Congratulations! You made it through those exhausting AP exams. Now it’s time to take a break and reward yourself with some self-care. Pat yourself on the back. Acknowledge what an accomplishment this is. You took hard courses, stuck with it, and took the end-of-course assessment. Sounds like you’re ready for college. Meditate to singing bowls. Tibetan singing bowls make a

I visited Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, over two fresh spring days in April as part of a counselor fly-in event. The redbud trees were in full dark-pink bloom and the oaks were just leafing out. If you really want to be seen for who you are, to have support to lift you to your highest potential, and to have

As we turned into the broad green lawn of Reed College in Portland, red brick buildings with limestone accents around doors and windows in Tudor Gothic style greeted the busload of 40 counselors touring five Pacific Northwest liberal arts colleges. A city with character Portland, Oregon, is known for its progressive ethos and its abundance of food trucks. It sits

April 24 May 1 is National College Decision Day, the last day to commit to one school over all the others that accepted you. Some students have already sent in the deposit and even connected with roommates, but every year some students just can’t decide. If that’s you, you may be struck with analysis paralysis or maybe you don’t feel

Disappointed that your phenomenal, amazing child didn’t get into UCLA or Stanford? Stanford’s admit rate was 3.6 percent, and UCLA was 9.4 percent. But your child worked hard to build an impressive record, right? Let’s consider the actual numbers. Stanford had over 57,000 applications and only about 2,000 were accepted. UCLA had over 145,000 applications and fewer than 14,000 were

This isn’t just a month to study for AP exams, though that is something AP students should be doing. Here’s what each class should be doing NOW. Freshmen Look for summer programs that sound interesting to you. Some have deadlines coming up soon. A great resource is Snowday (snow.day), a free, searchable database of more than 1,100 summer programs for

The first thing I noticed at Louisiana State University was the trees, spreading their branches wide across the grounds of campus when I visited with a busload of counselors on March 21. Our tour guide, Emily, a pre-med senior, said, “I always feel like the trees are giving me a big hug.” Thriving from land to sea to space LSU

Seniors, have you been invited to Admitted Students Days?  GO!  Going to admitted students events will give you a better idea of how good a fit the school is for you. Try out the food in the dining hall, check out the dorm you’d be living in, sit in on a class.  But keep in mind that the college needs

How college visits can help you figure out what you actually want Spring break’s a perfect time for juniors to visit colleges—you won’t have to miss classes or make up work. Most juniors don’t have a definitive college list yet, so think of the spring break visit as list-development research. It’s already spring, and in summer, you’ll start applying to

With 40 counselors on the Pacific Northwest 5 tour, I took a five-hour bus ride from Seattle to Walla Walla, Washington, this March to visit Whitman College. The liberal arts school of about 1,600 students in the Cascades Mountains enrolls undergraduates only, so all their resources funnel into undergraduate success. Unlike Seattle, Walla Walla enjoys a high desert climate with