree that they aren’t looking for students to specialize in high school. They prefer students to demonstrate that they can be successful within the five core course types because that is what they will be expected to do in college.

Academic rigor is one of those buzz phrases you’ll read and hear a lot during college preparation research. It is regularly touted as the most important aspect to any college reviewing your application, yet pinning down what exactly constitutes academic rigor can be murky at best.

The Common Application has announced the 2025-26 application cycle essay prompts, which are largely remaining the same.

The Fall 2024 application cycle is seeing the biggest wave of colleges returning to test-required policies since the pandemic

Who you meet on college visits may take you further than you think

Strateges for moving through the ACT reading test faster and with higher accuracy.

What You Need to Know for the Digital SAT

What does “deferred” mean and what should your next steps be if you have been deferred or waitlisted by one or more of your schools?

May 1st is the universal decision date deadline for students to select admission to their top choice college and pay their first deposit. Here are some tips on how to make your decision when you have several offers on the table.

When it comes to optimizing your test results, there is content to master, there are strategies to learn, and there is stamina to build. But more than a month before the actual test, you will need to register for it. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your tests outside of the standard test prep curriculum.

It is such a relief to hit that submit button on the Common App, get a little celebration confetti, and know that you have done all you can up to this point to ensure your application was the best that it can be.

Here are the next steps you should take after submitting to each school.

College application season is officially in full swing. Maybe you have already submitted an application or two. Perhaps you have already even heard back from a rolling-decision school. For any schools you are still planning on applying to, you still have time to edit and adjust your personal statement and especially your supplemental essays. Here are 5 things to avoid when writing them.

Many of you have expressed how important financial aid is for your family, so I want to make you aware of a very important date: October 1. Two very important financial aid forms open on this date, and it is imperative to get them filled out ASAP to meet deadlines and ensure the maximum financial aid benefits for college.

The personal statement is likely to be the college application component over which you have the most control. But it is also an intimidating task to sum up the whole of your being into approximately 650 words. Here are my tips to take this process one step at a time.

Early Decision I, Early Decision II, Early Action, Single Choice Early Action, Regular, Rolling— aka ED I, EDII, SCEA, EA, RD… Ahhh! What does all of this even mean?

Here are the 5 most important components to the application process, and a tip for each one.

In my last post I gave three concrete steps to take when “eating the elephant” one bite at a time, making the college applications process more manageable. Let’s explore the next three “bites.”

College application season has officially begun.

Knowing where to start can be daunting. So many of my students show up trying to tackle it all at once. But like I always tell them, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

So here are my suggestions for a few of your first bites: