Book rec: VALEDICTORIANS AT THE GATE

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Book rec: VALEDICTORIANS AT THE GATE

This so-new-it’s-not-in-bookstores-yet guide to the college application process, Valedictorians at the Gate: Standing Out, Getting In, and Staying Sane While Applying to College (Henry Holt and Company, due out in August 2021), is my current beach read—note the towel backdrop. It’s by Becky Munsterer Sabky, and it’s a highly readable reference that looks at the applying-to-college to-do list through the lens of a former college admissions director.

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Juniors, make the most of this summer unlike any other.

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Juniors, make the most of this summer unlike any other.

Juniors, what are you doing with all this downtime? Have you considered what, in the past, you didn’t have time for — the books you’ve been meaning to read, the skills you’ve always wanted to learn, the long-distanced friends and family members you don’t want to lose touch with? This post explores some of the ways soon-to-be college applicants can make the most of these extraordinary days.

Photo by Renee Fisher on Unsplash

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College visits in the age of Covid

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College visits in the age of Covid

With virtually all U.S. college campuses closed these weeks, just as they are sending acceptance notices, there is one passage for high school seniors that requires a workaround: determining where to matriculate when you can’t visit the schools that have accepted you. How can seniors evaluate which college is right for them? The answer lies in looking past the glossy websites for a more nuanced picture.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

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Consider the commonplace book

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Consider the commonplace book

Keeping commonplace books is a very old practice—they were extremely popular during the Renaissance—but the tracking of quotations that strike you has a practical value, particularly for today’s students and writers.

Art by Mary Brack (instagram.com/foundonbrighton/). Used with permission.

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Nurturing curiosity

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Nurturing curiosity

It turns out that curiosity is just as important as hard work and intelligence in determining academic performance. So says a study out of the University of California, Davis, which also found that curiosity prepares the brain for learning and makes learning more rewarding and, therefore, fun.

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

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Tell your story the way only you can

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Tell your story the way only you can

For anyone who still has deadlines to meet, don’t fall into the trap of trying to strategize an essay that is unique next to all the thousands of others stacked in front of application readers. Just decide what’s meaningful to you, and consider what you have to say about that subject.

Photo by Carol Lee for Unsplash

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