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What Makes a College Essay Stand Out in 2026-2027

Pet tarantulas crawling down a young girl’s back. An actor standing behind a stage door, holding heavy suitcases. A line of dialogue offering a new job as a cattle hand.  The idea of the “hook,” or a vivid beginning such as an interesting anecdote or a memorable line that catches the reader’s attention, is fairly […]

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Do Boarding Schools Give Students an Edge in College Admissions?

Every now and then when I hop onto Instagram, I’ll veer away from my usual feed featuring posts from Upworthy and interior designers to check out “decision accounts” at various high schools. If you’re not familiar with these already, they are typically named something similar to “schoolnamedecisionsclassyear” or as an example “bellairehigh26decisions.” As I scroll […]

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College Visit Checklist: 6 Ways to Make the Most of Every Campus Tour

In an era of high-definition virtual tours, booking a flight just to walk across a campus can feel like an expensive luxury–but you can’t actually ‘feel’ a campus culture through a laptop screen. While I completely understand this sentiment, it’s also one where I feel strongly that YES, it is worth making an in-person visit! […]

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High-Impact Extracurriculars: How to Stand Out

For one of my New Year’s resolutions this year, I’ve taken on running outside at least twice per week. I’m already an avid walker and pretty consistent with my 10,000 steps per day, but I also enjoy running and know the increase in speed will make a difference in my physical fitness. Simply put, running […]

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PSAT Scores are Out: What Do They Mean?

In my years as a classroom teacher and school counselor, I spent a morning every October proctoring the PSAT. I passed out test booklets, answer sheets, and No. 2 pencils while reading a script of directions and reminding students to fill in bubbles completely so that scores would be accurate. In more recent years, I […]

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