Good morning!

We're hitting the airwaves this morning -- 10:00am EST --  for College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

Here's what's on tap for today:

*Mistakes to avoid on the Common Application Activities section, and

*More FAFSA problems expected this fall. (Ugh.)

Tune In!

Grab a cup of joe and we'll see you at 10am EST (recorded if you can't make it)

- Andy Lockwood

The new Common App is here!

I haven't been this excited since, well, last August 1.

I recorded a helpful but incomplete video walkthrough of some of the key aspects I felt should be highlighted.  

If you have a 2025 grad, this video will save you a ton of time and stress, even if it bores you out of your skull.

Watch Boring Video

- Andy "Calls 'Em Like I Sees 'Em" Lockwood

P.S. Here's something else that just arrived...

Hi Ajay,

The Common Application opens tomorrow, August 1.  Senior year of high school for 2025 graduates is only a few weeks out.

If your kiddo's college essay writing efforts are, ahem, less than stellar and/or less than productive, you may want to do something about it before it's too late.

Otherwise, you're in for a month of three of stress, high blood pressure and fighting with your child over the d-mn essays and applications. 

Not fun.

We currently have five (5) spots left for the College Essay Lab, our service that is focused on helping your son or daughter write an essay that "sells".

An essay that advocates, persuasively, why he or she should be picked out of the "sea of sameness" of tens of thousands of near-identical (on paper) competitors.

The personal statement, and supplemental essays, are your child's last, best chance to make the case why he or she deserves to get in.

The Invisible Question

You won't find it anywhere on the Common Application, but this...

Good morning!

We're hitting the airwaves this morning -- 10:00am EST --  for College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

Here's what's on tap for today:

*Blockbuster Changes to the ACT...and how they affect your child

*Notes From Yesterday's College Essay Bootcamp

*Student Loan Repayment Program Tomfoolery

Tune In!

Grab a cup of joe and we'll see you at 10am EST (recorded if you can't make it)

- Andy Lockwood

We now have a little more info on the latest changes to the ACT, so we're running a short webinar to loop you in.  It's tonight!

This is new information that came out since our last update two weeks ago.  So exciting I want to vomit.

Or not. But, whether or not exciting, this will be important information for anyone who has a kiddo contemplating taking the ACT.

Tune in tonight --  our head tutor Marissa U will cover the new changes and answer your questions -- we'll be live in chat.

Here's where to sign up:

ACT Webinar

- Andy "This Just In" Lockwood

P.S.  Reminder about the College Essay Lab, if you realized that your child needs help standing out on the college essay.

Use coupon code ADMIT2025 for an instant 20% off "scholarship".  That's 700 donuts to you and me.

But you have to enroll before deadline or before we give out our last 6 spots.  The clock is a-ticking and a-tocking. Soon the bell will...

The College Essay Lab | ACT Update

Here's a big hangup I hear from our college advisory students, year after year: 

"I can't come up with anything original."

To that I say, "Balderdash!"

Because that's not THE THING.  Not your job.   

A college essay writer's task is not to be "original." 

Think about it, the average admissions officer reviews 1,000 applications each year.  Some applications have two-five supplemental essays, each.

If the admissions officer has three years' career experience, that amounts to at least 3,000 essays, perhaps triple or quadruple that amount when supplemental essays are part of the equation.

Your chances of surprising your admissions officer?

Approximately the same as Joe Biden pulling a Tom Brady, "un-retiring" and winning the presidency.

That is to say, zero.

Ah, so what IS your task?

To write something fresh.  Unusual.  Something INTERESTING.

How do you do this? 

Generally speaking, an interesting...

The College Essay Lab

Things went pretty, pretty well, judging from the reviews and the chat for last night's webinar, Top 10 College Essay Mistakes -- How to write an essay so compelling that college admissions officers will practically crawl naked over broken glass to admit your student.

I did my best to walk everyone though exactly what needs to go into a strong, persuasive personal statement and a few of the more common supplemental essays, as well as a bunch of mistakes to avoid.

Some of my advice was fairly conventional, some was definitely out of the box, like my comments on "writer's block" and how to defeat it.

Approximately 45% of the 200 folks who registered for the webinar couldn't make it, so I decided to post the recording. It will be available here, later this morning.

At the end of the presentation, I made a one-time, "exploding" offer to get our help brainstorming, editing and polishing your child's essays (not "writing it for you", mind you) for a 20% off...

One of the toughest things about college essay writing is that kids have never done anything like it in school.

In English or History class, most of the assignments involve writing about something else:  a quote, an event, a book, whatever.

College essay writing is a PERSONAL statement.  You're writing about yourself.

One trick is understanding your audience.  What qualities are your admissions officers looking for? 

Once you get a handle on that, the rest of the task is to serve it up to them with examples or anecdotes that support your thesis, and ultimately your candidacy at each college.

Your English teacher may not grasp the truth about what you're REALLY doing when you apply to college, because in all likelihood, she has never engaged in this activity herself. 

What am I talking about?  What are you REALLY doing when you apply to college, and submit your essays, description of your extracurricular activities, recommendations and transcripts?

...

I was talking with one of my essay editors yesterday about a draft that one of our clients put together.

"I don't know, the essay checks a lot of boxes, but there's just something about it that's lacking," my editor said.

"Agree. It's like there's no there, there" I said.  "Just, first I did this, then I accomplished that, etc."

To be fair, that's kinda sorta your task in a personal statement, to talk about yourself. 

But a good essay is about more than what you did. You can't merely regurgitate other parts of your application.

What about failures?  Embarrassing situations that you resolved, eventually?

Self-deprecation counterbalances the braggy stuff and makes the essay more HUMAN sounding.  You don't want to come across as an arrogant d-bag, at least on paper. :)

So what you write is important, but what your reader FEELS is super-duper important too.

Tomorrow night, I'm conducting a free online class, called Top 10 College Essay Mistakes -- How to...

What goes into a "good" college essay, anyway?

Does it have to be about some enormously dramatic, Lifetime Move-quality event that occurred in a young lad's or lass's life?

Some gigantic, breathtaking obstacle that the young chap or damsel overcame before going onto accomplish scholastic glory?

Or an abundance of wicked smaht-sounding, multi-syllabic words such as "myriad" and "plethora" stuffed into every sentence?

I bet you know the answers to those questions.

What about "good" and "bad" essay topics?

Getting cut from a team, then working out extra hard over the summer in Rocky's old gym, coming back, making the team and kicking the winning goal or making a buzzer beater from half court?

Writing about grandpa's words of wisdom?

Or oing political?

This Thursday night, I'm conducting a free online class to answer all of these questions. Some of my answers should confirm what you knew or suspected, but then again, some may surprise you, come to think of it.,

The class is called,...