Collegewise

Meet the editor of our next book

This week, I officially inked a partnership with Adam Kleiner to be the editor of my next book, tentatively titled “The Collegewise Way.”  Not surprisingly, he’s an old college buddy.   

After I finished the first draft in December, I wanted to find an editor who could help produce a finished product that people would really enjoy reading.  Not just somebody to fix the typos, but who could also be honest with me about my writing even it meant I’d have to delete entire chapters or completely change what I’d already written.  We have several editors right here at Collegewise who I know would have been up to the job.  But like me, they’re too close to the subject matter.  Adam and I have enough history together that he’s a Collegewise fan who appreciates what I’m trying to do with this book.  But he’s also far enough outside of the Collegewise fold that he won’t agree that something is good just because that’s the way we’ve always done it.

The arc of the Kevin and Adam story seems appropriate for this book.  We’ve been friends since our college days at UC Irvine, where we were both English majors who loved to write almost as much as we loved our intramural soccer and post game beer.  According to his production schedule, we’ll be toasting our book’s release early this summer.  If you’d like to know when it’s available, you can sign up to be notified here.    

Former Collegewise students: Join our Wall of Fame

We’re going to be dedicating a wall in our Irvine, CA office to pictures and stories from our former students.  We may also be putting these same pics and tales on a special page of collegewise.com.  Whether you’re in college now or out in the real world, if you’re a former student of ours and you’d like to be featured on our Wall of Fame, we’d love to hear from you!  Just answer a few questions here and attach a picture.

Thanks so much! We’re really looking forward to hearing what you’re up to and to seeing your pics up on our Wall of Fame.

Ship it...or cancel it

January-April is our slower time at Collegewise.  Every year, this is when we tackle our projects—new ideas, improvements to our programs, updates to our materials, all the things we thought about during the fall but just didn’t have time to get to them.  And this year, we’re trying something new to see just how much we can get done.  For every project, we’re picking a date by which we’ll ship it (finish and put it to use), or cancel it.  No in-between, no half-finished projects with no resolution—it’s either done, or done away with.

We all came into 2012 with ideas/projects we wanted to try.  We picked our favorites to start with and did three things:

1. One person volunteered to ultimately be responsible for shipping.  This person doesn’t necessarily have to do all the work alone, but every project needs a champion who will see it through or pull the plug.

2. The person in charge picked the ship-it date. 

3. We all agreed on what the project has to do or look like in order to be good enough to ship.  The truth is that most projects don’t need to be perfect in the beginning.  In fact, you won’t know whether or not they’re perfect until you actually ship them.  So we decided ahead of time what “good enough” looks like.  We agreed on the acceptable level of funding and risk we could take for each project.  Then on the agreed-upon date, we’ll ship it if it’s ready, or cancel if it’s floundering.

The idea behind the cancel option isn't to just give up.  It's to give you an ejection lever to pull if a project starts to take too long, cost too much, or just can't be made good enough to ship.  In 1991, Duke Nukem was one of the most successful video games ever created, so successful that the company decided to make a sequel.  And every time it got close to shipping, someone wanted a new feature or had a new twist that would make it even better.  Nine years later, there was still no sequel and they cancelled the project.  Couldn't they have reached that conclusion a lot sooner (and cheaper)?

I’ll share the outcomes of several projects in future posts (whether we ship or cancel them).  But for now, we’ve got “ship or cancel” dates on the calendar and a lot of projects underway.  There's focus and energy knowing that a project is either going to launch or get scrapped and we’re pretty excited to see how they turn out. 

If you’d like some inspiration for your own projects, we got this "ship it" concept here.

Got a question?

Now that the fall admissions craze is in our rear view mirror, I can bring back the “Ask Collegewise” entries and answer some reader questions here on the blog.  So, whether you have questions about admissions issues, how we run our business, or why we approach parts of the admissions process the way we do, leave a comment here or email me with "Ask Collegewise" in the subject line.  I'll pick some of the most interesting ones and answer them here.  Ask away!

The Collegewise Workshop for Counselors: exploratory committee

We’re trying to gauge interest in a new full-day session to be offered at our Irvine, CA office this summer for high school and independent counselors called “College Counseling 201 with Collegewise.”  Some of the topics included would be:

• Best practices for advising younger students just starting their high school years
• Helping juniors select appropriate colleges
• Guiding seniors through the applications, essays, and interviews
• Financial aid and scholarships
• Handling difficult students/parents
• How to manage a large caseload
• Recent changes in admissions and how they affect your kids
• Case studies of real students and what we learned from them

I’d run the session myself, though if there were enough interest, I’d invite Arun to join, too.   Enrollment would be limited to about 30 counselors so we could leave plenty of time for your questions, your challenges, and any other issue you’re facing in your job.

We’d price the full day session between $295 and $495 and we’d probably hold it in late July.  If you think this might be something you’d be interested in attending, please email me or post a comment here.  Thanks.

Subscription update

If your New Year's resolutions included “Never miss one of Kevin’s blog posts,” here are a few easy ways to get my daily posts for free.

You can subscribe via Twitter by following @Collegewise.  Twitter can be an awfully noisy place with tweets tweeting all throughout the day and night.  But my Twitter feed contains only my blog posts, nothing else.  So if that’s where you like to get your information, you can get mine here.

Lots of people prefer to get my posts by email here.  The only potential email snag is that I can’t always guarantee I’ll make it through your spam filter.  Just make sure you confirm your subscription, and if more than a day passes without an email showing up, check your spam folder.

You can also get the daily posts on Facebook by giving Collegewise a like.  The only thing we ever put on our Facebook page is my blog posts.  So you won’t have to read about what we’re eating for lunch. 

The most popular way people read my blog is to subscribe using an RSS reader.  Once you install the reader, you tell it which blogs you want to read, and it keeps the most recent posts listed in one place for you.  Then you don’t have to go to five different places to read your five favorite blogs.  You can choose your reader and subscribe our blog to it here. 

And of course, you can just bookmark this page and show up whenever you’d like to read it.

I started writing daily entries on this blog in October 2009 and will complete my 1000th post sometime this spring.  I think that’s a pretty good run (it now reaches 30,000 people a month all over the world), and I have no plans to stop anytime soon as long as there are people who think I have something to contribute.  Thanks to everyone for reading and for being so supportive.

Collegewise 2011 year in review

The end of the year is a good time to reflect on what you actually got done in the last 365 days.  Not what you started or talked about doing, but what you actually saw through to the end and officially finished.  It doesn’t matter whether they were huge successes or not.  Finish often enough and you’re bound to have some hits.

Here’s a baker’s dozen list of completed projects for the year we’re wrapping up at Collegewise:

• Rejoined forces with Arun
• Opened the Collegewise online store
• Published essay guide for teachers and counselors, premed guide, Common App guide
• Produced financial aid, college essay, and interview videos
• Launched Collegewise online counseling
• Published free guide to the University of Washington application
• Made over 100 speeches at high schools, libraries and NACAC affiliate conferences
• Published 370 blog posts
• Sent out over 90 new issues of our email newsletter
• Hosted 30 seminars and four back-to-school nights for Collegewise families
• Hired a new counselor, essay specialists and assistant counselors
• Held a happy hour for counselors at local WACAC conference
• Worked with over 500 students in our offices to help them apply to college

These aren’t all mine—far from it.  Thanks to the Collegewise counselors and to Arun for helping to make these happen.  There are several other projects we planned to do and didn’t get to, and a few more that are almost—but not quite—done.  But if they’re not done, they don’t count.   In 2012, we’ll try even harder to be obsessed about shipping (finishing and getting them out the door).

Make a list of your own.  And don’t be afraid to share it.  You’ll probably be impressed with how much you actually did.  And if you’re not, there’s your first resolution for the New Year.

Need some final feedback on your Common Application?

This will be my last post of the year promoting our Collegewise Guide to the Common Application.  Arun and I went through every section of the Common App and thought about all the common mistakes we see students make.  We pulled together all the advice we’ve been giving our students over the last 12 years.  And we condensed it into one clear guideline.  The feedback we’ve gotten has been entirely positive, and we’re really happy with the reception.  If you’re preparing to submit yours in the next few days, I promise that our guide will help you.  If it doesn’t, email me at kevinm(at)collegewise(dot)com and I’ll gladly refund your money.

It’s $12.99 and available for immediate download here.  Even if you’ve already finished your application, review it with our guide in hand, and we’ll help you make sure that every section is clear and compelling.

And whether or not we hear from you, good luck with the rest of your application process.  You’re in the throes of it now, but it’s almost over, and the feeling of relief when you finally hit the “Submit” button is almost here. 

Coming soon: Our book, The Collegewise Way

I just finished the first draft of our next book.  It's tentatively titled "The Collegewise Way" and will share the most important things we've learned about college planning over the last 12 years.  We're aiming for a release in late January.  If you'd like us to let you know when it's ready, you can sign up to be notified here. 

Here's a sneak peek of the current version of the table of contents.

Introduction

• What Is the Collegewise way?   
• About Collegewise   

Basic Re-Training   

• The Great News   
• Don’t Get Star Struck   
• Kids Should Take Charge   
• Effort Is the Great Equalizer   
• There is No Magic Formula   
• It’s Not Just about Getting In   
• Have High Expectations   
• Work Hard to Play Hard   
• Isn’t that Enough?   

Choosing Classes   

• Challenge Yourself   
• Balance Rigor with Reality   
• Test Drive a Course   
• Follow your Favorites   

Getting Better Grades   

• Make Class Time Study Time   
• Start Now   
• No Interruptions   
• Don’t Study Like a Gym Lounger   
• Think like a Test Writer   
• Old Tests are Roadmaps   
• Teach it Back   

Impressing Teachers and Counselors   

• Don’t Leave Anyone Else In Charge   
• Build a Relationship with your Counselor   
• Don’t Be a Grade Grubber   
• Find Your Love of Learning   
• Worry Less about Weaknesses   
• Great Classes are Big Opportunities   
• No Complaining   

Activities   

• There Is No Magic List   
• Don’t Be a Joiner   
• Actions, Not Words   
• Don’t Follow the Crowd   
• Make an Impact   
• Enthusiasm is Contagious   
• Become Indispensible   
• Share your talents   
• Be a good quitter   
• Should you Stick with It?   
• Hobbies are Activities, Too   
• Have Good Summers   

Standardized Tests   

• Testing ABC’s   
• Keep Standardized Tests in Perspective   
• Don’t Take Tests Personally   
• Plan Your Testing Timeline   
• No PSAT Panic   
• Pick a Test and Go with It   
• Don’t Bow to Test-Prep Peer Pressure   
• Prep Smarter   
• Cheap Prep Can Be Great Prep   
• Don’t Go Overboard   
• Where Test Scores Never Get You In   
• Learn from the Best   
• To Re-test or Not to Re-Test   
• Look Forward to Expiration Dates   

Finding the Right Colleges   

• College Soul Searching   
• Appreciate the Unexpected   
• Evaluate Yourself   
• Who Knows Best?   
• Ask the Real Experts   
• When Colleges Market to You   
• What’s your Major?   
• Going Undecided   
• What about Money?   
• Treating Name Branditis   
• Caveats and other Preemptive Strives   
• Look to Your Life Examples   
• Do a Success Search   
• Look to the Math   
• Name Branditis Kills Swagger   

College Visits   

• No Need to Renew Your Vows   
• This is The Fun Part   
• Now vs. Later   
• No Marathon Tours   
• What about Summer Visits?   

Finalizing Your List of Schools   

• Seek the Right Approval   
• Keep Your Balance   
• No Winners in this Lottery   
• Dating, Not Marriage   
• Do You Like Your List?   

Applications   

• Follow Former Seniors’ Advice   
• Take Charge   
• Colleges’ Deadlines Aren’t the Real Deadlines   
• Do What Colleges Tell You   
• Lead with What’s Important   
• Give the Background   
• Share your Impact   
• Be Authentic   
• Faults Aren’t Deal-Breakers   
• Make it all about you   
• Fear is a Hijacker   
• Manage Your Parents   
• Bang your Own Gong   
• Follow Up   
• Give Thanks   
• No Worries   

Essays   

• Getting to Know You   
• Engaging Beats Impressive   
• Own Your Stories   
• Focus on the New   
• Find the Right Tone   
• Don’t Drift   
• Even Flaws Have Strengths   
• Get Good Feedback   
• Recycle within Reason   
• Equal Opportunities   

Interviews   

• Not a Job Interview   
• When Interviewers Come Calling   
• Know What’s Coming   
• Don’t just sit there   
• Find your Stories   
• Just answer the Question   
• What Do you Want to Know?   
• Dress for Thanksgiving   
• Leave your Parents at Home   
• Enjoy yourself   
• Make a Good Last Impression   

Financial Aid and Scholarships   

• Early Planning   
• No Assumptions   
• Know what College Really Costs   
• Estimates Help You Plan   
• Sticker Prices Shouldn’t Disqualify   
• Different but the Same   
• College Costs are a Family Affair   
• A Balanced List Is a Smart List   
• Find a Good Back-Up   
• When Things Change   
• Which Offer is Best?   
• Can you Negotiate a Better Offer?
• Should You Apply for Scholarships?   

Life Skills for Likeable Teens   

• First Impressions   
• Good Name Dropping   
• Have Good Failures   
• No Excuses   
• Make Apologies   
• Have a Laugh   
• Positivity   
• Nice is Underrated   
• Interested Is Interesting   
• Rise above the Drama   
• Pitch in   
• Good Emailers Go Far   
• Don’t Forget Your Role at Home   

Advice for Parents   

• See the Bigger Picture   
• That’s Not Your Job   
• Parenting During College Planning   
• Maintain Parent Mental Health   
• Find the Fun   

Decisions: Handling Theirs and Making Yours   

• When the Answer Is “Yes”   
• When the Answer is “No”   
• When the Answer is “Maybe”   
• Making Your Final Choice   
• Follow the Rules   

Conclusion   

• You Take It from Here   
• Collegewise Resources   
• About the Author   

Product highlight: Our college essay seminar on video

We just released streaming videos of our three most popular seminars—college essays, financial aid and college interviews. All three are now available in our online store.  Today, I wanted to give a little background on our college essay video, why we made it, and what’s included.  

Why we made it
We learned early on at Collegewise that college essay advice does a lot more good when given at the beginning—before a student writes a draft—than it does at the end.  Before we started doing our seminar, if a student brought us an essay that was 600 words of full-blown cliché about how his time on the wrestling team taught him the importance of committing to his goals, it was  a difficult position for us and for the student.  We wanted to give the good advice we’d been hired to give.  And that's what the student expected from us.  But we also didn’t want to take over the process and veto a student’s story idea—that would be helping too much.  We knew we could have prevented those mistakes and done more good if we’d given our advice at the beginning rather than at the end. 

Our college essay seminar solved that problem for us.  Today, our Collegewise students learn everything they need to know to choose and write good stories before they ever start writing.  When students get it right the first time, we don’t have to give them as much feedback on their drafts, which helps us make sure we don’t help too much.  This video was shot at one of those essays seminars we gave to our families.  Now any student—whether or not you’re in the Collegewise program—can write better college essays by just spending one hour watching our seminar on video.

How we’re using it

I do the college essay seminar for students in our Irvine, California office.  But now we’re giving Collegewise families who work with us in all any of our offices free access to the video.  We’ll also use the video to supplement our trainings of new counselors and essay specialists.  And any family in our Irvine location who can’t attend one of our scheduled essay seminars can now watch it on video. 

How to use the video

The advice in the video applies to any type of college essay.  It doesn’t matter whether the required essay is long or short, a general topic or something more specific.  You can even apply the advice to questions about why you want to attend a particular school.

So there are a few ways you could use this:

1. Applicants can watch the video before you start writing your college essays.  You’ll pick better stories, you’ll tell them in a compelling way, and you’ll be a lot closer to a strong finished product when you take your first draft to your counselor or English teacher for feedback.

2. You could even view our video a you’ve already written the essays and are still looking to make revisions.  The advice on our video will help you evaluate your choice of story, how well you’ve written it, and whether or not the essay is going to be a positive factor in your admissions decision. 

3. A teacher, counselor, parent, or anyone else who is asked to critique college essays will know exactly what to look for after watching this video. 

Results

We’ve done this college essay workshop for thousands of Collegewise students and their parents.  We’ve done it at high school events, at conferences for counselors, and even for English teachers who were looking for advice about how to help their kids with essays.  We’re really excited to make this available to a much wider audience now and would love to hear what you think of it. 

You can buy your copy here and view it right away online for $12.99.