If you scroll through my blog archives, you'll see plenty of articles and commentary I've shared about the deeply flawed US News College...

If you know a senior applying to colleges this year, here is some advice on what follows all that energy leading up to the celebratory...

Post 3 of 3 (Read Pt 1 & Pt 2) Writing an Effective College Admissions Essay: Honesty is the Best Policy Anne Elrod Whitney, Ph.D. My advice to be bravely honest isn’t just about style; it’s also about the content. Portray yourself clearly, showing readers who you are claiming to be rather than just making the claim. Let them know what it would be like to work together on something or to walk together on a journey. Let them see you. Tell a story to show your commitment to a v

Post 2 of 3 (Read Part 1) Writing College Admissions Essays: Who Cares? You Do Anne Elrod Whitney, Ph.D. When you let your emotions tell you what makes the writing challenging, you can use your creative mind to alter the writing situation responsively to those emotions. You still won’t come away saying college admissions essays are easy to write. Almost no important writing is easy. Yet you just may find it more rewarding. Even the most experienced and successful writers won

Anne Elrod Whitney is a brilliant teacher of teachers of writing at Penn State. Anne and I were elementary school classmates from grades K-4 in Northwest Houston. Years later, we connected on social media, which at its best, can offer a platform for re-establishing and reinforcing connections that would probably otherwise be lost. Anne has written some great books on writing, and advised countless writers, and people who want to teach writers, on writing. We've discovered tha

The National Association for College Admission Counseling routinely conducts member surveys to determine what factors are most important...

One of the central conversations in college admission in the US for the last year has been the pending Supreme Court decision on the SFFA...

My friend and former colleague Sara Purviance is a smart and compassionate counselor, with a background in admission at Colorado College...

Two years ago, I was invited to speak on issues in the world of college admission post-pandemic, along with Femi Ogundele, Associate Vice...

The friendly folks behind Saratoga Today weekly and the seasonal Simply Saratoga magazine were kind enough to feature me in a profile in...

30 days hath September... That means Monday is May 1, aka May Day, aka National Candidate Reply Date for US college admission. If ...

There is a genuine mental health crisis among our teens. This article from the LA Times points out some of the source of anxiety in their...

Just a thought for this April weekend/ Passover/ Easter inspired by this quote I ran across. The best person to be is yourself. Follow...

I have some exciting news to share! As of July 2023, MSquared Counseling's home base will be in Saratoga Springs, New York. One of the...

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you...