What To Learn from Virtual Visits - Fall 2020 - Part 1
(this contains excerpts from a high school that I admire as they address how to approach online college information sessions and tours. Please share this with your child as it directed towards them)

Many of you have taken advantage of online college programs this fall, whether they be college fairs, info sessions or college rep virtual visits at school. So what should you be learning during this process? You should be paying attention to what individual colleges offer and how important you believe these offerings will be to you a year from now when you are applying to college. Some of the information may be confusing and won’t make sense...

NACAC Virtual College Fairs are designed from the ground up as mobile experiences that are intuitive, informative, interactive, and fun. Here is a quick start video to learn more: https://youtu.be/bZHtpVHLKok

During each NACAC Virtual College Fair, more than 600 college and university representatives will be available to talk with you and other students. On the day of each fair, log in to virtualcollegefairs.org using your phone or computer. It's totally easy to get around.

Create your schedule by selecting which colleges you'd like to learn about. Sign up to attend their live and interactive Zoom sessions. The sessions are on a variety of topics such as: how to apply, financial aid, student...

Whatever you call the school counselor at your child’s high school -- guidance counselor, college counselor, etc -- please know that they are an integral part of the college application process. A few elements of their job are: 

• to offer college advice to you and your child
• weigh in on the selection of courses for each year
• write a school counselor recommendation on behalf of your child
• send the transcript
• communicate with colleges about your child’s application and interest

Some school counselors do this better than others, and usually it depends on their caseload of students. 

As a parent, you should attend any college preparation presentations that your school offers,...

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the words “COVID 19,” “coronavirus,” “pandemic,” “new normal,” and “pivot.” What I’m not tired of are masks and clean hands. These last 100 days+ have made us all rethink our lives. How we communicate, how we educate and most importantly, how we process such a life-altering situation. 

Teenagers have it worse. They have so much on their plates given school, social media and hormones. Most of them are even more eager than the adults to have life go back to “normal.” This is partially to suppress the fact that they’re anxious, depressed and flat out confused...

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, several camps, colleges, and universities are canceling their on-site summer programs. Many people are even speculating that colleges will not even start in the fall. Craziness.

What I do know is that for students applying to college in the fall, essays and resumes, their stories, will play a significant contribution to their process.

Stories, not stats, will play a big part of college admissions 2020.
I’m willing to say that students who are creative and innovative will stand out tremendously this year and I’m willing to bet all the way through 2023. Yes, freshmen in high school will have more emphasis on their stories, not solely...

Over a month ago, I released two blog posts about how standardized testing - the ACT and SAT specifically -- are changing given COVID. Test dates were being cancelled or postponed for much of the spring. As of today, the summer dates of June ACT and SAT have also been canceled and both agencies are looking into summer and fall alternatives.

What's Going on With Standardized Tests?

SAT and ACT Tests Are Being Canceled, Now What?

Uncertainty and fear rule our world right now, and to imagine a mass of teenagers crowding into a building to sit next to each other for three or more hours. To me, that sounds, well, dangerous. We have no idea who’s infected and who’s not, and even when we do...

College admissions offices are almost done with the class of 2020 and will quickly turn their attention to the class of 2021. When you and your child cannot visit in person, there are many ways to engage with the admission office via technology:
Parents, please share this with your kids:

Follow the colleges’ social media accounts (but make sure that YOUR accounts are clean first!)

#1 Subscribe to and comment on admission offices’ blogs.

#2 Sign up online for recruitment emails. This identifies you as a prospective student and puts your information in the college’s database.

#3 Open and, if appropriate, reply quickly to any emails you receive from colleges. Click through on the...

Many students in the class of 2021 are concerned about how they're going to be evaluated by colleges given the global pandemic and their SATs or ACTs possibly not being a part of their application. As of right now, most schools have not determined how they will handle this, but please know that colleges want to evaluate students based on their best selves. So if students don't have testing yet, they can in the fall, and we're hoping that we're all through this in the coming weeks or months.

Colleges understand that this is a stressful time. Remember, the administrators and admissions officers are all working from home and most likely are quarantined to some capacity too. What the next few months...

Want to play sports in college?

This week we're talking about how high school athletes can play college sports. 

Ninth graders, you must have almost know what your core courses must be from ninth grade through twelfth grade.  It is imperative that you find out as ninth graders what you need to do now in order to graduate with the necessary 16 courses that you need in order to play sports at the next level.

Tenth graders, please register at  eligibilitycenter.org. This is a subset of the NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and they need you to register with them if you plan to play sports in college.

Eleventh graders, if you haven't done so already, please register with...

Within the last year, more and more colleges and universities have dropped requirements for standardized tests. The ACT and the College Board, which is the SAT, have been around forever and they are cemented in how we think about college admissions and what schools are the best. As someone who did not test well as a teenager and someone works with students who have a range of scores, I am always conflicted about how to gauge or share information about these powerful pieces to the admissions puzzle.

I’m glad that many schools such as Trinity College in CT, Bucknell in Pennsylvania, Indiana University and many others are actually becoming test-optional and not requiring the tests, however, the...