College Admissions Consulting
Get top-notch, personalized advice navigating the intimidating world of college admissions.
Profile Building
Learn to craft a solid, unique personal profile—essential to successful admission at top-tier schools.
SAT Prep
Learn content and strategy for the SAT—from fundamental skills to sophisticated techniques.
September LCC Newsletter
With the school year back in swing, this month's newsletter highlights some ways to have the best UC essay and how you can send your test results to colleges. We also share a special post for underclassmen, that offer some tips and suggested reading for the SAT Reading section.
August LCC Newsletter
This issue of our newsletter has a heavy focus on the UC schools, with tips on how to navigate their new application, what schools are looking for with the UC essays, and helping students to make an informed choice on which UC school to apply to with for a business…
July LCC Newsletter
In this issue, we're offering advice for how to construct the Common App essay, and some things you should definitely avoid. If you're considering studying business in college, and specifically at one of the UC colleges, we highlight the differences that each school has to offer. Lastly, we break down…
June LCC Newsletter
With our first newsletter of the summer, we are helping students as they look to the future for the upcoming school year. This issue talks about narrowing down your list of schools to ones that best fit your preferences, and preparing an admissions checklist so that you can stay on…
May LCC Newsletter
In this newsletter you will find information about the 2019 admission results for our students, tips for writing letters of recommendation, and effective ways to demonstrate your interest in a university.
The Best UC Essays: Content is King!
I have three words for you when it comes to UC essays: content, content, content. If you read my blog entry from a couple of weeks ago about the Common App essay, you will see a lot of differences between UC and Common App essays. For Common App, I told…
Research and Knowledge: Putting together an Effective Supplemental Essay
Are supplemental essays overwhelming you? Are you applying to a million schools and each prompt asks you to write something different? Are you unsure of where to start? Here are my top three tips for writing supplemental essays. Look at the college’s website! I know this one may sound simple,…
Carnegie Mellon and Demonstrating Interest
“Demonstrating interest” is a tool that many schools - typically smaller, and usually private, schools - implement in order to gauge how interested a student is in attending that particular school. There are many ways in which a student might demonstrate interest in a school, and these should all show…
Self-Reporting Test Scores
Maybe you’ve heard that students can self-report their SAT score. Great, you’re thinking. Self-report a 1600 and stop worrying about this test! Unfortunately, that’s not how self-reporting works. So, what does it actually mean? Let’s take a look at the process and see what schools accept self-reported scores. Self-reporting means…
Early Action and the October SAT/ACT Test Date
The next SAT test is October 6th, and the next ACT test date is October 27th, but your scores may not be available early enough for some schools that have a 11/1 early action application deadline. Even if the College Board says that scores will be available to schools October…
August 25th SAT
A flurry of social media postings have claimed that the August 25th SAT test was the same test that was administered in China and South Korea in October 2017. The 2017 test and answers were leaked and were being used as practice tests. Students who had taken the official 2017…
The Big Tip for Common App: Avoid the Resume Dump, Focus on the Story
Your instinctive approach to Common App might be to address your accomplishments and what you’re proud of. Although UC essays want to see “resume” content in their essays, Common App doesn’t want this at all. The Common App is a place to showcase your personality and softer skills to colleges.…
Everyone is Doing It! Why Colleges are Dropping the SAT Essay Requirement
Recently, as more and more schools are dropping the SAT essay requirement, it’s hard to keep up with who still requires it and who doesn’t. Even some articles written as recently as this spring already include outdated information. So, first and foremost, check each school you are applying to and…
Why Chicago Made the SAT Optional
University of Chicago just became the first top-10 research university to make SAT and ACT test scores optional! While some smaller universities and liberal arts schools had already made test scores optional, UChicago’s decision had a big impact on the world of college admissions. Why did they make this decision?…
The June 2018 SAT Disaster: Why the Math Scores were a Mess
Are you disappointed with your June 2018 SAT scores? You’re not the only one! Many students who took the June 2018 test saw that they got fewer questions wrong, but somehow received a lower score than a test they took on an earlier date. These seemingly contradictory results were especially…