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?

juniors

Summer Ideas for Juniors in High School

The end of junior year is on the horizon, and visions of sleeping in until 11 and watching Gossip Girl are running through your head. We know you worked hard this year, and you want to just do nothing, but this is also the last year of your college admissions journey. You gotta push through!! Summer is the largest chunk of uninterrupted time you’ll have before the full weight of senior year is upon you, and you need to use this time wisely. 

College Consultants for Juniors 

It’s junior year. Your parents are asking you what your plans are after high school. Grandma wants to know if you still want to be a doctor. Your uncle keeps asking if you’re thinking of applying to his alma mater. Your friend asks if you’ve already started writing your essays. “Should I already be started on those??” you ask yourself. Everywhere you turn, it’s all about college all the time. And you might not even know where to start. That’s where we come in.

Summer Ideas for High School Juniors

If you’re a junior and just starting to think about summer, we’re not going to lie: you’re a little bit late to the game. That said, it’s not too late (nor is it ever too early) to begin visualizing this upcoming summer. It’s an important one. Not only is it important what you do professionally and academically (ideally, pursuing either paid work or something related to a specific area of interest), but it’s also important that you allot a significant amount of time to your college applications. We’ll say a few quick words about that right now before we spill our suggestions for what you should do this summer.

Five Tips for Your Junior Year of High School

Ah, junior year. For many, junior year signifies such milestones as getting a driver’s license, but it is also known for striking fear in the hearts of underclassmen everywhere. Yes, it’s very true that junior year is a cornerstone year for the college application process, and while we want to assure you that it’s going to be alright, we also want you to be prepared for the reality that junior year brings in tow.

A Guide for Juniors Who Don’t Have Summer Plans Yet   

While all of the kids we work with have summer plans by now, we understand that there are some high schoolers out there who haven’t firmed anything up just yet. We know the year has been really busy, but planning something productive for your free time is crucial to the college acceptance process. This process is not new, so while this may sound a little harsh, we’re wondering what you’ve been doing for the past several months. In this post, we’ll talk to you about how you should think about planning your summer. Ultimately, however, it’s all about planning ahead and being ambitious. So, it’s time to kick it into high gear.