Art Sawyer, one of the principals of the Compass Education Group, released an article on the deviation in the recent PSAT scores: “There was a Major Drop in the PSAT Scores. College Board, Please Explain.” The full article can be found at:   https://www.compassprep.com/major-drop-in-psat-scores/

On August 14, 2017 Ivy College Prep, LLC published the following article on the Gig Economy. It portrayed a dystopian world of little job security and artificial intelligence ready to cut needless humanity out of the economy wherever and whenever possible.

Since then, the two Oxford academics responsible for the paper that launched the notion of relentless automation of jobs, Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, have stated this take on their research was incorrect. Supposedly their research indicated that ‘47% of current American jobs (including those in office administration, sales and various service industries) fell into the ‘high risk’ category.’

A good way to gain a sense of how to approach this type of essay is with samples of essays that have successfully addressed this question. Here are portions of successful essays to give you a taste of some effective approaches.

There are no wrong approaches as long as the essay matches your interests with what the school is offering in a particular major. Make that connection well and you’re well on your way.

An essay prompt found often on applications is ‘Why us?’  Why do you want to come here and what will you do once you arrive?

One of the best ways to attack this question is to learn as much about the college as you can to really gain a sense of the place. If you can’t do this don’t waste the college admissions office time, and more importantly your own, by writing generalities about the school’s size, location or reputation.

About forty miles west of Boston, past Framingham, the starting line for the Boston Marathon, right off the I-90, is Worcester, Massachusetts. Contained in this town of 168,000 citizens are 38,000 students attending nine schools. While it’s not Boston, it shares in Boston’s rich fabric of higher educational institutions, including the medical school for the University of Massachusetts, and a branch of MCPHS (the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), whose main campus is in Boston.

No one is every organized enough to deal with the pressures and demands we constantly face. Here are some good tips on handling the slings and arrows associated with organization and time management.

TOP TIPS: ORGANIZATION AND TIME MANAGEMENT

Hot off the press!  We've had a chance to review the Fall 2018 admissions data released recently by the University of California and thought it would be helpful to summarize it and share our key findings.  

Overall freshman admission rates are up for non-residents and down for residents as the University of California continues to settle on a new normal that accommodates a larger mix of out of state and international students.   If you're an out of state or international student, pay close attention...there continues to be a window of opportunity to take advantage of favorable odds at several UC campuses.

Conducting research in high school provides experience that often translates to the college level. For some career paths, research is mandatory. Specifically, if you are applying for a combined degree, such as a BS/MD program at Northwestern Medical Honors, or the Brown PLME program, your credibility as an applicant is bolstered by any science related research projects performed during your high school years. Such programs as BUGS at USC, or RISE at Boston University (https://www.bu.edu/summer/high-school-programs/research/), which offers both internship and practicum summer tracks, present opportunities for high school students to build college level research inquiries and skills.

Straight-A students from some of the best high schools in the country become unhinged at the thought of crafting a 600-word essay in response to such a prompt: “Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you. Describe that influence.” (Recent Common Application, Question #3).  It’s not surprising-- very few students learn the craft of essay writing. It’s become such a neglected art that Harvard, among many of the most selective schools, now requires all its undergraduates, without exception, to take an expository writing class.  Knowing that the state of essay writing is in the doldrums, what might you do to attack this very daunting task?

With the average student loan debt in 2017 ranging between $20,000 and $25,000 and the amount of outstanding student loans exceeding $1.5 trillion nationally, it’s becoming imperative for students to understand basic financial literacy before they graduate and have to set budgets to pay back their share of this growing debt load.