Blog

  • Your Drop in the Water: Showing Up in UC Personal Statement One

    I have spent the past month giving presentations on writing powerful college application essays and reading first drafts of students’ UC personal statements. Regardless of where I’ve gone, I’ve seen a troubling pattern in interpreting and writing UC Essay Prompt 1, which reads: For Freshmen PROMPT #1: Describe the world you come from—for example, your…

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  • Stretching Your Per Diem

    So you’re a counselor on the road, huh? You’re making big bucks, but you don’t do it for the money. You rep to see the joy (dread) in students’ faces as they contemplate the college admissions process. You rep to feel the rush of a rental car with no additional coverage. You rep for the…

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  • Adapting to Changing Times and Media

    I’m super charged up about work right now, really figuring out how to better tune and tap into all the possibilities of the digital world. After all sorts of conversations with colleagues (thanks especially to Archie for the chat last week!) and attending some of the webinars that people are hosting out there (thanks, Lynn…

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  • Going Deep

    This blog is brought to you from the 2015 HECA conference in Cincinnati. No guarantees, I’ll strive for coherence, despite the near-delirium brought on by late-night basketball, timezone disorientation, and near-zero tolerance for Midwestern heat and humidity. The planning committee members noticed my vulnerable state last night, and now my name is on some document…

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  • Rising Seniors: It’s Time To Brag

    Juniors (or new rising seniors) are entering a year of bragging, a skill most lack because they live in a world of superficiality enabled by rampant social media usage. Yet rising seniors must learn to successfully boast about themselves to get admitted to competitive colleges and/or receive merit scholarships. Here are four tips to get…

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  • What the Government Relations and Affairs Committee is currently discussing

    There is a growing concern that community colleges up and down the state are de-emphasizing the value and importance of Transfer Centers.  This is of great concern, particularly in today’s environment of community college reform, where we have seen significant legislative changes aimed at increasing the educational outcomes of our students.  With the many transformational…

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  • Conference Wrap-up from a First-timer: SuperACAC II Return to Reno

    As I head home from my first SuperACAC conference I try to digest all that happened over three days seemingly trapped inside a smoky casino time warp, both in era and time of day. I learned simple things like the correct place to pin a name tag (your right side where it’s in better view…

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  • Too Much of a Good Thing?

    As juniors finish up their penultimate high school year, they will know even more about what colleges should go on their final college lists. Sidwell Friends, an elite private school in Washington, DC, does it right: it limits students to a list of nine colleges. Oh, wouldn’t it be awesome if all school held students…

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