by j9robinson | Jun 6, 2012
The college admissions season never really ends. I’m not a big one for starting too early. Parents who start talking colleges with their kids in junior high and even the start of high school kind of bug me. I understand that it’s valuable for students to...
by j9robinson | Jan 19, 2012
What’s an Activity Sheet? Well, on The Common Application, you are given the opportunity to include “Additional Information” about yourself in the form of an Activity Sheet. This is in addition to the activity listing, where you have a dozen spaces...
by j9robinson | Dec 28, 2011
So you have a rough draft for one of your college essays. You answered the prompt, read it many times and believe it’s a solid piece of writing. And you may be right. But even a solid essay can have one fatal flaw–-it’s boring. The last thing you want is for the...
by j9robinson | Dec 17, 2011
This fall, one of my tutoring students taught me a lesson about how cheating on these essays can backfire–even if you don’t get caught. He wanted to write his essay for the Common App on a trip he took to Guatamala to work with poor children. At one point,...
by j9robinson | Nov 4, 2011
College Admissions Essays: Don’t Try to Impress! I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about how high school students are seeking out exotic trips, usually to foreign countries, mainly so they will have an intriguing topic for their college...
by j9robinson | Oct 4, 2011
If you haven’t discovered the New York Times’ blog on college admissions, called The Choice, it’s worth checking out–for everything from how to narrow your list of choice schools to how to find discount college textbooks. Here’s...