We love summer as much as you do, but maybe for a different reason. Yes, sun is great. Yes, time off from school is sort of awesome. The real reason we love summer, though, is that it is a stellar time to boost your application. Whether you will be a rising freshman, sophomore, junior, or newly-minted senior, there is a lot you can do to make your summers fun and relaxing while still giving yourself a leg up come application seasons. And even though we are now in this dystopia due to the Coronavirus, all of this advice holds true.
Best Schools In New York State
New York is a big place--it’s home to New York City, hundreds of small towns in upstate New York, and once you get north enough you’re basically in Canada. There are a number of great schools in New York, but we want to highlight the top schools, their differences, and their strengths. When one says “I want to go to college in New York,” they often mean Manhattan, but there’s much more to New York than just “the city.” If you have an open mind, you can find lots of different college environments of different sizes and specializations throughout the state. We’ll take you through them
College Essay Sample About Failure
The thing about your college essay is it needs to be relatable to an admissions counselor (read: adult) somewhere in the country you don’t know. Easy, right? There are a few ways to access relatability in this regard and one of them is by talking about a feeling pretty much everyone has in common. Student instinct here is often to edge into the land of drama, existentialism, or sadness. We’d advise against all of that. While you may have had a real tragedy in life that impacted your high school journey, the essay is not the place for it (the additional info. section is!). And while you could talk about a really important life-altering lesson you learned or the reason why you became an atheist, oftentimes a story as big as that will come off as naïve from such a young writer. Failure—particularly the lighthearted kind—is, on the other hand, something just about everyone can relate to. Here are some examples:
Junior Year of High School: What to Expect
Junior year can be a whirlwind. After all, it’s the pinnacle of your college preparation journey and while every year of high school is important, 11th grade can, in some instances, be make-or-break. It’s crucial to get your ducks in a row and keep pushing through until the end. If you get organized from the beginning and stay consistent throughout, you should be able to maintain a reasonable pace. Either way, the light is there at the end of the tunnel, so buckle up and drive on forward.
Advice for Sophomore Year of High School
Some people think of sophomore year as kind of a throw-away. It’s not freshman year where everything is new. It’s not senior year where everything is your last. It’s not junior year where you’re scrambling to make it through the barrage of standardized tests. We like to think of it as an opportunity for a cornerstone year. Consider this: you’re well-adjusted to the flow of high school, but the onslaught of junior year has not yet begun. It’s the perfect time to build a solid foundation for the college application process.
Will Colleges become Test-Optional in Response to the Coronavirus?
As on what to do while schools are out, high school juniors are struggling to navigate a college admissions process gone haywire. Typically, this time of year, we are encouraging our clients to finish their college visits, to prep for their first or even second shot at the SAT or ACT, and to drive their grades up as high as they can before the end of the school year. But this year isn’t typical. College visits have gone virtual, classes have gone online too, and the entire standardized testing system is in question.
A Guide for College Essay Supplements about Coronavirus/COVID-19
For the past few years, Stanford has asked applicants to answer the question, “What is the most significant challenge that society faces today?” in 50 words or less. Other schools ask similar questions that prompt applicants to place a stake in the ground by identifying something they care about and making a concise case for why it matters globally. The University of Richmond, for example, asks, “What is an urgent global challenge or social justice topic about which you are passionate? What solutions or outcomes do you hope to see?” These types of questions seem perfectly set up for a Coronavirus/COVID-19-themed answer.
Demonstrated Interest at The University of Michigan
The final installment of our demonstrated interest mini-series is focused on the ever-popular University of Michigan. If you’re wondering why everyone seems to love the school so much, start here. If you (or your child) have recently set your sights on The Big House you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading for the low down on demonstrated interest on everyone’s favorite campus.
How Coronavirus/COVID-19 Affects High School Transcripts for College
How to Make “Camp Counselor” Sound Good on College Applications
We’ve written about the pros and cons of becoming a camp counselor in the past, but this post is more to focus on how to take something that’s bland (in this case, a job as a camp counselor) and make it stellar. Okay, “bland” might be a bit harsh, but let’s be honest here--colleges love students who pursue their academic interests in full, and being a camp counselor probably wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating time of your life. Are we right? Lots of funny and *deep* moments were had, we’re sure. But it’s not like you had the time or energy to debate the three key bills that need to pass in order to influence lasting criminal justice reform while you were making sure that 18 six-year-olds showed up to nature arts & crafts on time.
How to Avoid The Trap of The Bad Coronavirus College Essay with Examples
A lot of students are betting on the Coronavirus to hand them a stellar college essay. If that sounds absurd, consider the situation. Schools are out, so sports are canceled. Writing about sports is a pet peeve of ours, but it is one of the most popular starting points for college essays. Clubs are also canceled. So, writing about clubs is out unless you want to write about something you did sophomore year, which is also not a great idea. Writing about your favorite class is probably a no-go because you won’t be there for a while. Writing about your summer program or internship may be out as well because the chances are good that those won’t be happening either. Writing about volunteering in your community isn’t an option either — staying inside means no more ladle-duty at the soup kitchen.
How To Show Demonstrated Interest in a College
As we’ve mentioned in our previous blog posts on this topic, we always suggest doing your best to figure out your school’s stance on demonstrated interest before you go to great lengths to prove that you want to go there. As you’ll see in this blog post, there are many schools that no longer consider demonstrated interest as an important factor in their application process. None of this means that you shouldn’t demonstrate interest if it’s in your means to do so, but we think it’s important to shed light on how the admission process works. And because things like going on a school tour or attending a summer program don’t guarantee admission, it’s important that you spend your time wisely.
What If My Summer Program is Canceled because of Coronavirus/COVID19?
Now that we are in the second (or third, depending on where you live) week of self-quarantine and social distancing, people are starting to settle into the idea that things aren’t just going to go back to normal tomorrow. We’re looking at weeks, if not months, of things not being normal. In much of America, it is unlikely that students will go back to school until it starts back up again in the fall. A foreseeable side effect of these massive shifts to our usually predictable calendar is a similar re-scheduling frenzy around summer programs. The summer programs that are most likely to be canceled are those on high school and college campuses.
SAT and ACT 2020 Date Changes and Cancellations: Coronavirus/COVID19
A few days ago, we wrote about how the AP tests were up in the air. College Board hadn’t announced what the plan was yet for 2020 tests, so all that we could do was lay out the possibilities and the probabilities. On Friday, what we were expecting is, in fact, happening. In-school tests are all canceled, but students will be able to take a shortened 45-minute version of the AP test on a concentrated amount of content at home online.
What Does Demonstrated Interest Mean?
Coronavirus/COVID-19: Should I Study for the June 2020 SAT?
As the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic progresses, College Board is scrambling to as far as their standardized test dates. The ACT . Both testing bodies have also canceled upcoming tests. College Board has canceled the May SAT date as well as the make-up test dates in March, and the ACT has rescheduled it’s April 4 test day to June 13. ACT’s decision to reschedule their April test date to June 13 should serve as a signal to the many students who are currently wondering if continuing to study for the SAT is even worth it. “If they canceled May,” we are being asked, “why should I put my effort into June?”
Coronavirus/COVID-19 College Essay Examples
Part of our job at The Koppelman Group is to keep up with the conversations that are happening within and between admissions teams around the country. Right now, a lot of the conversations are centered on what is happening with the Coronavirus and how to keep all the cogs moving and balls rolling in the right direction. Looking forward is hard to do when you aren’t quite sure when we will take our foot off the social distancing-pedal. However, one forward-thinking conversation that is making its way through the hub-bub is how college supplements are going to be reshaped to reflect the unique qualities of this school year. Namely, colleges will be more curious than ever about how you spent your time.
How Will the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Advanced Placement (AP) Courses and Tests?
It’s Monday, many schools across the country are out for the next three or more weeks across the country, and this is just the beginning. Over the next few weeks, teachers will be working on designing and implementing remote learning. Still, there is sure to be a steep learning curve that isn’t helped along by the fact that . With so much up in the air, it’s hard to guess what will come next, but it is entirely possible that schools will not invite their students back onto campus until fall. Yes, fall.
15 Application-Boosting Activities for High School Students During Coronavirus/Covid-19
We saw it coming, and it’s happening. Colleges and universities acted first, but now high schools are also taking swift action to keep students safe. For millions of students around the world, this means staying home and social distancing — or avoiding contact with all non-essential people. Most students will not have had this much free time since before they started structured schooling at four or five years old, including during summers. Without camps, sports, and other structured activities, and with it inadvisable to hang out with friends, there is a lot of free time to tackle.
Coronavirus/COVID-19 Response: What If I Am Accepted Regular Decision, But Can’t Tour Before the May Deposit Deadline?
Shortly after publishing our first blog post on the Coronavirus/COVID-19, we were asked an excellent question in the comments section. Lisa asked, “What happens if you get the regular decision acceptance letter and you want to tour the college before the May 1 deadline?”