Blog

  • A Plea Against Ghostwriting the College Essay

    Recently, I have traveled to schools, college fairs, libraries, and many homes to help kids with their college applications, including their college application essays and/or personal statements. While I brainstorm essay topics with them and provide some guiding questions for their drafts, I do not write or rewrite the essays for students. I view the…

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  • Government Relations Update

    I’m sure many you are aware of the July 7 UC Santa Cruz “accept/rescind” letters that went to many of this fall’s first year students.  There was great frustration and very little transparency about why this happened.  Considerable time was spent by NACAC and WACAC leaders to help change the original policy for many students…

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  • Rental Car Shaming

    At this point, many admission counselors are living out of their cars.  You start off with the best of intentions, saying you’ll throw out every coffee cup and water bottle after each visit and even keep a Target bag in there to act as trash.  Well, you know what they say about the best laid…

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  • Government Relations Update

    The Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees have been busy deliberating over 500 bills that have now advanced to the floor. The Legislature has 10 days to make decisions on what moves forward to the Governor bythe September 11th deadline. There’s not much action in the Education arena because lots of dollar$ were already allocated in…

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  • Admission Leaders in Action: Amy Jarich

    The Journey Today’s admissions professionals might call it snail mail, but for Amy Jarich one postcard invite to attend a college’s open house became a window of opportunity. As a first-generation college student, Jarich and her parents didn’t necessarily know what type of schools to look at or what questions to ask admissions professionals. On…

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  • Netiquette Lessons

    For the past few years, I’ve run an annual morning workshop on email etiquette for a medical device sales company. Every time I’ve run the workshop, I’m astonished by the need that I feel in the room for it: the thirst for having a discussion about all the little ins and outs of writing something…

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  • You Go Girl (or Boy)!

      Well, hello my fellow road warriors! It’s that time of year, we’re all driving rental cars, eating like teenagers, and piling in to any Starbucks we can find for a quick mental and/or technological charge! I really do love travel season, getting to see new places and meet new people is a blast and…

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  • DEA Inclusion: Transcending Borders Through Higher Education

    I was seventeen years old when I first stepped onto a college campus. This was a very special day because my oldest sister, the first-born daughter in the U.S., was graduating from UCLA. It was a glorious and celebratory day for our entire family since it represented a collective family effort. As a family, we…

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