If you’re applying to college, you’ll hear a lot of talk about your GPA, and how much it matters in the college admissions process. Many students find the topic confusing: How come it’s a number from 0.0 to 4.0? What if my school gives out grades as percentages from 0 to 100? What if my school […]
Admission Tips: Four Pointers for Your College Application Résumé
There are a lot of items you will need to procure or create when putting together your college applications: transcripts, teacher recommendations, and essays, to name a few. You may also have to put together and submit a résumé. Given that most high schoolers have never had to put together a résumé for anything other […]
Admissions Tips: Letters of Recommendation from Non-Teachers
The first person everyone thinks about when they’re looking to get a letter of recommendation is a teacher. This makes perfect sense, of course–letters of recommendation for college are almost always required to address academic performance, and who better to do that than someone who has taught you in an academic subject? However, if a college […]
Admission Tips: Letters of Recommendation From Teachers
College applicants often consider the teacher recommendation letter to be a bothersome and relatively useless part of the application and thus don’t worry about it until the absolute last possible moment. This is a mistake. Recommendations can not only sway college admissions officers in your favor, but also sway them against it. It’s important to […]
Volunteering is Good for Others AND Yourself… and Your College Applications
Everyone knows that helping others gives you good karma…but did you know it can give you career guidance, too? It can! Helping out with service organizations and volunteering your time and expertise to different causes not only helps out your community, it also lets you “try on” different jobs and see which ones fit the […]
How to Make the Most of the Summer Before Senior Year
It’s easy to treat your junior year–rather than your senior year–as the culmination of your high school career. Junior year is the last full year of grades that colleges see when you apply, after all, and many high school students take on leadership positions in their extracurriculars during their junior year. Senior year, however, is […]
How a Common Myth Can Hurt Your College Application
There’s a very strong feeling among college applicants that you “have to do everything and do it well” in order to be accepted into college–and this goes doubly strong if you’re aiming for one of the nation’s elite universities. Invariably, this leads to high school students joining as many clubs as possible, participating in as […]
5 Ways to Build a Great High School Résumé
You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again—colleges like to see their applicants do more than just excel in academics. They like to see involvement in extracurriculars, participation in the community, an active volunteering streak…maybe even a combination of all three! It can get exhausting to try to get all of these bases covered, […]
How is the ACT Scored and What’s on My ACT Student Report?
One of the most nerve-wracking things about applying to college is taking standardized tests. The ACT can stress anyone out! And waiting to get your scores can be even more stressful than taking the tests in the first place. Once you get your scores, though, it’s all about deciphering exactly what all those numbers, percentiles, and […]
How to Ask for More Financial Aid for College
When it comes to college, the most stressful thing you’re likely going to go through is figuring out how to pay for it. Filling out form after form, completing the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE, submitting tax returns, getting everything sent off and certified–it can be quite the experience.