Mark Moody

Harry Bauld has been helping students write the college application essay for more than thirty years. For years, when I was Co-Director of College Counseling at Colorado Academy, we brought Harry in to lead an essay workshop for our seniors, and I watched him distill a lifetime of writing lessons into a couple of hours. Ironically enough, Harry Bauld is in fact bald. (And he wouldn't mind my joking about that!) His 1987 book, On Writing the College Application Essay, is still one I recommend...

It’s not just fewer eighteen-year-olds. It’s a culture that has slowly, decisively decided that education is a product with a return, not a process with a becoming. It’s a generation of parents who have been taught — by rankings, by social media, by the sheer economic terror of the middle class — that the only safe education is the legible one. The one with a major, a GPA, a clear line from enrollment to employment. It seems that the news about Hampshire College, a relatively young, somewhat...

Read on Substack I wrote a message to my class of 2026 clients about managing the decisions that are mostly in, with more coming this week. Here’s a version of that message for anyone who can use it. Dear Class of 2026 and parents: The letters are almost all in. After months of self-reflection, research, essays, and waiting, you have your results — and each one hits differently. Some made you want to call everyone you know. Some hurt. Some left you with more uncertainty. All of that is...