Still looking for essay ideas?  Check out this article from the New York Times for tips on how to create a winning essay admissions officers will love.   

Click here for the article.

Hot off the press!  We've had a chance to review the Fall 2017 admissions data released yesterday by the University of California and thought it would be helpful to summarize it and share our key findings.  

Overall freshman admission rates are up for non-residents and down for residents as the University of California continues to settle on a new normal that accommodates a larger mix of out of state and international students.   If you're an out of state or international student, pay close attention...there continues to be a window of opportunity to take advantage of favorable odds at several UC campuses.

Click on Continue Reading for the details.

The University of California approved a policy on non-resident enrollment.  

Non-resident enrollment will be capped at 18 percent at UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and at 2017-18 levels at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, and UC San Diego.

Click here for the details.

Here's a refreshing New York Times post from Rebecca Sabky, a former admissions director at Dartmouth, about looking beyond academic credentials and extracurriculars for a fundamental human quality in applicants: kindness!

With admissions decisions around the corner, many of you will need to consider affordability and make sense of the financial aid packages coming your way.

In this article, we'll define some key terms, work through a case study to make the process more tangible, and provide some key takeaways for you to apply to your own situation.

Click on continue reading for more.

Juniors and parents of juniors—here's an interesting article from Chris Teare at Drew University about how he reads a college application.  You'll find it a useful way to understand how your school profile, transcript and recommendations set the context for reading your application, and what he's looking for once the context has been set. 

Click here for the article.

There are many ways to get a great education, and not all of them require that you attend a brand-name institution.  Here's a post from Will Dix at Forbes that suggests five strategies for uncovering opportunities at well-regarded but lesser known institutions that can provide you an excellent education at an affordable price.

With the University of California application now open for submissions, it's time to make sure everything is in order.  

Here are the top five tips for freshman applicants, courtesy of the University of California:

Still struggling with your college essays?  Here's an excellent post from Johns Hopkins University on essays that worked.  It provides seven actual essays submitted by applicants and commentary from the admissions committee on why they worked.

Still looking for ideas on how to write a compelling admissions essay? Then check out this set of essays that worked, courtesy of Tufts admissions.

This blog post includes successful responses for all of the essay prompts included by Tufts, as well as some video commentary on why each one proved compelling to the admissions team.

Click here for the essays.

Here's an excellent post from Connecticut College on essays that worked.  It provides several actual essays submitted by recent applicants along with some tips from the Dean of Admissions.

Here's another good read from Will Dix at Forbes—this post focuses on the need to pay attention to admission history as part of your college plan and features some of the analysis from our recent notable admission rate changes post.  We think this article reinforces the importance of staying current with admission results, as each year there are surprises like American University—where the admission rate has fallen from 45 percent to 26 percent in the span of just three admission cycles—which can materially change how schools on your list might get categorized.

Click here for the Forbes article.

Hot off the press!  We've had a chance to review the Fall 2016 admissions data released yesterday by the University of California and thought it would be helpful to summarize it and our key findings.  

Long story short, overall freshman admission rates are up as the University of California makes good on its plan to enroll an additional 10,000 California undergraduates over the next three years.  And while the emphasis was on admitting more California residents for the Fall 2016 class, we suspect a "new normal" has appeared that creates more room for non-residents as well.  If you're an out of state or international student, pay close attention...there appears to be a window of opportunity to take advantage of favorable odds at several UC campuses.

Click on Continue Reading for the details.

Here's a great article from Willard Dix in Forbes about the pros and cons of strategizing for college. Long story short, there's no magic formula for getting into a dream school, so keep things in perspective, focus on the basics and try not to get too carried away!

Click here for the article.

The following post was written by Anna Carapellotti and appeared originally on the Admissionado College Admissions blog.

Those of you with your heart set on attending one of the Universities of California may have already noticed that they have replaced the personal statement this year with eight “Personal Insight” questions, from which you must choose four to answer. Each response is limited to 350 words, and their hope is that this format gives you a “clearer guidance and more flexibility in the kind of information you want to share.”

So, how should you approach these new questions? Let’s take a look at what they are and some strategies you could use to maximize your answers.