Bill Gates Has Always Been the Wealthiest Man: Beloit's Mindset List!

They've grown up with "selfies," same-sex marriage, Facebook "likes," and Harry Potter. That's right. The Mindset List for the Class of 2018 has arrived!

Beloit College has released the Mindset List with 51 more observations about the cultural reference points of fall’s entering class of freshmen. Since 1998, the Wisconsin college has marked the beginning of a new academic year with publication of this list of cultural touchstones for the incoming class. The brainchild of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, the Mindset List was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references. But it has taken on a life of its own. In fact, for the last few classes of incoming freshmen, there has always been a Mindset List!

Enjoy! And for more fun, visit their website here.

Our Updated Guide to The Application Form is Available Now!

The Common Application goes live next week -- on Friday, August 1! So we're bringing you a real-time digital supplement to College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step -- our completely revised and updated guide to The Application Form .

It's a complete guide to filling out the college application, which serves as the cornerstone of a student's admission file, including:

University Parent

Clearly our family needed a better strategy with son #2, who’s heading into senior year of high school and has started the college search/application process, so I consulted an expert. Christine VanDeVelde is a parent, journalist, and co-author of College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step. This comprehensive, accessible book has tips galore for students and parents both.

Christine VanDeVelde on WGN Radio

Chicago author Christine VanDeVelde wrote “the bible” on getting into college. It’s called College Admission: from Application to Acceptance, Step by Step. She joins the morning show to offer tips for soon-to-be seniors as they look at schools. Hint: Community service doesn’t guarantee a spot.

College Admission in the Washington Post

College Admission is featured in "A Summer Reading List from College Admission Counselors" in Valerie Strauss' Washington Post Answer Sheet blog. Thank you to Kenyon College Dean Jennifer Delahunty for recommending our book! This is a great list overall, assembled by Brennan Barnard, director of college counseling of The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire with suggestions for parents and students, as well as some all-around fun summer reading such as Claude Steele's “Whistling Vivaldi," recommended by: Susan Weingartner, Director of College Counseling at Chicago's Francis W.

School's Out for Summer!

Here comes the sun... It's summertime! And College Admission is going on vacation, along with you. We'll still be hanging around Twitter and Facebook and playing on Tumblr, so please check in from time to time. And don't forget to take advantage of the wealth of information about applying already on the site -- from essays and testing to extracurriculars and researching college lists.

We'll be back in September… In the meantime, enjoy the lazy days of summer. I know we will.

 

Writing Your High School Story: College Admission Advice for 9th and 10th Graders

Speak up in class, learn a system of note-taking, be kind, don't worry about testing until 11th grade, and read, read, read... Mark Moody, Co-Director of College Counseling at Colorado Academy, joins us again with advice for 9th and 10th graders about how to write a high school story that will have a happy ending. 

 

You’ve made it to the end of another school year! Before you totally shift out of school mode and into your summer adventures, it’s a good time to take a minute to reflect on your school journey as it’s shaping up. Do you feel confident, not so great, or indifferent to your academic record and extracurricular life so far? Now that you have the lay of the high school landscape, you have the tools to directly shape your response to that question for next year and the years after.

One Last Checklist for Graduating Seniors

Seniors, you're almost done. There are just a few things you need to be aware of over the summer in order to insure the transition to campus goes smoothly. Here's one last checklist for you:

Van Gogh's Shoes, Martin Heidegger and My Little Pony: Embracing the Essay

Mark Moody, Co-Director of College Counseling at Colorado Academy, joins us again today with some fantastic guidance on the college essay. There is so much good stuff here, we don't even know where to begin to describe how helpful this will be to rising seniors as they begin their essays -- hopefully this summer. Moody's vivid explanations of "Show, Don't Tell,"  the concept of framing and the essay's first words are worth their weight in Common App gold. All we can say is, "Enjoy..." 

 

Many thousands of young people take on the writing challenge of the college essay each year, making 500 to 650-word personal narrative one of the most popular forms of writing in America. Yet most of the authors of the form have never done it before, and most won’t do it again. 

Advice for Working on the Essay this Summer

Fall of senior year is a busy time. So we strongly urge you to have at least your Common Application essay in good shape before senior year begins because writing the essays while attending school is like adding a class to your schedule -- remember, in addition to the Common App's, there are those in the supplements. Summer provides the luxury of uninterrupted time to reflect and write. And you're fortunate that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same, so you don't have to wait until August 1st to start working on them.

So here's some advice to kick start your essays over the coming summer months -- from a suggested reading list that we hope will inspire to some excellent step-by-step guidance on those Common App essay prompts.

Finding Your Voice in the Essay:  A suggested reading list of first-person essays.

The Real Topic of your Essay is You: One strategy to help you find a topic.

What are colleges looking for in the essay?

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