Month: September 2018
The Best UC Essays: Content is King!
I have three words for you when it comes to UC essays: content, content, content. If you read my blog entry from a couple of weeks ago about the Common App essay, you will see a lot of differences between UC and Common App essays. For Common App, I told…
Research and Knowledge: Putting together an Effective Supplemental Essay
Are supplemental essays overwhelming you? Are you applying to a million schools and each prompt asks you to write something different? Are you unsure of where to start? Here are my top three tips for writing supplemental essays. Look at the college’s website! I know this one may sound simple,…
Carnegie Mellon and Demonstrating Interest
“Demonstrating interest” is a tool that many schools - typically smaller, and usually private, schools - implement in order to gauge how interested a student is in attending that particular school. There are many ways in which a student might demonstrate interest in a school, and these should all show…
Self-Reporting Test Scores
Maybe you’ve heard that students can self-report their SAT score. Great, you’re thinking. Self-report a 1600 and stop worrying about this test! Unfortunately, that’s not how self-reporting works. So, what does it actually mean? Let’s take a look at the process and see what schools accept self-reported scores. Self-reporting means…
Early Action and the October SAT/ACT Test Date
The next SAT test is October 6th, and the next ACT test date is October 27th, but your scores may not be available early enough for some schools that have a 11/1 early action application deadline. Even if the College Board says that scores will be available to schools October…
August 25th SAT
A flurry of social media postings have claimed that the August 25th SAT test was the same test that was administered in China and South Korea in October 2017. The 2017 test and answers were leaked and were being used as practice tests. Students who had taken the official 2017…
The Big Tip for Common App: Avoid the Resume Dump, Focus on the Story
Your instinctive approach to Common App might be to address your accomplishments and what you’re proud of. Although UC essays want to see “resume” content in their essays, Common App doesn’t want this at all. The Common App is a place to showcase your personality and softer skills to colleges.…