As a practitioner who has scored many admission essays, the author has noticed that numerous colleges and universities include questions that seek to expose and evaluate students' interactions with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Frequently, applicants are encouraged to disclose a difficult moment in their life and share how they overcame it.…

While grades and course load are the top factors in the college admission decision, highlighting special talents or skills can help students stand out in a crowded applicant pool. Counselors and students must put considerable thought into how an applicant will highlight their talents in a college application. Students should start by identifying…

Adam Sapp, assistant vice president of admissions at Pomona College (CA), grew up in a town with a population of 950 residents. He graduated with 47 other seniors and was one of only five in his class headed directly to a four-year college. Sapp's experience mirrors that of thousands of other students nationwide, clearly demonstrating the need to…

According to the Higher Education Research Institute, 35 percent of first-time freshmen applied to seven or more colleges during the Fall 2016 admission cycle. More than 80 percent of first-time freshmen apply to at least three colleges each year. But more applications mean more essays for students. And more colleges seem to be requiring unique…

Over the past two years, the Indiana affiliate's Government Relations Committee (GRC) has undergone a metamorphosis. As co-chair, the author has had the opportunity to witness the once largely inactive committee grow by 250 percent. The affiliate has embraced storytelling as an important advocacy tool. In this article, the author shares a couple…

The coronavirus pandemic has upended schooling and students' college admission journeys. Schools transitioned to remote learning, extracurricular activities vanished into thin air, and in-person visits to colleges were abandoned. The SAT and ACT calendars for the late spring were wiped out and subsequent plans for at-home testing were abandoned.…

In both the stacks of research compiled by education think tanks and in the conversations had around the dining room table by families of aspiring college students, one stumbling block to college enrollment predictably crops up--financial aid. The topics range from avoiding endless, crushing debt to options for part-time jobs. But often the focus…

Applicants from high-performing high schools routinely enter the college admission process overscheduled and overwhelmed. Stress and sleep-deprivation have reached epidemic proportions at competitive high schools, while rates of depression and anxiety among US teens and young adults have skyrocketed. For this generation of students, the stakes…

From calls to close borders to intolerance for non-citizens, growing nationalism within the US and other countries threatens the global nature of higher education. How are college counselors advising students in this new political climate? And are there differences depending on where counselors reside in the world? "The Journal" asked…

While topics like socioeconomics, race, gender, veterans, transfer students, and other underserved populations frequently grab headlines, another student category often gets left out of the conversation about diversity. Society typically labels students with neurological differences--which can include dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity…

Letters of recommendation consume a lot of time and thought as they are solicited, written, and read, and, while many high school and college admission officials say that work pays off by providing a university with valuable and sometimes unique information about prospective students, most everyone also agrees they could be more effective. Some…

Independent educational consultants (IECs) are rapidly becoming a regular part of the college search and admission process as students search for the right fit. Although the cost of going to college has risen sharply in recent years, the cost of hiring a consultant hasn't gone up nearly so quickly. Families are beginning to see consulting as…

The interwoven issues of trauma and safety have swept through college campuses over the last decade, and they've arrived at doors of admission offices, encouraging officials to think more carefully about those concerns and take a closer look at how they handle them. Experts recommend in this atmosphere that admission offices discuss these topics…

As human services professionals, we in higher education value helping people and often get personally invested in their stories. The people we serve, primarily students, face challenges in applying and paying for college, completing coursework and degrees, and finding employment after graduation. Along the way, college administrators strive to…

This article presents the author's letter of apology as a response to "The Cultural Bind of the American Male". In the letter, the author offers his apologies because educators have failed to solve the cultural bind of the American male.