Great College Advice

A hilarious front page article in this week’s The Onion leads with this headline:
Closing of Homeless Shelter Leaves College-Application Padding Students with Nowhere to Turn
Doors Shut on Much-Needed Extracurriculars
Here’s a snippet from the article:
After years for providing hope and assistance to resume-padding volunteers, the Second District Homeless Shelter colsed its doors Monday, leaveing hundreds of [...]

The latest edition of the Carnival of Education is up today at the Elementary Educator, and it’s full of interesting posts, as usual.
In addition, the third edition of a new carnival, the Carnival of College Admission is up. I’m happy to see this Carnival get going–so happy, that I’ll be hosting it next [...]

Today I spent another fun-filled day at the Colorado Crossroads volleyball tournament in Denver, where nearly 10,000 volleyball players are participating in this national qualifier event.
Parents were steadily coming up to my booth at the tournament (where I was, of course, dispensing some great college advice) to talk about their concerns. The topic of [...]

I am often asked by my clients about the “strategy” for involvement in extracurricular activities. While I generally encourage such involvements, of course, I tell my clients not to over-think the admissions process. The rule of thumb is, “Do what you love, and do it the best you can.”
A recent article from [...]

A prospective client wrote to ask a question. He is a 10th grader at a large public high school. He wanted to know how colleges look at and evaluate extracurricular activities. He is involved in a lot of different activities, but he’s not sure how to best focus his efforts.
Here’s his question (with [...]