Students considering early application programs, such as Early Action (EA), Restricted Early Action (REA), and Early Decision (ED), should carefully track their application deadlines. Most EA, REA, and ED deadlines fall on November 1, including Yale, Harvard, and Princeton (REA), as well as...

There has been some discussion in social media about colleges that allow students to earn a bachelor’s degree in three years. To avoid confusion, let me set the record straight. Virtually every college in America, and absolutely every top college in America, requires students to earn...

The state of California has just announced that it is banning legacy as a factor in college admission. Legacy admission is the practice of giving additional weight to the applications of sons or daughters, and sometimes extended family members, of an alumnus. The University of California system...

Many Colleges Require Applications to be Received Earlier to Qualify

Many students organize their college essay writing by application deadline. However, many colleges require that you submit your application on the early application deadline, or another day prior to the...

At least 1,000 times in my career, I have been asked the following questions by parents seeking to have their children attend Ivy League or equivalent colleges:

• How prestigious is being a member of National Honor Society?
• How prestigious is being an AP Scholar with Honor or...

"To be a successful candidate in elite college admission, you must build a profile that is strong and dense, like a bowling ball, rather than colorful and puffy, like a beach ball. Decisions should be cohesive and decisive, rather than hollow and disjointed."

First, let me acknowledge that...

When Students for Fair Admissions brought its case against Harvard and the University of North Carolina for discriminating against Asian-American students in the admission process, they fully expected that the result of prevailing in the case would be a larger number of admitted Asian-American...

What is a high school athlete? There is no one answer to this question. As it relates to college admission, there are five different categories of student athletes providing everything from 100% certainty in admission to only a small boost in consideration by the college admission team. Here are...

I am an admissions consultant, so, admittedly, my opinion on this subject might be a bit skewed. But if it is, it is based less on a desire to promote my business than on the actual value that professional admission consulting can have on a student’s admission success and state of mind. The...

Getting into top private schools is not unlike getting into top colleges. The fact is that highly valued individuals demonstrate a consistent set of values whether they are applying for college or private school. That is because, to a certain extent, top schools are seeking a consistent and...

By Brian Cook and Neil Chyten

When filling out activities for college applications, student athletes typically want to lead with their greatest accomplishments. They want to present a narrative consisting of an endless array of successes—and who could blame them? Certainly, this is only...

Teamwork: “Selfless collaboration designed to achieve a shared goal or objective.”

To you, a sport might merely be an activity you enjoy or that you have natural ability in. It might merely be a way for you to spend time with your friends enjoying a shared passion for competition...

...

If you are applying to top colleges and are planning visits to see their campuses, you should be aware of which top colleges consider demonstrated interest in their admission decisions. The degree to which colleges consider demonstrated interest can vary substantially. In any...

Demonstrated interest is the process by which students display their interest in a particular college by engaging in activities that then become known to the college’s admission committee. Here are 12 suggestions for improving your demonstrated interest profile. The degree to which colleges...

Parents and students often put far too much emphasis on the common application personal essay and not enough on the college supplemental essays and questions. While it is true that all colleges on the common app network will view the common app essay, making it rather important, colleges that...

...

As the expression goes, if I had a dollar for every time one of my students was asked by their parent to change their Common Application essay because it did not do enough to promote their extracurricular activities or GPA, I would have, well, a lot of dollars. So, parents, please accept this...

According to NACAC, the National Association of College Admission Counseling, nearly 70% of colleges in America consider a student’s demonstrated interest when making their admission decisions. Of that 70%, almost half view a student’s interest in attending their college as either of...

...

Avalon Athletic Recruiting for Prospective Student Athlete

Athletic recruiting for college is a highly competitive, highly complicated path to an athletic scholarship or to the admissions boost that being a Prospective Student Athlete (PSA) can provide. For most people who were not PSA’s...

Obtaining a great letter of recommendation does not happen by accident or fortuitous circumstance. Getting an outstanding college recommendation happens through decisive, prescriptive preparation on how to orchestrate and receive a college recommendation letter that presents...

Popular thinking among parents and students in college and private school admission is that there are certain things that you can control and certain things that you can’t control. Among the things considered to be outside of your control are recommendations written by teachers and counselors....

Much about college admission is simply common sense. For example, it just makes sense that great teacher and counselor recommendations, great grades, and great test scores are important pieces of the admission puzzle. Other factors such as honors, activities, and "other recommenders" are less...

Like everything else about college admission, obtaining teacher recommendation should follow a strategic plan. Also like every other aspect of college admission, the difference between good and great can be the difference between rejection and acceptance. If you think of it, there is really no...

...

Extracurricular activities, whether they are done in the summer or during the school year, or during vacation weeks, are critically important on applications for highly competitive colleges. ...

Why Did My Test Scores Disappear from My College Application?

Don’t worry. Your test scores did not disappear. By way of a strange quirk of the Common Application, it may appear as if your test scores were not submitted to a particular college. Even further, when you review a...

When one considers how important test scores are in the admission process, one must address the question on multiple levels. First, from the student's perspective, it might be far less stressful not to have to worry about earning high scores on benchmark tests. I just don't agree with this...

Allow me to begin with a metaphor. There are many who think the game of football is simple. Each team tries to prevent the other from gaining access to its territory. In reality, there are hundreds, or thousands of details that contribute to a team’s success. Similarly, there are many who...

For the past year, we have been building and tweaking our revolutionary new tool called mycollegelist.com, a free college list generator that helps students generate an initial list of colleges based on 27 characteristics—which is quite different from most college admission programs that use...

The feeling of submitting college applications has no equal, both in terms of the optimism you cannot help but feel and the fear of rejection that you cannot remove. Indeed, it is the official consummation of a long, 12-year journey through academic classes, extracurricular activities,...

All 692 students who were accepted to Harvard’s class of 2028 through its Restrictive Early Action (REA) program have one thing in common: a compelling story. Sure, some are spectacular athletes or have extraordinary artistic or musical ability (with emphasis on the words spectacular and...

If you are in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade, you have probably already started to formulate your college list. Traditional starting points for generating college lists are college rank, geographic location, and financial aid offer. After all, if you live in the Boston area and have a 3.5 or higher...

We live in an era of high-tech online tracking and data collection, so you might think that personal interviews would be outdated and unnecessary. Don’t colleges already have more than enough information to form an opinion about each and every candidate? Yes and no. Even though information about...

The Common Application completed its reboot on August 1st, right on schedule. This annual ritual provides colleges with their one opportunity to amend or fundamentally change their applications. By far, the biggest change we have seen is with Harvard’s application. Instead of requiring an...

Let’s start out this discussion of college lists with a basic premise: Each and every college on your child’s list should be one that they would be happy to attend. But what does happiness truly mean in this case? For many students and families, the highest priority of all is a college’s...

For many parents and students, the names of prestigious colleges are like bright, shiny objects dangling in the night sky. Each one evokes a unique though similar reaction ranging from longing to lust. Similarly, for many parents and students, college names play a disproportionately important...

One of the most important and misunderstood steps in successful college admission occurs right at the outset: the creation of a logical, sensible, and aspirational college list. In many ways, the college list drives the process because it determines what you need, where you should visit, and...

Some will say that the #SupremeCourt’s striking down of #AffirmativeAction is fair and others who will say the opposite. No one wants to be passed over to give an advantage to someone else. However, the inequities that exist in our society are now stronger than ever.

I am not taking a...

You are very likely in the process of completing your applications for University of California colleges, as well as your REA, EA, and/or ED choices. You may be working on your portfolios, your resumes, or even your introductory videos. You may still be scheduling live or virtual visits to your...

Summary

"It is important to understand that rankings are general statistics which means that they apply to different individuals in different ways. For example, up to 42% of a college’s rank is based on graduation rates. Nonetheless, college rankings are so deeply...

There are many ways to gain admission into the college of your dreams. It helps to fully understand the college admission process so that you may take advantage of some less-traveled paths.

There are several things you should know about getting into your top-choice...

The first one I noticed was Harvard, which up through last year provided students with an “optional” essay that would be uploaded in the form of a Word doc or PDF. Of course, that was a dog whistle for counselors signaling that a long essay was needed. This year, however, Harvard has replaced...

“...

This is what you likely don’t know, but definitely should know, about elite college admission: CHARACTER MATTERS – A LOT! If admission into some of these elite colleges is your goal, then you have to pay as much attention to exhibiting the eight elements of character as you do to having...

...

Over the past 5 years, internships have become very popular for students applying to highly competitive colleges based on a belief that an internship alone may be a ticket to elite college admission. The truth is that there is no one factor, not even an internship, that will ensure admission...

At Avalon Admission, we specialize in making strong cases for Ivy League acceptance by presenting students as individuals likely to make a positive difference in the world. We expertly weave together seemingly disparate elements of a student’s academic accomplishments and life experiences into a...

If you are submitting ACT or SAT scores to colleges, or SSAT or ISEE to private schools, does the movement toward test-optional admissions help you or hurt you? The answer is simple: Yes, it does. But how can this be so? Won’t my excellent test scores make me stand out from those who are not...

Getting into top private schools is not unlike getting into top colleges. The fact is that highly valued individuals demonstrate a consistent set of values whether they are applying for college or private school. That is because, to a certain extent, top schools are seeking a consistent and...

Application deadlines for most private schools are January 15 and Feb 1. Most decisions come out on March 10. The key to a successful private school experience is identifying schools that fit your interests, values, goals, and expectations. Many private schools have vast resources and myriad...

Internships! The mere mention of the word brings waves of joy to parents of students seeking admission to high-value colleges—as if the mere mention of the word will result in multiple offers of admission from top colleges across America. Indeed, internships can be valuable additions to college...

There are some who believe that applying to college is simply a matter of submitting applications. The reality is that hundreds of decisions made between 9th grade and 12th grade will contribute to a student’s admission success. Furthermore, admission factors at top colleges are evolving. What...

Everyone wants to get into a top-choice college but simply wishing for it won’t make it happen. Everything about college admission is strategic, and each individual strategy combines into a comprehensive plan of action that begins as early as ninth grade. However, it is never too late to begin....

Everyone seems to know that admission to top colleges is more competitive than ever. It is simply a matter of numbers. More applications means a smaller percentage of acceptances. Furthermore, the rules are constantly changing. Now, first-generation counts more than legacy. In most cases,...

How About Cornell, CMU, Rice, WashU St. Louis, UCLA, USC or Wake Forest?

Here are three representative student case studies and predictions using data from the amazing MyCollegeList.com program

Student One:

Adrianne is...

Ivy Day—the day when Ivy League admissions decisions are handed out, is right around the corner at the end of March. As you know, applying to Ivy League schools can produce three different outcomes: acceptance, rejection, or waitlist. None of these three outcomes is based on absolute data. As...

Over my 40 years of training students to prepare for college admission, I have come to understand that there is magic inside of every student just waiting to be unleashed. Somewhere along their 12-year academic journey, students who are fortunate enough to encounter a gifted teacher or dedicated...

The college admission process does not begin in twelfth grade; it begins in ninth grade or even earlier. Yet, according to a NACAC survey, most school counselors spend more than 80% of their time on non-college related activities. Even if your school has a dedicated college counseling staff,...

Some students and families have an implicit and unwarranted bias against public colleges and universities. In some cases, they may feel that states simply don’t have the funding or resources to dedicate to their public college systems. They may feel that state colleges are designed to provide...

Whenever students and parents discuss the common application and other college applications, all they seem to talk about is the personal narrative and college-specific essays. While these essays are critically important parts of a student’s application, the truth is that there is a lot more to...

With so much information about college application essays available on the Internet, it is difficult to differentiate good advice from bad. Also, it is important to understand that an essay that works for one person may not work well for another. Your application essays, both the personal...

The Five Best and Worst Activities for Summer

Summer is when high school students can engage in meaningful activities that greatly enhance their college applications. Since college applications contain information about a student's record from 9th through 12th grade, it makes sense to plan...

Every day, students must make decisions that range from the mundane to the sublime, from which socks or stockings to wear to which summer activities to choose. Many high school students, particularly those who are focused on boosting the impact of their college applications, choose activities...

The secret to successful elite-college admission is not what you think. It is not about having an exceptionally high GPA and test scores. It is not about having 100 activities squeezed into 10 spaces on the Common Application. It is not about having 10 AP test scores of 5. It is not even about...

When considering your high school accomplishments, big or small, accomplished over time or in a moment, you must also consider how they will play to your audience: college admissions officials. Furthermore, you must consider how they collectively contribute to an overall narrative that is...

Measuring the Unmeasurable

It is easy to understand the allure of simplicity in college admission. Using strictly objective factors such as SAT or ACT scores and GPA (even though it could be argued that GPA is far from objective or standardized) a simple computer algorithm can easily...

In this article, college admission expert Neil Chyten explains the differences between Early Decision, Early Action, and Restrictive Early Action programs, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each.

It seems counterintuitive that any early admission program offered by...

As you wind your way through the Common Application, one of the more confusing and important aspects is choosing the right admission plan. Many colleges give you the option of applying more than one way. Of course, all colleges offer regular admission. Many other colleges offer something called...

If your test scores are good, they will certainly help your case for admission. If they are not very good, then by all means do not submit them. The choice is yours, and having a choice gives you an advantage in college admissions. Take advantage of it while you still can!

Click below for Avalon's Free resource for creating a college list and predicting your chance of admission.

MyCollegeList.com

It is time again for rising 11th graders to start thinking about their college list, and for rising 12th graders to...

A preponderance of strong and highly advantageous activities begun early in high school will dramatically improve a student’s chance of receiving offers of admissions from elite colleges. The issue is not whether the right set of activities will improve a student’s chances. The question is which...

When I was taking driving lessons so many years ago, I was never told where I should be staring as I maneuvered my car down the highways and country roads of New England. Instead, I was simply told to keep the car centered between the lines and to keep enough distance between my car and the car...

There are many colleges in the US named Columbia. The most famous of these is in New York City and to avoid confusion is often referred to as “Columbia College in the City of New York.” You know you are on the right website if you see a king’s crown next to the name. Columbia College is the...

Pomona College shares a campus with four other colleges. Collectively, these five colleges make up the Claremont McKenna College (CMC) consortium. If you are fortunate enough to be accepted at Pomona, you will have the unique opportunity of taking classes at four other excellent colleges without...

Cornell is the largest of the Ivy League colleges, both in campus size, which is 745 acres, and undergraduate population, which is 15,000. For comparison, Colombia’s is the smallest Ivy League campus at merely 32 acres. Cornell is located in the very rural town of Ithaca, in upstate New York,...

To say that the Harvard campus is iconic is a dramatic understatement. Even the Harvard name conjures up familiar images of traditional brick buildings, and stressed-out students walking through Harvard Yard and touching the bronze toe of John Harvard for good luck. It also brings up images of...

Of course, Williams has the reputation of being a small New England liberal arts college. Indeed, it lives up to that recommendation. However, students on campus do not feel hindered by the environment. In fact, they say there is lots to do both on campus and in the community. There are many...

The CMC Consortium, as it is known, is made up of five undergraduate colleges and two graduate colleges that, in effect, all share a single campus in Claremont, California. All seven colleges are located in a 1 square mile area. Students at each of the five undergraduate schools can take classes...

CMU is a mid-sized city campus recently enhanced by new buildings including the Tepper Quad and the TCS Hall. The Tepper Quad is interesting because it is the home to the CMU business program and literally and figuratively connects to the other seven colleges on the university campus, thus...

It is a fact that five out of the eight Ivy League colleges give college credit for AP exams in which students have scored at least a 4, or in some cases, the score must be a 5. While the AP credit policies vary from school to school, they can also vary from department to department within a...

We have seen it hundreds of times—well-intentioned parents following questionable advice they get on social media. “Just because one student got into Yale after writing about her favorite pizza, and another student got into several Ivy League colleges after writing about shopping at a wholesale...

One very effective strategy for writing compelling college essays and making a strong impression during your interview is to conduct research on each college you are applying to. In short, the more you know about the college, the more effectively you can make the case that you will make a...

No high school research activity is ever going to hurt a student’s college admission chances. The only questions are how much will it help and is it worth the time and effort? Four years of high school certainly seems like a long enough time to develop a strong list of meaningful activities....

Finally! Your senior year of high school is about to begin, but it doesn’t even count, right? After all, colleges only look at your grade 9 through 11 transcripts, right? For your early action and early decision colleges, the choice of who gets in and who does not will be made before your 12th...

When we start working with college admission candidates as early as 9th or 10th grade, we often ask them what they are passionate about or which subject they are most interested in. When we do, we understand that preferences and passions can change quickly, due to one great teacher, an...

While most students think that the college interview is intended to provide information about you to the college, in actuality, the interview is more evaluative than substantive. In other words, colleges are not trying to learn more about your activities and accomplishments; they are trying to...

With so many ways to cut down the cost of college, including through various types of scholarships and financial aid offers, only those few super wealthy families whose students are admitted into highly ranked “dream schools” need to pay full price. Even for families who do fall into this group,...

In college admissions, buzz words rarely survive the time it takes to utter them. In the swiftly moving cat-and-mouse game between admissions officers and counselors, as well as the multitude of organizations that prey upon students caught in the middle, the rules are continually changing....

In 2022, Harvard received over 60,000 applications for less than 2000 seats. Of those 2000, approximately 700 are reserved for students with special talent in fields such as music, sports, acting, writing, as well as for those with striking accomplishments such as Olympic gold medals,...

Whenever students and parents discuss the common application and other college applications, all they seem to talk about is the personal narrative and college-specific essays. While these essays are critically important parts of a student’s application, the truth is that there is a lot more to...

Summertime is a great time to visit college campuses, sit in on summer classes, speak to students, check out dorms and dining halls, and meet with an admissions officer. However, like everything else in life, the careful planning of the college visits is imperative and crucial. Think of the...

Everyone wants to get into a top-choice college but simply wishing for it won’t make it happen. Everything about college admission is strategic, and each individual strategy combines into a comprehensive plan of action that begins as early as ninth grade. However, it is never too late to begin....

There are advantages and disadvantages to applying to college using the early decision (ED) option. The two big advantages are that you can increase your odds of admission and you get the decision as many as three months earlier than regular admission. Knowing in December where you will attend...

In this article, college admission expert Neil Chyten explains the differences between Early Decision, Early Action, and Restrictive Early Action programs, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each.

It seems counterintuitive that any early admission program offered by...

There are lots of things that you can do in 45 minutes but providing students with all the advice and information they need to successfully apply to college is not one of them. Yet 45 minutes is the amount of time, on average, that college counselors spend with students over the entirety of...

Is it a good strategy to opt into the ACT Writing Test? While the answer to this question can be somewhat complicated, the simple answer is, “Yes, but only if you are an excellent writer and you are familiar with the format of the test.”

Only a few years ago, we at NC Global posted an...

• How many students do you work with each year?
• Where do most of your students matriculate?
• How many years of experience do you have?
• How much essay writing assistance do you provide?
• Do you help with international college admission as well as US college...

The importance of an internship as a standalone activity has been severely diminished. Internships that serve no purpose other than to take a position on a college application will not positively impact a student’s candidacy. In fact, they could have the opposite effect of red flagging an...

On the Common Application under the Education tab is a subsection entitled “Honors.” It begins with the following question:

Do you wish to report any honors related to your academic achievements beginning with the ninth grade or international equivalent?”

What counts as an academic...

When I was in fifth grade, I loved to play football and baseball and watch the Boston Bruins. I had just switched from Bowen School to Countryside School in Newton, Massachusetts, so I was busy making new friends and taking interesting classes. During the summer, I went to Camp Manitou, an...

If you are like millions of other families across America and across the world, you hire tutors to help your child with a difficult subject, to write a paper, or to pass a test. Indeed, tutoring in America is a $15 billion industry. Most tutoring is done by individuals with little or no training...

How proud of your child would you be if she qualified for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) program? How proud would she be of herself if she were part of this highly-regarded program? How impressed would colleges and/or private schools be, knowing that she is a gifted and...

Last year (2017) a new test was introduced by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA), the producer of the SSAT. The test is called The Character Skills Snapshot and was designed to provide additional information about students applying to independent secondary schools. This new tool is a...

How proud of your child would you be if she qualified for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) program? How proud would she be of herself if she were part of this highly regarded program? How impressed would colleges and/or private schools be, knowing that she is a gifted and...

As someone who has tutored and counseled students for well over 30 years, who has written countless tutoring and training guides, and who has personally trained more than 500 tutors and counselors, I can tell you first-hand, second-hand, and third-hand that being an effective tutor requires...

You probably already know the three most important criteria for getting into top colleges and private schools. They are:

· Overall GPA

· Grades in college prep classes

· Rigor of academic schedule

Said another way, to be a legitimate candidate for top...