Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 18, 2010, 8:00 am
It is getting late in the admission season for current high school seniors and I am still getting calls from students who haven’t applied to any colleges. While there are some colleges still acc...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 16, 2010, 8:00 am
A recent article in the Stanford Daily Newspaper raises concerns about another college counselor advertising in the Stanford Magazine. The issue? Is it cheating to have the help of a college counselor...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 11, 2010, 7:00 am
Last time we spoke about the college essay for the BS/MD applicant. Today we are going to discuss what is important for the medical school essay for the BS/MD programs. The medical school questions m...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 9, 2010, 7:00 am
Students applying to BS/MD programs need to write essays for the undergraduate college as well as the medical school. Today I want to talk about what you need to consider to write the best college ess...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 8, 2010, 2:31 pm
Hamilton College in New York has announced that they will now be need blind for admissions. For those of you not up on your college financial aid jargon, this means that Hamilton will now make admissi...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 4, 2010, 7:00 am
Younger students who are potentially interested in BS/MD programs often ask what they can do to make themselves the best candidate. Here are 6 steps that freshman and sophomores can take to strengthen...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 3, 2010, 7:58 pm
A new survey out from Public Agenda and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has confirmed what I have said before here many times: don’t expect much college admissions help from your...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Mar 2, 2010, 7:00 am
Life’s Little College Admissions Insights-Top Tips from the Country’s Most Acclaimed Guidance Counselors is a new book by Eric and Cole Yaverbaum. Before continuing on to the review I want...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 25, 2010, 10:23 am
Tufts University has been in the news recently because of the supplement to their application that allows a student to “Share a one-minute video that says something about you.” For Tufts ...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 25, 2010, 7:00 am
I started out to write a posting about how class sizes as published by colleges can be misleading. But, I came across a posting from several years ago by a fellow college admissions consultant, Mark M...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 23, 2010, 7:00 am
I spoke with Judy last week who was totally stressed out about finding the right college for her daughter.  As Judy said, “it all seems so overwhelming.” There are many things that must b...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 18, 2010, 7:00 am
You’re about to arrive on the campus of one of your favorite colleges. What do you do? If you have planned ahead, you should be scheduled to go on a tour of the college.  The tour will give yo...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 16, 2010, 7:00 am
One of the ways to find the best college for you is to visit the colleges you are considering.  But before you leave home, here are some tips to make for the best college visit. First, decide when y...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 11, 2010, 7:00 am
People will commonly ask me what it is that I do to help students. Here is what I tell them: I work with students on all aspects of the college admissions process to help them find the best college f...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 9, 2010, 7:00 am
You have decided that taking a gap year from college is your best option.  In my last posting I said that colleges will let you take a gap year if you are doing something productive. What do colleges...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 4, 2010, 7:00 am
Last week I talked about what students might want to consider a gap year. But how does a gap year work? There are two possible approaches to a gap year and the approach you use depends in part on why...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Feb 2, 2010, 7:00 am
I just came across a website that I think may be helpful for those international students looking to attend college in the US.  The website is EducationUSA and is from the US Department of Education....
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 28, 2010, 7:00 am
I have received a number of phone calls this month from parents of seniors wondering about finding the right college for their student. I always tell them that a gap year should be seriously considere...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 26, 2010, 7:00 am
Now is the time that juniors should start the process of finding which colleges they will apply to. But with over 3,000 colleges in the country, where do you get started? Here are my 3 favorite colle...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 21, 2010, 7:00 am
Allen Grove at About.com recently wrote a good article entitled “5 Good Reasons to Transfer to a New College“.  Allen lists 5 of the most common reasons that students transfer from one co...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 19, 2010, 7:00 am
Last week I talked about some summer activities for college admissions. While those suggestions are appropriate for most students, those students considering a BS/MD program have different considerati...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 14, 2010, 7:00 am
Summer is months away  but there are a number of things that you might want to do this summer to improve your chances of admissions to your top college choices. There is no one summer activity that ...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 13, 2010, 8:47 pm
One of the professional groups I belong to is the Independent Educational Consultants Association(IECA). The executive director of the IECA, Mark Sklarow, recently wrote a brief primer for parents on ...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 13, 2010, 9:21 am
Princeton Review is out with their latest list of what they consider the 100 best value colleges in the country. The list includes 50 best value public colleges and 50 best value private colleges. Th...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 12, 2010, 7:00 am
I had another two emails yesterday from students who say they don’t know what they want to do with their life so don’t know what to do to find the right college. My general advice, donR...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 8, 2010, 7:00 am
The Choice, the New York Times college admissions blog, recently had an article about a young woman who planned on attending the University of New Haven but was unable to do so because she couldn̵...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 7, 2010, 3:48 pm
Kiplinger Magazine has come out with their latest rankings of the best values in public colleges.   As I have said each time these new rankings come out, don’t worry about who is number 1 versus n...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 7, 2010, 7:00 am
I spoke with John, the parent of a junior,  the other day about his son and the college admissions process.  One of John’s concerns was that his son had a 2.9 GPA but a 2320 SAT score. John wa...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 6, 2010, 11:13 am
Many people mistakenly believe that liberal arts colleges are only for people interested in the arts or maybe the humanities. In reality, liberal arts colleges are good for students who are interested...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Jan 5, 2010, 7:00 am
Now is the time that many high school juniors start to get serious about the college admissions process. To find the right college, a student needs to realistically evaluate the grades they have recei...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 17, 2009, 3:14 pm
This time of year one of the regular questions I answer is “how many colleges should I apply to?” There is no one right answer to that question as it depends on the individual student̵...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 15, 2009, 7:00 am
The college admissions process is all about finding the best college for your needs. And finding the best college requires planning. But how early do you need to start planning? The process of colleg...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 12, 2009, 7:00 am
I just wanted to let all my readers know that new posts are now available as podcasts as well as the traditional blog posts. You can listen to individual posts or subscribe to the blog using iTunes. T...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 10, 2009, 3:08 pm
Dartmouth College is in the news for what has been described as verbal assault by some of its students on students from Harvard during a squash match. I think the behavior of the Dartmouth students in...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 10, 2009, 7:00 am
I was recently asked whether grades or the classes taken were more important for college admissions. I always say that they are both important but is one more important than the other? Generally, you...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 8, 2009, 7:00 am
Everyone who applied early decision or early action is anxiously waiting to hear whether they have been accepted. I wish you all good luck. Unfortunately, some of you will not be accepted and some wil...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 5, 2009, 10:33 am
For profit colleges such as University of Phoenix, Capella University and DeVry University have been growing dramatically in the past few years. This growth has occurred in part because much of their ...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 3, 2009, 7:00 am
The following is a guest post by Sophie Maddox. Sophie can be reached at sophie.maddox03@gmail.com and her blog is http://www.sophiemaddox.com. Enjoy. Okay so the house is finally less noisy, at le...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Dec 1, 2009, 7:00 am
I recently talked about the importance of the right kind of volunteer effort to the college admissions process. But, does every student need to volunteer to be a strong candidate for a selective colle...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 29, 2009, 11:22 am
Here is a recent presentation I did regarding selective college admissions. This presentation will hopefully get you thinking about some of the issues related to selective college admissions. Do...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 27, 2009, 7:00 am
I wanted to make all of my readers aware of a webcast being put on by the Wall Street Journal On Campus site.  The webcast is called “Inside the Admissions Office”: Admissions Deans from ...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 26, 2009, 7:00 am
Most students know that colleges like to see volunteering on your list of activities.  In fact, many high schools have requirements that students volunteer a certain number of hours before they gradu...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 24, 2009, 7:00 am
Almost every day I get asked a question like “I got a 30 on my ACT, what colleges are good for me?”  There is no way for anyone to answer that question but let’s look at what impact...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 19, 2009, 7:00 am
Many students have recently received their SAT and ACT test scores and for many of you these are your final scores. If you did well, congratulations. If not, all is not lost. Not everyone is aware th...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 17, 2009, 7:00 am
Inside Higher Ed recently reported on the National Survey of Student Engagement. This survey of college students measures various qualitites involving students that may result in better learning outco...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 12, 2009, 7:00 am
There is a new website available from the Institute for College Access and Success. The site, called CollegeInSight,  allows students to search for information on a variety of topics including Afford...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 5, 2009, 7:25 pm
Kiplinger has recently announced the 2009-2010 version of their 100 Best Values in Private Colleges. The list is broken down into the 50 Best Value Private Universities and the 50 Best Value Liberal A...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 5, 2009, 7:00 am
Vanderbilt University has released a video entitled the “Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid“. This financial aid video is presented by Vanderbilt’s Dean of Admissions, Doug Chris...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Nov 3, 2009, 7:00 am
Many people love watching college sports and we all know that college sports generate a lot of money for colleges. Unfortunately, what we all know, is wrong. The reality is that very few college spor...
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Todd J. posted an article on College Admissions Counseling Blog - Oct 28, 2009, 8:23 am
Welcome to the October 28, 2009 edition of carnival of college admission. This is the “How are your applications coming along” edition for you seniors that are hard at work on applying to ...
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