The Explosive Truth about Fit
When J. Robert Oppenheimer began attending Harvard University as an undergraduate in 1922, he had only recently recovered from a serious gastrointestinal illness (Wikipedia contributors) that had put him well behind his intended timeline for graduation. In order to make up for time lost, young Robert enrolled in six courses per term—50% more than the […]
Perspective in Neurodiversity and Admissions
This one’s personal for me. While I’ve never hidden my own neurodiversity, I’ve also never before addressed it in a public forum like this one. But part of my neurodiversity has been a guileless—at times appreciated by some as honest and direct, at others derided as naive—willingness to open up to others, the consequences be […]
Oblivious Fish and the College Essay
by Anthony Terenzio Ah, the personal statement: 650 words to capture the essence of you, your aspirations, your merits, and how you stack up against many others like you, all vying for one of a limited number of spots at a given institution. It’s a lot of pressure, to say the least, and certainly one […]
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, […]
Repasamos la Gramática de una Buena Entrevista de Admisiones
Si has solicitado a una o varias universidades estadounidenses recientemente, es muy posible que en breve te contacten para ofrecerte una entrevista. Son una cosa común en el proceso de admisión de las universidades de USA, ya que al tratarse de evaluaciones globales basadas en distintos aspectos de la candidatura, estas entrevistas ayudan al […]
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 […]
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 […]
