Selecting Colleges

 

This workshop is designed to help students (and parents) understand how to select an appropriate set of colleges to apply to. We begin by discussing how to narrow your focus to a manageable number of schools. This involves evaluating your interests as well as discussing the uses and limitations of publicly available information about colleges (college websites, rankings, and so on).

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Then we dig deeper to explore:

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• How to estimate your chances of admission at different schools

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• Whether to apply early decision, early action, or regular decision, and what important implications each choice will have for your chance of admission and financial aid

 

• How to conduct the in-depth research necessary to determine which schools are reach, target, and safety choices

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• How to make your applications shine

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This workshop is sometimes conducted in one session, sometimes in two.

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Resume Writing

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This workshop is designed to help students assemble multiple resumes for different purposes in the college application process:

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• The Common Application activities resume (the unfortunately nicknamed “brag sheet”)

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• A specialized resume designed for use in interviews

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• A traditional resume designed for scholarship applications

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The Resume Workshop is sometimes conducted in one session, more often in two.

 

Application Essays

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This workshop is designed to help students produce winning versions of the two most important application essays: the Common Application essay and the key supplemental essay question, “Why are You Applying to this College?” (The latter prompt is, in various forms, the supplemental essay question most often asked by colleges. In addition, it is usually given the most evaluative weight.)  

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We begin by addressing the Common App essay. Students receive guidance in selecting several appropriate topics to explore, ultimately choosing one. Next, students put together successive drafts of this essay, which are critiqued both by myself (and colleague) and by the students themselves.  

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The supplemental essay question requires a somewhat different approach. We start by showing students how to conduct substantial research about a chosen college and incorporate it it appropriately in their essay to convince admissions officers a student is both knowledgeable and serious about the college, and a good fit for it. Students then put together multiple drafts of this essay. Throughout this process, we also examine several implicit issues as they arise, such as how to combine the Common App and supplemental essays to best effect.

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This workshop is conducted in multiple sessions.

 

Interviewing

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This workshop is designed to familiarize students with the nature of elite college interviews, and to teach them successful techniques and best practices. It highlights what students can expect from interviews for different kinds of colleges—the location, length, interviewer, questions, focus, and atmosphere. Students then practice thoroughly—through mock interviews (which I and my colleague conduct). As part of the mock interview process, students also conduct and judge interviews with their peers, gaining a fuller appreciation of how admissions officers evaluate candidates.  

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The Interviewing Workshop, which is usually conducted in multiple sessions, goes beyond showing students how to respond to likely questions; we also consider comportment, attitude, voice, and appearance.

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