Caroline Koppelman
Why This College Essay Question Guide and ...

Why do you want to go to school here? If there’s one prompt you are certain to write more than once, it’s this one. This prompt comes in a few different flavors, but at the end of the day, they all want to know why their school is the perfect school for you and why you’re the perfect student for them. No pressure or anything.

Caroline Koppelman
Official Common App Essay Guide 2024-2025

We’ve spent the last few weeks breaking down the Common App essay prompt by prompt, and today we’re going to give you our ultimate guide to writing the Common App essay. There might be seven different prompts, but ultimately, all schools want the same thing from their applicants’ Common App essays: a story.

Caroline Koppelman
Rejected Early Decision from Columbia 2023

Getting a rejection in the Early Decision round is definitely not easy. But the good news is, it’s really just the start, and that one rejection has no bearing on how you’re going to do with other, similarly competitive schools. The thing about Early Decision is it comes alone and it comes first. It’s sometimes easier to tolerate a rejection when it’s preceded by several acceptance letters. College admissions are extraordinarily competitive these days and the Ivies are just more competitive than any other time or place in history. That’s it. It doesn’t get harder. And Columbia in particular has just a 4% acceptance rate! So, if you’ve been rejected in the Early Decision round, don’t despair. We have some advice about how you might go forward. (And don’t worry, it’s really not that much more work!)

Caroline Koppelman
Deferred by Harvard — Now What? (2023-24)

If you’ve been deferred by Harvard, you are not alone. Harvard is notorious at this point for deferring an enormous percentage of early admission applicants. While most elite colleges with early admissions programs, like early decision and early action, only defer students they are seriously considering for the next freshman class, the statistics Harvard has released on early admission suggest that they take a very different approach.

Caroline Koppelman
Writing the “Why This College” Essay

Even though every college has slightly different supplementary application materials, you’ll likely run into a variation of one question more than any other: “Why do you want to attend this school in particular?” It’s every institution’s way of saying, Let’s cut to the chase. Why us?

gap year

Gap Year Because of Coronavirus?

With the world turning upside down and questions of how universities will safely open for the fall semester growing by the day, a lot of families are considering taking a gap year. Many students considering whether or not they should take a gap year or defer are wondering what the colleges are saying. To be frank, no one has concrete answers on what the future holds for incoming college freshmen (at least not in the immediate future.) But we can offer some advice as to what we think the next year should (or shouldn’t) look like for your student:

The 4 Best Ideas for a Gap Year

So, you want to take a gap year. We wish more students would take gap years. For one reason or another, they’ve gotten a bad reputation but in reality, they can be incredibly valuable. Whatever lead you here—whether you want to re-apply to schools next year in an effort to get in somewhere great, or you just need a one-year break before enrolling in college—we support you and we want to help you create the best possible gap year.

Should I Take a Gap Year and/or Defer Enrollment?

Probably. Gap years can be incredibly transformative in terms of focus, motivation, and interest. We believe and always advise our students that if you are thinking critically and are contemplating a gap year, then you probably should take the gap year. A gap year, regardless of what you do (as long as you don’t spend it holed up in your bedroom--though if you’re a thoughtful student, you aren’t thinking along these lines), can inject you with a sense of perspective, a broader understanding of the world, and a boost in concentration going into your first year of college that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.