Collegewise

Collegewise Counselors Attend Essay Training

Six Collegewise counselors, one Collegewise president, and one part-time essay specialist gathered in Irvine, CA yesterday for College Essay training.  We reviewed some of our students' best essays, talked about trends in admission, and shared strategies for helping kids write their best college essays.

Before the training, we were asked to write our own college essays - a task that each of us, despite our chosen profession, found incredibly daunting.  (Check out our blog about college presidents answering their college's essay questions here.)  However, after applying some Collegewise strategies of essay writing, we all came up with some pretty great stories.

One counselor wrote about her search for a tall prom date.  One wrote about volunteering for College Summit.  One even wrote about growing up with the nickname "Goat Girl."  While the topics clearly varied, the common thread was that each essay was written in the counselor's unique voice.  Counselors followed Collegewise's #1 College Essay Writing Rule - "Own your story."

Keep checking Wise Like Us - next week we'll post some of the counselors' stories!

Staying Productive and Motivated

Graduating college seniors are facing a tough job search in a down economy.  But that doesn't mean you can't do something noteworthy while you're looking.  This blog post has some great ideas for ways to stay motivated and make yourself even more marketable for potential employers.  I'm posting it here for college grads, but also for high school students who might be looking for ways to spend a productive and fulfilling summer (in fact, it's reminiscent of our list of "50 Fantastic Summer Activities for High School Students").

Collegewise Counselor Spotlight - Margot Filstein

This is the first of several Counselor Spotlights, which we hope will give you a better idea of who our bloggers are and what they're all about.  This week's Spotlight is on Margot Filstein, pictured at right at her Alma Mater's 5-year reunion.

College Essay Workshop at Palos Verdes High School

This summer and fall, we're offering our College Essay Workshop on the campus of Palos Verdes High School in Palos Verdes Estates, CA.  Students will not only attend our essay seminar, but will also have the opportunity to submit their UC or Common Application essays to us for feedback.  We're pretty excited about it.  The workshop tuition is $295 and PVHS students can enroll through the link at the end of this post.  We hope to see your student in the class!

College Factoid

Rockstars go to college too!

Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie, a rock band that gained fame in the 70's, went to Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey. And you thought New Jersey wasn't hip...

Well played, Lewis & Clark

If you read our blog, you know we're really excited about colleges. And we're even more excited about lesser-known colleges--ones that most of our students here in California won't even investigate. 

Lewis & Clark is one of those colleges. And it's a pretty amazing place to live and learn and be a happy college kid. We've known that all along. Our favorite part is when one of our students figures that out, too. 

This year, one of our very own will be going to Portland, Oregon to join Lewis & Clark College's incoming freshman class. And he'll be the first Collegewise kid there. EVER.

If you're willing to be one of those students who looks outside the box (and at a cool college like Lewis & Clark), check our their amazing student blogs. Kids are writing and posting videos about life at L&C, the music scene, Portland's city life and even what life looks like from a study abroad program in Scotland. These students can give you a much different (and fuller!) picture of what life as a Pioneer is like, so start reading!

And if you DO fall in love, send us an e-card from the Lewis & Clark website and tell us about it!

Are summer college visits worth the trip?

Any counselor at Collegewise will tell you visiting colleges is wonderful any time, anywhere (I even visited colleges on a cross-country road trip when I was a sophomore in college!).  But now that summer is right around the corner, we’re getting a lot of questions from our families asking whether it’s still “worth it” to visit colleges over the summer, when most college students aren’t on campus.  It’s true that seeing and talking with current students on a college campus can be beneficial, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the trip when they’re not around, especially because summer is usually the time when our students and their parents have time to get away.  One of our favorite blogs, called The Choice, has posted a few entries about visiting colleges, and specifically, making the most of visits over the summer.  You can read a couple of entries here and here.  Happy visiting!

Anatomy of a Five-Year Reunion

I'm back from a splendid weekend at my five-year reunion at Colgate and wanted to share some pictures of the trip.  As mentioned in my post last week, I was incredibly excited at the thought of staying in a college dorm room, catching up with old friends, and eating at all of my favorite Hamilton, NY establishments.  Goal achieved!