Killing Your Darlings
If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’ Arthur Quiller-Couch, British Literary Critic Increase the font size, make the page margins bigger, […]
A Reflection on World Domination
Napoleon was only 26 years old. The French Revolution had just occurred but France was still attempting to overcome a state of relative disarray. After having served its fledgling government by successfully leading the siege of Toulon and quashing a counterrevolution, he was, for the first time, given command of an army and charged with […]
A Mentorship Mindset
Or, Reflections on Choosing a College Consultant “Which schools have you gotten your students into?” It’s a question that we’re frequently asked. Yet the question is misleading and belies what a college consultant actually does. We work hard—and often late at night, thanks to time differences—to help our students highlight to universities just how exceptional […]
Essay Lessons from the Multiverse
A Reflection on Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and the College Essay SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022), so if you haven’t yet seen it, see it (it’s a masterpiece!) and then come back. In one of the alternate realities that Evelyn Quan (played by the always impressive […]
Don’t Study Business… At Least Not Yet
Many students come to me with the intention of studying business as undergraduates. If that’s your dream, I will bend over backwards to help you make it a reality. But it’s time for me to make a confession: I find the idea of studying business as an undergraduate a little uninspiring, and I’m not the […]
Focus on the Negative
Unlike the rest of your application—which is about telling colleges what you’ve done—the personal statement for the Common App is about telling them who you are. That’s a daunting task for anyone, but often what it really comes down to is helping admissions officers understand your personal qualities. For many—dare I say most?—students, who as […]
Achievement Unlocked: How to Power-Up an Extracurricular Activity
Having read the title of this post, you probably believe that it will give you all of the information you need to ensure your extracurricular activities will impress even the most jaded Ivy-league application reader. You would be wrong. If you believe that a blog post can give you that, I’d like to sell you […]
What Do You Really Care About?
No college information session would be complete without a colorful Powerpoint peppered with grandiose value statements. Diversity! Sustainability! Intellectual excellence! If you’re bored yet, I get it: so am I. As a college consultant, I have a professional obligation to attend many such sessions, so allow me to share a rather poorly kept secret with […]
Admissions is in the Details
Or, Show, Don’t Tell! Allow me to begin this post with a vast understatement completely belying its content: writing college essays is hard. As I repeatedly find myself telling students, the college essay is a genre unto itself: peculiar, idiosyncratic, and for most students, entirely novel. It also demands that students produce something exceptional and […]
Hidden in Plain Sight: or how to use Social Media to bolster your college search and application process
Social media is no less ubiquitous in the college application process than everywhere else in our daily lives. Just as a potential employer may search for your name on Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram (to name a few), the practice is gaining increasing acceptance in the world of college admissions, as well. Though perhaps […]
