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Common Application Essay Prompts for 2023-2024 Confirmed

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Craig Leave a Comment

Amid growing chatter about the ease with which students can paint an entirely inaccurate picture of their critical thinking and persuasive writing skills by using AI-powered applications like ChatGPT, the Common App (known formally as The Common Application) quietly announced Tuesday afternoon that it is keeping its essay prompts and format the same for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.

Though no announcement was forthcoming on the Common App’s News or Blog pages as of late in the day on February 28, 2023, if one searched long and hard enough, one could find by late afternoon confirmation within the Common App’s Student Solutions Center – https://appsupport.commonapp.org/applicantsupport/s/article/What-are-the-2023-24-Common-App-essay-prompts – that the prompts would stay the same for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.

This is the first mention on the Common App’s website that the application’s prompts will remain the same in 2023-2024 as they were in 2022-2023.

As one can see from the image above, the Common App is also maintaining its optional COVID-19 short essay question.

Thus, starting on August 1, 2023 and throughout the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, the seven prompt options first-year applicants will have to carefully choose from in order to write one strong essay of up to 650-words will remain as follows:

  1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
  2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
  3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
  4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
  5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
  6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
  7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

In addition, certain counselors who get email newsletters from the Common App received an email late Tuesday confirming that the prompts would stay the same while also mentioning that the Common App wants “to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations.”

As this site has previously pointed out, there are vast differences in popularity between prompts among all applicants, which smart and strategic students can and should use to their advantage. Yet, the quote above from the Common App’s counselor email sounds like the Common App could be setting the table for making changes to its prompts in future admissions cycles by arguing that some prompts may be unfair to or create inequitable outcomes for certain demographic populations. The Tuesday email from the Common App to counselors made no mention of the recent proliferation of AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Today’s confirmation of the Common App essay prompts for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle gives the powers that be at the Common App roughly twelve months to decide upon and clarify the reasoning behind making any changes they want to make to the application for the 2024-2025 cycle. This is all happening as higher education administrators and employees in general and undergraduate admissions personnel in particular are currently stuck in a major holding pattern in anticipation of the Supreme Court of the United States’ rulings on affirmative action in college admissions. Those rulings are expected to be delivered by June 2023.

Ultimately, The Common Application serves (and exists) at the pleasure of its college members, as Common App is a non-profit organization that provides a standardized college application platform for roughly 1,000 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. The Common App allows students to fill out one application form online and submit it to multiple colleges, streamlining the college application process.

While the application includes a variety of components, including basic information about the student, educational history, and an extracurricular activities page, it is the Common App’s essay page that has traditionally caused high school students the most consternation. Some colleges and universities require additional materials through their Common App supplements, such as supplemental essays or portfolios, which can be submitted through the Common App as well.

By using the Common App, students can save time and effort in the college application process and have a more organized and streamlined way of applying to multiple schools. Yet, it’s important to note that not all colleges and universities accept the Common App, and even some Common App member colleges may require additional application materials be submitted after students submit their Common App. A handful of the biggest-name universities in the US have held off massive peer pressure to adopt the Common App: such colleges include MIT, Georgetown, and all colleges that are part of the UC system, such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara.

Also on Tuesday, the Common App announced that it has created two new senior-level roles for Constituent Engagement and Product. The hires come as the Common App aims to “expand beyond the application to empower more students to access, afford, and attain postsecondary opportunities.”

Jonell Sanchez and Dr. Ileana Rodriguez are joining the Common App.

Dr. Ileana Rodriguez will begin on March 14, 2023 as the new Senior Vice President for Constituent Engagement. In her new role, Dr. Rodriguez will lead Common App’s college and university member, student, and counselor engagement, enabling coordination across current constituencies. As Common App expands its services “to support more students, this role will also build relationships with partners in new markets to ensure those services have the desired impact.”

Dr. Ileana Rodriguez joins Common App from Colectiva, LLC. As Founder and CEO, Dr. Rodriguez provided customized strategic consulting services to non-profit organizations to navigate growth and change while advancing diversity, equity, and inclusiveness across all of their systems and practices. Prior to founding Colectiva, Dr. Rodriguez held senior leadership positions at Teach For America, The College Board, and Triton College.

“Educational equity is a centering force for my professional purpose,” said Rodriguez. “I’m excited to be joining Common App as it engages colleges, universities, counselors, teachers, and partners in its pursuit of access and equity in the college admission process, vastly expanding opportunity for all students.”

Jonell Sanchez will begin on March 14 as the new Senior Vice President of Product. In this role, Sanchez will help to identify new products and services and establish strategic partnerships “that will increase the number of underrepresented students who use Common App’s platform–not just to apply for opportunities, but to afford them and complete them successfully.”

Jonell Sanchez joins Common App from Sanchez Strategic Advisors. He provided organizations strategic executive consulting services in product development, business transformation, go-to-market and scaling growth in the U.S. and global for organizations like Educational Testing Service (ETS), Ness Digital Engineering, and others. Prior to joining ETS, Sanchez held senior leadership positions at ACT, the National Student Clearinghouse, Pearson Global, and The College Board.

“Common App’s vision and mission align with my personal experience as a childhood immigrant from Cuba and student from an underserved community and with my professional values and commitment to educational opportunity, access and impact at scale in the U.S. and abroad,” said Sanchez. “I am honored to join the team at this crucial point in the higher education landscape and to help expand Common App’s products and services to lower the barriers to college access and attainment, especially for historically underserved students.”

Sanchez and Rodriguez will join the Common App team as the organization moves into what it refers to as “its next chapter, focused on revolutionizing the entire college-going process to increase equity” with solutions that “show students all of the different opportunities available to them, streamline both the first-year and transfer process, help them pay for those opportunities, shift information and choice to the hands of students and, help organizations and colleges that provide opportunities find and support people to enroll and achieve their personal aspirations.” This comes after Common App launched “Direct Admissions,” which is basically colleges applying to students (as opposed to the traditional students applying to colleges), during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle.

12 Reasons Scattergrams Lull Students Into a False Sense of Security

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Craig Leave a Comment

Scattergrams, the ubiquitous x/y axis graphs that have caught on like wildfire over the last twenty-five years because of their inclusion in Naviance, MaiaLearning, Cialfo, and other online college counseling tools used by thousands of American high schools. Scattergrams purport to show a student’s chances of admission at different colleges and universities by plotting previous students from a particular high school on an x/y axis graph based on such students’ GPAs on one axis and their test scores (ACT or SAT) on the other.

Below is an example of a scattergram for a particular high school showing current students (and parents) at that high school how alumni from that high school fared when applying to University of Maryland College Park from 2010 through 2014.

Two images of scattergrams are included below. On the first one, from Naviance, please note that the scattergram plots the SAT on the x-axis using the old 2400 SAT scale; however, the SAT these days is scored out of 1600. Similarly, the first scattergrams’s high school clearly plots GPA based on a 4.0 scale, but some schools’ scattergrams will have very different numbers of the y-axis because scattergrams can have any sort of GPA scale on them (100, 20, 6, etc.) depending on a school’s grading scale.

The second scattergram image is from Cialfo and captures data for Reed College. It at least shares whether the data plotted represents students who applied Early Decision vs. vs. Early Action vs. something else (which at Reed would be Regular), which some scattergrams don’t share.

The typical student seeing the first of the two  scattergrams above assumes, if he or she has a 3.6 GPA and an SAT score of 1860 he or she is definitely going to get into University of Maryland College Park. Most of the rest of students with that combination of grades and scores would assume, after seeing the above scattergram, that Maryland is at least a huge safety college for them. After all, all students from this high school in the past few years who land in that GPA/score range got into Maryland, as illustrated by all of those green squares.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

The problem is a student with this GPA/score combination could easily get rejected from University of Maryland College Park for any number of reasons that a scattergram will not be able to display. The most common reasons scattergrams lull students into a false sense of security are as follows:

  1. Many selective colleges get more selective every passing year, rendering antiquated past years’ admissions statistics.
  2. Scattergrams don’t show the quality of past applicants’ extracurricular resumes.
  3. Scattergrams don’t show the quality of past applicants’ essay writing skills.
  4. Scattergrams don’t show past applicants’ demographics (rich, middle-class, poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, International, etc.). College admissions officers for American colleges – especially selective institutions – often care quite a lot about their applicants’ demographics.
  5. Scattergrams don’t show incredibly important (again, in the eyes of college admissions officers) background information about past applicants’ beyond their demographics. Here we are talking about characteristics like an applicant’s legacy status (Did a past applicant’s mom or dad attend the same college?), athletic prowess (Was a past applicant a highly-sought athletic recruit?), and/or his or her parents’/grandparents’ proclivity for giving money to the college on the scattergram in question.
  6. Most high schools set their scattergrams to hide from current students/parents whether or not past applicants to the college in question applied Rolling Decision, Early Decision, Early Action, Priority Admission, and/or Regular Decision. That’s important information! This is because colleges that offer different admissions plans/deadlines often have very different standards for each such plan/deadline. You can also forget about a scattergram showing whether a past applicant applied for and/or was accepted to the college for fall, spring, or winter term (if such varied options exist at the college in question).
  7. Scattergrams don’t show the quality of past applicants’ teacher and counselor recommendation letters/evaluations.
  8. Scattergrams likely don’t account for whether or not past applicants submitted their ACT scores, SAT scores, both, or neither (in the case of test-optional colleges) to the colleges’ scattergrams on which they are plotted. This is a huge issue in a college admissions environment where there majority of colleges continue to be test-optional.
  9. Unless the scattergram’s GPA axis is a weighted GPA, the GPA axis is not capable of communicating to students and parents the past applicants’ curricular rigor.
  10. Scattergrams don’t show past applicants’ grade trends in high school (colleges care so much about this).
  11. Scattergrams show past applicants’ final GPAs in high school, not their GPAs when they applied to college (usually in the beginning of a student’s senior year). Senior slumps in the final months of past applicants’ senior years often slightly (and sometimes greatly) deflate their final GPAs relative to what their GPAs were in October of their senior years.
  12. Directors of college counseling (the leaders of college counseling offices) can be applicants’ best advocates or worst enemies depending on whether or not these directors have written a strong and compelling high school profile and done everything else they can do to encourage particular colleges to accept their students. Scattergrams don’t note when certain directors’ regimes began and ended; therefore, in a field where many directors of college counseling only stay in their roles for a few years before moving on, a five- or ten-year scattergram could be capturing admissions statistics for students applying from a particular high school under very different college counseling regimes. Some directors write bang-up high school profiles (which are sent to all colleges to which students apply in a particular admissions cycle) and some don’t. Sadly, at some schools, the high school profile is written and designed by the communications team and/or individuals in the admissions, advancement, development, head of school, principal, and or central office! The further removed from college counseling the writers of the high school profile are the more likely the profile will not provide college admissions officers the information they are looking for in a high school profile. Meanwhile, some directors of college counseling make calls for their students or their colleagues’ students, others simply don’t. Some are on a first-name basis with Ivy League admissions officers, some don’t know any. Some act as PR agents for their students, others are real in their recommendation letters, which leads to such letters carrying more weight with admissions officers than those that only share glowing reviews. Scattergrams lull students and parents into thinking (just like point #1 above) that each student plotted on the scattergram had the same college counseling team behind him or her and faced the same college admissions rates from year to year. The fact is, high schools change and colleges change, and as a result, scattergrams fail at capturing subtle or quite large subjective changes to students’ chances from year to year based on how high schools and colleges change.

In summary, so much of what colleges will ultimately base their admissions decisions on is NOT captured in scattergrams; therefore, don’t use them as the end all be all when it comes to determining whether a particular college on your list is a Safety, Possible, or Reach. Any college counselor, student, or parent who tells you otherwise has no idea what he or she is talking about.

I frequently get irate parents telling me that I am too pessimistic about their student’s chances at a particular college or university based on what the family sees on a particular college’s scattergram on Naviance, MaiaLearning, or Cialfo. I remind them that I often know the back story on each applicant on the scattergram and/or that there are at lease twelve reasons why the scattergram is only part of the story – especially at the country’s most selective colleges and universities. Sadly, this does not often calm the parents down, and as a result, a few parents hold months-long bouts of resentment towards me – usually until all admissions decisions are released in April, at which point reality sets in – for good or ill. With that said, I am happy when I have a student get into a college that I classified as a Reach that the parents and student thought I should have classified as a Possible or a Safety. It’s my job to help turn all colleges on a student’s list into offers of admission; yet, I need the student’s cooperation and effort if I can make this happen. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Scattergrams are trustworthier for colleges that primarily base their admissions decisions on applicants’ grades and scores only. Theses types of colleges were usually those that accepted over 50 of applicants and/or large state universities that asked for the perfunctory essay and extracurricular list but which didn’t have the actual manpower to review these subjective aspects of students’ applications. Such colleges simply defaulted to determining whether or not to accept a student based on his or her scores and grades. Yet, such colleges are increasingly rare because of the current trend of test-optional admissions that is sweeping the nation. Even in such cases where grades and test scores make of the majority of a college’s admissions decision, a student who is quite deficient or exceptionally strong in one or more of the twelve areas listed above could easily become an exception to the rule that the scattergram seems to convey.

Bottom line: strong college counselors always explain this important, complex, and as you can now see, somewhat time-consuming information to students and parents. Such college counselors tend to lean towards being more conservative with their Safety, Possible, and Reach classifications for colleges on their students’ lists than those college counselors who take a relatively two-dimensional approach (x,y axis, anyone?) to college acceptance/rejection prognostication. If you are a student or parent going through the college application process now or in the future, please remember to be skeptical of scattergrams. Though they have valuable data on them, scattergrams only capture some objective data, and they certainly don’t capture the subjective strengths or weaknesses of past college applicants or their college applications.

University of Southern California Adds Early Action Admissions Deadline

Posted on September 9, 2022 by admissions.blog Leave a Comment

The University of Southern California, a selective private university in Los Angeles, has announced that it is introducing a November 1 Early Action admissions deadline for the 2022-2023 admission cycle.

This is a big change for a university that had long held the line on notifying candidates of their admissions decisions no earlier than spring of each year. Now, those students applying Early Action this fall will learn of their admissions decision by mid to late January 2023.

The new November 1 deadline is non-binding (Early Decision, which USC does not offer, is binding) and non-restrictive, which means that students can apply to other colleges Early Action at the same time. Students can even apply to one other college Early Decision at the same time, but of course would need to commit to their Early Decision college if admitted.

Yet, Early Action is not available for students applying to majors in the School of Architecture, School of Cinematic Arts, Kaufman School of Dance, School of Dramatic Arts, Roski School of Art and Design, Iovine and Young Academy, and Thornton School of Music should. Students applying to these schools should apply by December 1 using USC’s Regular Decision plan.

USC has become increasingly selective since going test optional. During the 2021-2022 admissions cycle, USC, which is the largest private university in California, only accepted roughly twelve percent of first-year applicants.

UC Berkeley Announces Fall 2022 Admissions Updates

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Craig Leave a Comment

As we head into a new admissions cycle, University of California, Berkeley is announcing some changes in how it will consider applicants.

UC Berkeley is joining the rest of the UC campuses in allowing students to select an alternative major on the UC application. The university encourages students to take advantage of this option, especially if they have a second-choice major they’re interested in. UC Berkeley’s advice remains that students should select the major they are most interested in as their primary major because the university will only guarantee a review of the primary major, while alternative majors will only be used if space is available, for example, as the university considers available space during the wait list process.

In addition, first-year applicants admitted to one of the twelve high-demand majors in the College of Letters and Science will be guaranteed a space in the major. While this will not be a direct admission to the major, the process to declare will be simplified and space will be held for them contingent on certain requirements. Students interested in a high-demand major are encouraged to apply for it on the application, which gives them the best chance of declaring that major. Students who do not select a high-demand major can apply to declare after enrolling at Berkeley, but it will be through a comprehensive review process directly with the major department.

Meanwhile, any student interested in completing a double major will be limited to one high-demand major in the College of Letters and Science. Students who are interested in more than one major are encouraged to add the high-demand major as their primary major on their UC application. More information related to these changes will be posted on this page in the coming weeks.

This news comes as students are encouraged to start their UC application for fall 2022 this month (August), including entering personal information, self-reporting their courses and grades, and drafting their Personal Insight Questions (PIQs).

Like other UC campuses, starting this cycle, the application submission period for UC Berkeley begins on October 1, and the deadline is November 30. This gives students a larger window to submit their applications, as in previous years the application submission window only lasted for the entire month of November. Once the application is submitted students cannot make changes to the application, so they should plan accordingly, and of course, the UC system does not offer Early Action or Early Decision.

Finally, UC Berkeley also has shared news for prospective transfer students. Starting fall of 2023, participating UC Berkeley academic departments will pilot a direct admit to major program in Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science for transfer admits. There will be twenty-seven departments participating in the program including four high-demand majors: Art Practice, Computer Science, Data Science, and Social Welfare.

On the UC application, when selecting the major, the portal will inform students that they are applying directly to the chosen major. If an applicant is admitted to a major participating in this program they will not have to go through the process of applying to or officially declaring their major during their first semester on campus. Transfer admission and major declaration procedures will not change for majors who are not participating in this pilot program. More information will be posted on this page in the coming weeks as details are finalized.

All of these updates come on the heels of an unprecedented year that included a record number of freshmen applicants to UC Berkeley (over 128,000 applicants) and a court ruling that threatened to cap its enrollment numbers. Even so, the selective Bay Area university offered over 19,700 freshmen and transfer students admission.

Ten Unique and Memorable College Acceptance Gifts for All Personality Types

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Sponsored Post 5 Comments

The hard part – the sweating over grades, exams, and essays and the agonizing wait for decisions – is over. The big moment has arrived – and it is a triumph! It is time to celebrate. Champagne corks are popped; yet, now the question is, what gift should be purchased for the college-bound student? Sadly, gift giving has increasingly become a lost art, so we’ve selected ten neat gifts organized by student personality that will make recently-accepted college students’ hearts swell with pride.

1. Preppy

If the lucky student was admitted to an old-line traditional school with lots of ivy decorating the buildings and he or she has a good sense of humor, then the student will need to brush up on the essentials of proper etiquette outlined in the classic Preppy Handbook:

2. Old Fashioned

Anyone can buy a t-shirt or hoodie in the college bookstore, but a me-too gift is boring. Want to be distinctive? How about throw-back designs on T-shirts featuring vintage school images like the one below, which is a 1960 version of Georgetown. Available for many schools.

3. Hipster

If the student is hip, how about a cool banner to hang in his or her dorm room?

4. Discerning

Maybe something a little more elegant. How about a Halcyon Days box?

5. Gamer

Maybe the incoming student is a STEM major and a gamer. In that case, a version of Monopoly customized to their school is on point so he or she can learn the names of buildings and streets on campus.

6. Artistic

These whimsically illustrated items would be the perfect gift for the artiste. Offered by the California-based catstudio, they make bags, glasses, pillows, towels, art prints and more for hundreds of schools.

7. Fashionista

If the rising freshman has a great sense of fashion and style and you have a big budget, then an elegant watch with the school’s logo on it might fit the bill for her.

8. Sporty

If the student is going to a big football school, then they will need lots of apparel to wear to the games. How about a customized jersey with the student’s name on it? Available for scores of schools.

9. The Type A

Is the grad a natural worrier or type A personality who likes to have anything thought through beforehand? Then, The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College by Harlan Cohen is the perfect gift, and a New York Times bestseller.

10. All Types

A customized gift box from Etsy tailored to your recipient puts the perfect finishing touch on your gift(s).

 

The above post was sponsored by Collectable Ivy, specialists in collegiate memorabilia. For a fuller selection of unique, vintage, and special gift items, check out the thousands of items at CollectableIvy.com.

Great College Application Essays Have Something in Common

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Craig

What do nearly all successful college application essays have in common? Hint: it’s not their topic, structure, tone, or grammatical tense. It’s something about the essay’s first draft. Watch the video below to learn more.

If you want to get into even the most selective colleges and universities, make sure to prioritize the drafting process for your college application essays. If you want more help through the drafting process, learn more about working with me here.

Best College Acceptance Gifts for the Class of 2021

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Craig Leave a Comment

After applying ED to Tulane, my first two students in the Class of 2021 received their offers of Fall 2021 admission this week. Thus, around these parts at least, College Acceptance Season has officially begun!

With the bulk of Early Decision and Early Action notifications set to be released in December, now is the time to determine what you will buy your special someone (maybe even yourself) who hopefully will be getting into college real soon (if he or she hasn’t gotten in already). While most Early Decision and Early Action acceptance notifications coincide with the height of Christmas-Hanukah shopping season, this year, to mark getting into college, you really don’t want to give simply a fruitcake or a Rudolph sweater. You want to make your gift college acceptance-centric.

So, go on and surprise your special someone or treat yourself with gifts that mark the occasion of getting into college and celebrate college life in general by browsing through the 2020-2021 College Acceptance Gift Collection presented by admissions.blog.

A bit of a back-story: for nearly a decade I sent acceptance gifts to my students accepted Early Decision and Early Action at their first-choice colleges, and these gifts’ massive popularity got many people both near and far asking, “Where did you think of that?” or, “That’s the perfect gift for my future Terrapin (or Gator, or Bruin, etc.), how can I get my hands on more just like it?” So, several years back, I decided to open up admissions.blog’s online gift shop designed specifically for your future or current college student.

Gifts detailed in the gift collection run the gamut from college apparel to dorm safety products. No matter your budget or needs, we’ve got the perfect college-themed gifts that are fun and practical.

So, what are you waiting for? Start Shopping below!

Congratulations on getting into college Rolling, Priority, ED, or EA!

Represent with or Protect your Tech (and this year, life!) with College Pride!
Skinit makes some of my favorite phone cases and laptop, AirPod, PlayStation, and Xbox skins around. What’s great is that on some of these items you can not just find styles that match your personality; you can also find designs that flaunt your college colors. Below are some examples of some of my favorite skins or cases.

This year, with a plague all around us, we’ve added a way to show college pride while covering your face. FOCO and Original Retro Brand make some face masks that future college students will love even as they gasp for air.


In the same vain, it’s also important not to misplace your technology and charge your gadgets regularly. I love this all-in-one bamboo charging station by NEXGADGET because it’s compact, which is perfect for a dorm room and it’s also quite stylish.

Protect Yourself!
Sad to say, college dorm showers are gross! Showaflaps make my favorite antibicrobial flip flops for your (hopefully) daily showers while on campus.

At many college campuses it also gets quite cold in the winter; therefore, how about some house boots to keep your feet nice and warm during your first winter on campus? Hanes makes my favorites in this category, and their unisex bad boys double as awesome dorm room slippers. Added bonus: no-slip!

Keep the Peace in Your Dorm Room
They say that good fences make good neighbors. In the context of a dorm room, good room dividers make good roommates. Sometimes we all need a bit of our own space, and MyGift makes my favorite dorm room divider because it can also double as a chalk board.

Look Good On Campus
While it makes the most sense to dress for success during the school day and while in class, once nighttime rolls around, strip down to a graphic tee that showcases your sense of humor. My favorite pop-culture inspired, random, college-themed, and all around fun t-shirt designs that are sure to grab the attention of fellow travelers in your dorm, at the library, or in the dining hall are below.





Look Good In Bed
Get your head out of the gutter! When it’s time to go to sleep or simply nap, there is no need to do so in a drab quilt. You should be able to snuggle up in your college colors, and Dormitory101 makes the very best double-layered, double-sided blankets made from the softest material you’ve ever felt – and they’re easy to take care of. No pilling. No extra care instructions. Just the comfiest, coziest fleece that will last years after graduation.

Congratulations on getting into college/university!

Parents, congrats – your child is going to college!

Students, great job! Now, let’s party!

How to Prepare for IELTS Online at Home

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Chetan Jain 7 Comments

As IELTS experts, we spend a lot of time answering questions about IELTS Exam preparation and the best ways to go about preparing for this all-important exam during a global pandemic.

Online education is becoming the new normal during a time when nobody wants to leave their home unless absolutely necessary. Many still think there is a one-size-fits-all magic formula for preparing for the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), and I think it’s time that we dispel this myth once and for all, and in so doing, here are a few hard truths about IELTS Online Test Preparation.

Hard Truth #1: IELTS Test Preparation is Different for Different people

While some people are ready for taking their IELTS tomorrow; some may be best positioned to do well on the IELTS only after six months of hard work ahead of them. It depends on the individual. Students often feel that this isn’t the right test for them. Unfortunately, just because something worked for someone you know, doesn’t mean the same will work for you. It is important to understand your areas of improvement and take coaching from an Online IELTS institute that is able to provide personal attention to you. There are various diagnostic tests available on the internet. You can attempt those diagnostic tests and find out your weak areas. Any exam preparation is different for different people. It all depends on what strategies the individual best responds to.

Hard Truth #2: Direction plays a key role

We know there is a lot of free information available on the internet, and we know you want to “teach yourself” using this free information. But trust me; we talk to dozens of people on a daily basis that thought the same thing. Why should you take IELTS Training when there is so much free material available on the internet? Well it’s free but not structured, a Top IELTS Online coaching institute will be able to provide you with a proper training plan, tips and tricks, and feedback on areas in which you need the most improvement. Guys, you have to think a lot before choosing whether to join a prep program or engage self preparation, I get it. IELTS is an expensive exam; I think it’s better to take prep seriously and engage in structured expert prep if you can afford it.

 IELTS Online Test Preparation Recommendations

1: Figure Out your Level

The first thing that you should do when you decide you’re going to prepare for IELTS at home is to find out exactly what your current level is. Then you can make an appropriate timeline and some realistic goals. NEVER book your IELTS test date before knowing and assessing your level. You will certainly regret it. Most online IELTS classes will be able to provide you with a free mock IELTS test that you can take to assess your own level. 

2: Build on your Weaknesses

Once you know what your level is, stop practicing the questions immediately. The practice questions were good enough to give you the format of the test. Now is the time to focus completely on building up the weak skills that you have identified. Look for Online IELTS coaching that provides you with skills-building lessons on grammar, vocabulary, and other important skills required to crack the IELTS Exam. 

3:  Start Practicing Again

Once you have worked on your weaknesses, it’s time to start practicing IELTS questions again. This time, you can focus more on understanding the format of the test, such as how the questions and information will be presented to you. Many institutes have designed full length mock tests for IELTS very similar to the final IELTS exam. Some even have module based tests. It may be the case that you are good in listening and weak in writing, and if so, then you can practice more questions within the writing module.

4: Get Feedback from an Expert

Once you feel that you are ready for the IELTS, it’s incredibly helpful to get feedback about your progress from someone who knows what they’re talking about. This can be a tutor in your daily life or a trained IELTS prep partner. If you decide to do this before taking your test, chances are you will have a lot more knowledge and confidence, which will make it much more likely for you to succeed on your first try! Guidance from an expert plays an important role in cracking IELTS exam in the first attempt.

What’s the Final Message for IELTS Preparation Online?

Remember, you are a unique individual. Your Online IELTS test preparation is not going to look the same as your friend’s preparation. If you want to succeed on your first try, you need to be honest with yourself about your weaknesses and you need to be realistic about your timeline. And if you need help, get it from an expert. 

Why Your Common Application Essay is So Bad

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Craig

If your attempt at writing a strong Common Application essay is failing, chances are that you are making this one major mistake in the drafting process. Fix it and you will give yourself a fighting chance to write an essay that is actually decent.

 

Write an essay worthy of getting you into your dream college! Expert college application essay review and editing are just a click away! Meanwhile, learn about another reason your college application essay is so bad.

“Your anguish is justified.” The ACT apology for canceling your registration.

Posted on August 1, 2020 by Craig 1 Comment

Many colleges have gone test-optional for the 2020-2021 admissions cycle, and so far, ACT, Inc., the publisher of the ACT, has done all it can make colleges appear prescient by doing so.  When you can make the individuals running Mizzou (went test optional this week) appear forward-thinking you know you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to organizational effectiveness.

Throughout the spring and early summer ACT administrations were cancelled with little to no notice. Students often registered for testing sites miles away from home in the hopes that they had found a rural school willing to allow them into the building to take the ACT only to find that they were student #251 out of 500 students in line, and the school, because of social distancing, was only accepting the first 250 students to show up.

All this happened with no warning or guidance from ACT, Inc.

In other cases, students showed up to a school on a Saturday morning only to find the whole place locked up and the ACT unable or unwilling to give any pre-test or post-test guidance as to why the test was never administered. Was it the ACT’s fault or was it that proctors just didn’t show up or was it because the school was closed by some higher power? Does it matter?

Obviously, the plague spreading around the Earth came at a time when many long-standing institutions were least capable of dealing with it. Most venerable institutions in the U.S. are notable for their lethargy, inflexibility, listlessness, and lack of leadership, and their reaction to doing business through a plague is to remain in denial as long as possible.

Yet, now that summer is waning, the hits keep on coming for the ACT.

The latest ACT snafu comes in the form of a random email some students who thought they successfully registered for the September ACT received this week that read as follows:

Hi [Student Name],

We’re sorry. We know on Monday you visited MyACT to register for the ACT test and did not have the experience you were hoping for or the one we wanted to provide you. Your anguish is justified.

We are refunding your full transaction amount that occurred on July 27 through MyACT.

Your order did not complete as expected and you do not currently have an ACT test registration.

MyACT will be up and running on Monday, August 3 at 10:00am CT, and you will be able to register successfully. Customer Support teams are not able to complete or change registrations until our system is back up on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

What’s going on in Iowa? ACT, Inc. claims a new registration system is in the offing in 48 hours. Maybe come August 3 the powers that be at the ACT will wake up fully aware that their entire business model is hanging on by a thread and they will chart a positive course for the standardized test. But, would you be money on that? Chances are ACT, Inc. will keep stumbling from embarrassment to embarrassment into the fall and winter until someone who is actually a leader takes charge and proactively guides the organization forward in a world unlikely to return to fetid “normal” any time soon.

In the meantime, if you can earn a strong ACT or SAT score and the college(s) you are applying to is test optional, it’s still my recommendation to grin and bear this shady process. Test optional is not test blind; therefore, the clamor to take the SAT and ACT will remain no matter how bad both of these test makers behave.

The (former) SAT word for all of this: debacle. The (current) SAT words for all of this: hot mess.

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