A compelling card or letter serves as a follow-up to an application, reinforcing a student’s interest in an institution and reminding admissions officers of their strengths. This guide outlines key components, structure, and expert tips to help students craft an impactful letter that enhances their application.

Meet Alisa. She brings a compassionate and patient approach to tutoring. With extensive experience as a peer mentor and undergraduate teaching assistant, she excels in creating affirming learning environments tailored to neurodiverse students. Alisa’s academic background and dedication to inclusive education make her an invaluable asset to students striving to understand complex mathematical and scientific concepts.

Meet Arek. He specializes in nurturing the academic growth of neurodivergent students and those with learning differences. With a psychology degree and robust experience in diverse teaching settings (incl. chess and unicycling!), Arek brings patience, creativity, and a deep understanding of individual learning needs to each session. His gentle approach ensures that every student feels valued and empowered to succeed.

Meet Patrick. As a credentialed educator with extensive experience teaching AP subjects in the classroom and leading speech and debate teams, Patrick specializes in test preparation. His innovative teaching methods and commitment to academic excellence have consistently fostered high achievement, making him a trusted mentor to scores of high-performing students.

Starting college applications is exciting, but writing a personal essay can be intimidating. The good news is that the best personal essays all share certain traits, and with practice, you can write your own show-stopper.

Learn how your essay can stand out by utilizing attention-grabbing hooks. Let’s dive into what makes a good hook and review some college essay hooks examples. 

Unlock the secrets to a successful college admissions essay with this comprehensive guide for parents. Learn how to support your teen in crafting a standout essay that captures their unique strengths and experiences.

Meet Mamie. With a decade of experience, Mamie guides students in crafting impactful admissions essays. Having graduated with a degree in literature, she brings a love of language and narrative expertise to the coaching process. Drawing from her professional background in copywriting, manuscript editing, and journalism, her goal is to help students identify unique perspectives and hone their story.

August is upon us! For many high school seniors, that means one thing – college application season. Like most things about senior year, the college application process challenges you to look forward and backward simultaneously.

Struggling to write the perfect college essay? Here are some of the most effective strategies that can help you master your essay & get into your dream school.

The first thing to know about writing a winning private school application essay is that yes, you can do it! This application component might seem daunting, but considering two critical strategies can shift your student’s perspective and evade writer’s block.

With that said, grades and SSAT (or HSPT) test scores are important, but the personal essay is your student’s best opportunity to demonstrate maturity, intellectual curiosity, and a unique perspective. Here is where a strong voice and a vision make them memorable!

How does your student write this fantastic essay? They need to tell their own story with their own voice. Here’s how.

Holton offers personalized support for middle school and high school students, whether they’re preparing for the SAT or ACT, strengthening executive functioning and study skills, or drafting a college essay.

The contemporary college admissions landscape is treacherous. Schools are reporting record application numbers since test-optional policies have gone mainstream, yet the number of available seats remains constant. There aren’t many things seniors can control at this point in the application process, considering GPAs are nearly finalized and suddenly joining four new extracurricular activities is bound to raise red flags for admissions committees. The college essay, though, is the one piece that still needs to be added to the enormous puzzle of lists and numbers that composes your academic portfolio.

Being able to closely read a text is a skill that will serve you in high school, college, and beyond. It’s also one of the hardest abilities to master. In this post, we will explore what close reading is and how to improve your expertise.

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has disrupted your high school experience and college plans in some way. For the 2022-23 admissions cycle, The Common App will continue to include this question on their application portal as an opportunity for you to elaborate on how the pandemic has affected your life.

Unlike back in the day when your application was a simple envelope sealed with spit and sent by snail mail, in today’s world, you can apply to multiple colleges at once and have your application information organized and stored at your fingertips. There are two primary platforms that facilitate this expedited process: the Common App and the Coalition for College. If you are pushing to meet an ED deadline or are just getting prepared and you don’t yet know which platform to use and why, read on!

The process of applying for college so often feels uniquely impersonal – application forms are rote, recommendations seem almost formulaic, and your standardized test scores and GPA are literally numbers. The college essay provides everyone with a much-needed break from statistics. And the cliché is true: it’s your opportunity to show admissions officers that you are “more than a number.”

According to FairTest, roughly two-thirds of U.S. universities are now test-optional or test-blind in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Across the country, school districts converted grading systems to pass/fail while students had extracurriculars and volunteer opportunities cancelled.

As a result, colleges will have to rely on only a handful of application components for admissions decisions. The dreaded college essay holds more weight than ever before.

Your essay is your opportunity to let your character shine and convince admissions officers that you will be a vibrant asset to their student body. To that end, we’ve got some tips for writing an essay that stands out.

As the health of our students and staff is our top priority, we’re joining efforts to contain COVID-19 by transitioning all tutoring sessions online.

NOTE: This is an updated post, originally published June 27, 2018.

In recent years, more colleges have introduced indirect means of assessing student interest and engagement.