It must be September, because the parents of high school seniors are panicked about college. As an IEC, I did everything but give away free gas to get parents to visit me in the spring, but usually to no avail. Now, I'm buying my groceries in the next town because so m...

They read hundreds − if not thousands − of application essays, morning, afternoon, and evening.  They are the people in college admissions looking for the good read, the applicant’s essay that will make their day. That’s why getting the reader’s attention right from th...

Three of the four qualities we listed in our last blog chapter – maturity, self-reflection, and intellectual curiosity – must be combined well in order to be effective; your essay must tell a story whose conclusion demonstrates the fourth quality, the impact as express...

In your English and history classes, your teachers have endlessly promoted the use of an outline of principal ideas as an aid to writing an essay. On that outline framework, you “hang” the necessary details to complete your writing. Insofar as the college application p...

Because college applications are due during the first semester of your senior year, you should begin them now, if you haven’t already done so. Otherwise, they’ll interfere with your schoolwork. Since more than 800 colleges accept the Common Application, we’re going to...