Category: College Admissions

Spring of junior year is prime time for standardized testing.  Most students hope to get all of their testing done before the start of senior year.  In order to make the most of the time available, students should make a plan for how they are going to tackle the tests.  The tests aren’t offered every week – so a lack of planning can lead to a lot of stress. No one needs to add more stress to the college application process!  Doing a little research now can save you big headaches in the future.

As students look at the application requirements for various colleges, they may come across something known as the SAT IIs, or the SAT Subject Tests.  What are they? Do you need to take them? How do you sign up for them? All of this is information you want to know.

First, what are the SAT Subject Tests?  They are one hour, [...]

Taking the PSAT in early October often gets students and their families wondering what they should do next.  Often, students will start to see an influx of marketing and mailings from various colleges. It’s and exciting but also sometimes overwhelming time.  It’s important to make the most of it.

One thing that juniors should start to plan are college visits.  Some students may already have a very fleshed out list of what they want in a school, while others may feel like they don’t even know where to begin.  All of that is ok! Even if you feel that you have it all planned out, it never hurts to take a hard look at what you really want. There are so many different factors to finding the right college – it’s not all about where they fall on [...]

Struggling with the all important college application essay?  In this episode James speaks to essay writing expert Meghean Gormley, director of essay writing at First Choice College and owner of Rough Draft Essays.

Topics include:

• What makes a good admission essay?
• How can students deal with writers block?
• The right number of drafts
• and more!

Online College Planning gives guidance and insight to make informed decisions to students academic future. They are active in developing new and innovative solutions to help families in the college planning process.

It is hard to believe, but summer is here, and with it comes changing schedules and a break in the routine. It’s easy to let the weeks slip by, but remember that summer never seems to be as long as we expect! For rising seniors, the summer is a critical time – this is your chance to get ahead on all your college applications. Students can officially access the Common Application starting in August, however that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do before then. First off, rising seniors should make sure to check out the essay topics for this year’s Common App Essay (find them on commonapp.org). Use the summer to work on this. Keep in mind that this is a personal essay, and so it may take some time to get it right. The best essays are almost never the first draft that you write. Give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm and try [...]

This is the second podcast in an informative series presented for the benefit for college bound students or students thinking of attending college. The tips and ideas presented are guaranteed to help anyone get closer to being accepted by their first choice college.

In this episode James speaks to Christina Hamilton, director of admissions at Sacred Heart University.

Listen to episode 2 below:

Getting mail from your first choice college can be a nerve wracking experience. You open it hoping to find out that you’ve been accepted, and anxious over the thought that you may have been rejected. If one of these two happens, your path is pretty clear. But what about the third possibility? What do you do if you get waitlisted?

Being put on the waitlist leaves you feeling in limbo, not sure what to do next. So here are a few concrete steps that you can take, and some important considerations that you should keep in mind.

The first thing you should do is to send a letter of interest to the admissions office. You want to let them know that they are your first choice, and that you would accept an offer if it were made. You want to [...]

Are you wondering whether you should take the SAT or ACT test to gain a place at college?  Choosing between the two generally comes down to personal choice, however how can you decide which to take?  What is the difference between the SAT and ACT test?

To answer that very question, we have created our own info-graphic, which explains some of the major differences between the two tests:

Would you like to share our infographic on your blog?  Please feel free to download it and credit us at: www.firstchoicecollege.com.

“I don’t test well.”

“Test scores shouldn’t keep me out of my top colleges.”

“I am more than just numbers, why don’t the colleges see that?”

If you’ve ever heard these remarks or felt this way, you’re not alone.  These sentiments are common across hopeful college applicants.  And now, over 90 colleges have proposed a solution: The Coalition Application.  The Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success consists of 94 members.  In Connecticut, the Coalition application will be accepted by Connecticut College, the University of Connecticut, Yale University and Wesleyan University.

One of the stated goals of the coalition is to increase access to college by encouraging students to start planning as early as freshman year.  The college application process is convoluted and many students and their families don’t have enough resources to even know what they don’t know.  On the other hand, there [...]

Some people are naturally early, detailed planners. Others are procrastinators who get everything done at the last minute. Regardless of which type of person you are, it’s important to keep deadlines in mind when you’re applying to college. While regular decision deadlines aren’t until the middle of the school year, there are two deadlines that come up much earlier and mean you might need to have your application ready before those regular deadlines: Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA). In this article, we’re going to delve into what the differences are and how to know what’s best for you.

Early Decision and Early Action are two different early admission programs of applying for a college. The deadlines [...]

A person once wrote that “We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them”.  Writing a college admission essay is probably one of the most stressful events of high school, rivalled perhaps only by the SAT or the prom.   “There’s nothing interesting about me”, “I’m no good at writing” or “I don’t know where to start” are common refrains heard from today’s high school students.

However, the college essay doesn’t have to be this awful, stressful experience. This article is designed to assuage those fears by giving 10 practical tips for writing a memorable college essay.

1. Answer the question the being asked.  When a college has a specific essay topic, there’s a reason for it. Answer it.
2. Tell a story.  Good college essays have a complete emotional arc, with a beginning, middle, and end.
3. Write the essay about you.  No matter what [...]