7 Effective Strategies to Simplify the College Application Process
Navigating the college admissions process is complicated, and I feel it’s on the organizational level of planning an invasion of a small country. Here are some ways to make it slightly more efficient and less stressful. Do smart research using smart sources—my favorite two research tools for colleges are old school. The Fiske Guide, although it doesn’t cover every school, is amazingly helpful when it does. But it’s an actual book, and you have to flip the pages and everything. Also, I find looking at college websites to be incredibly informative. Apparently, the schools actually spend a lot of time [...]
How Parents Can Help Kids to Protect Their Self-Esteem During College Admissions
I have a wonderful friend, who has a wonderful son. As her oldest child, the college admissions process took them both by surprise. Although he was an excellent student with excellent extracurriculars, he was rejected by all the colleges in the Ivy-Plus world. Although he did gain admission to a top-notch public flagship in the Honors College, he felt terrible about himself for the rest of high school and the first year of college, comparing himself to other friends and classmates who did manage to be admitted into the Ivy world. Thankfully, this didn’t last forever. Four years later, he [...]
Procrastination—Does it Hurt You or Help You? (The Answer is Yes)
It’s that time of year again, around the January college application deadlines, that I find myself dealing with procrastination. For instance, on the day an application was due, I got a text from a student asking me to review their essays. I replied that I could do so, but that I wouldn’t be available for an hour. They politely texted back, “That’s okay. No rush!” to which I responded using the laughing emoji–the application was due in just a few short hours. The response I got back–” I’m sorry to ask, but why is that funny?” This little interchange [...]