The Best U College Admissions Consulting

  Will ChatGPT be the end of the college essay? What students need to know Talk of ChatGPT is just about…everywhere. Much has been written and speculated about how this technology will continue to transform our world. For anyone trying to make sense of the competitive world of college admissions, ChatGPT raises a whole new range of questions about what students will need to do in the application process. If you’ve heard a rumor that the college essay is now ‘dead,’ read on for why we disagree and 3 ways college essays may change because of ChatGPT– The College Essay is not dead. The reasons for this are manyfold. The college essay, Common App essay, or personal statement as it is sometimes referred to, is the soul of the college application. For the most competitive colleges, this essay is not the standalone reason an admissions decision is made, but when rigorous course loads, GPAs, SATs, and activities can look very similar across a group of qualified applicants, the personal ess...

  A college list that works has little to do with any list you can find online Families with high school students know better than most that the recent news in college admissions features quite a lot of headlines about the highest numbers of applications and the lowest acceptance rates “ever.” While these may be the facts, we encourage parents and students everywhere to step away from the ranking lists and take a different approach to building college lists. Read on for our key advice for where to look instead– What’s really behind increased application numbers and ever shrinking acceptance rates? Colleges benefit from increased applicant numbers because they drive the perception of prestige, exclusivity and excellence, and higher rankings. With college rankings and our public perceptions about what makes a college highly desirable tied to low acceptance rates, colleges are in a race to depress those numbers. The more applications a college receives, the lower that acceptance rate ...

  As 12th grade students prepare to start the school year, it is time to finalize the list of colleges where a student will apply for admission. This is a good time to remember that the goal is not competing with every applicant out there, but creating great fit options for themselves. As applicant pools grow and acceptance rates shrink, read on for our most important advice to ensure you are creating a balanced college list with the right college options for you – Here’s what you need to know: A balanced list has a reasonable number of options. We encourage every student to create enough college options for themselves to have choices, but not so many that the process of completing applications, managing follow up, and finalizing a decision is absolutely overwhelming. While there can always be exceptions, in our experience somewhere around a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 12 colleges is a good number for most students. A balanced list has sufficient options that are likely and poss...

  This is a tough question to answer because it all depends on the type of schools you want to apply to. A strong score for one school may be a noncompetitive score for another school. Instead of getting fixated on a particular test score being a “good score”, I recommend two things. Take practice tests so you can start to determine your testing abilities, strengths/weakness, and you can start to see what range you are testing within. Or work with a testing expert to help you to determine your testing goals, the scores you will most likely achieve, and determine testing abilities and limitations. Start identifying schools you are interested in and check out the average test scores. Typically colleges will either post the middle 50th percentile test score of their accepted or enrolled freshmen students. A great resource to use to check the average ACT and SAT scores for accepted students is by going to College Database Find the Best Colleges in US | CollegeData. Collegedata has won...