JorenWater.CMC2018

Mr. Kipling’s Advice for College Applicants

Prior to the senior year of high school or transfer admissions, students simply matriculate in a pack, taking the same classes, striving for the same grades, clustering in similar out-of-school enrichment activities. Yet, at the moment of applying to college, students need to make their own decision—relate the process, to what Mr. Kipling shares the…

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JUST THE FACTS

A college acceptance isn’t a cure-all, get-out-of-jail-free card, where untold riches and lifelong prosperity are as plentiful and readily flowing as red cups filled from a college party keg. Instead:  To avoid such pitfalls, effectively reducing the risk of educational malinvestment, prudent families can use the quiet lull of summer to reflect, reassess, and regroup…

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Advice From One Transfer Admissions Student to Another

Transferring from one college to another is disruptive: moving to a new city, leaving the family home for possibly the first time, establishing new friend networks in a new place. Being 19-20 years old and taking more specialized, upper division courses, typically, transfer students are seeking other older students, but often worry about breaking into…

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UC Berkeley Fall 2022 Admissions Preserved

On Monday, March 14, California State legislators along with Governor Gavin Newsom, ratified legislation amending the California Environmental Quality Act, so UC Berkeley (Cal) admissions officials will not need to reduce Fall 2022 enrollment for first year, transfer, or graduate students, as previously predicted.  As a result, UC Berkeley officials will no longer encourage 1000…

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So, you say you’re done, ay?

In the academic meritocratic realm of teenage braggadocio, everyone’s been done with their college essays, except you. At least, that’s what nearly every college applicant believes about their friends, peers, frenemies, academic archrivals—only adding stress to an already complicated self-reflective, autobiographical writing process.  Yet, The Common Application’s own statistics about the daily record applicant submissions…

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College admissions opportunities in the time of COVID

As college enrollments continue sliding, current college students, both those at four year colleges and those aspiring to transfer from a community college, as well as high school students seeking admissions in Fall 2022 and beyond will likely benefit.  Spring 2021 total undergraduate enrollment decreased by 5.9% at two and four year colleges in the…

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GoodNews.Creative Marbles 2013

Four Year Colleges Still Accepting Fall 2021 Applications

The National Association of College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) published their annual “College Openings Update”, a database of four year US universities which are still accepting applications for the upcoming school year. Thus, for students interested in attending a four year college in the fall, there’s still admissions opportunities for Fall 2021.  Keep in mind that…

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Changes to The Common Application Could Improve Access for Students

Dear Common Application CEO Jenny Rickard: In advising transfer students, I discovered several incongruencies which, although did not prevent a student from submitting his applications on time, created undue stress and confusion in the hours before the deadline expired.  I offer the following feedback for you and your colleagues to consider, as a means of…

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Students select colleges, colleges don’t select students

The criminally fraudulent actions of Rick Singer and 50 parents and college administrators indicted in the college admissions scandal in 2019, highlighted the disparities and weaknesses in the college admissions system, as well as the cultural bias that a college degree is a salve for life’s uncertainties. As Washington Post journalist, Jeff Selingo writes: These…

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Applying to College: From Chaos Comes Confidence

Typically, in the few days before a college application deadline, both applicants and their parents are wondering: Adding to their stress, students wildly speculate that their efforts to complete their applications will merit them the following response: Anticipating the worst case scenario of a denied admissions, in the midst of crafting their quintessential life’s story,…

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CMC Celebrates Fall 2020 College Admissions Success!

We are grateful for having the opportunity to advise students who were accepted to 90 universities and medical schools throughout the United States for Fall 2020 admissions during our seventeenth college application season.  Each year, students trust us to generously share their life’s stories with us as they articulate their vision and define their purpose…

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Put Down Your #2 Pencils, The University of California Eliminates SAT/ACT Scores: Part 2

Since now first year University of California (UC) applicants are not required to submit SAT or ACT scores, many students ask, “What will ‘replace’ the missing information from test scores?” Yet, as Ms. Han Mi Yoon-Wu, UC Director of Undergraduate Admissions stated in her response to CMC’s Open Letter to the University of California:  In…

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