Students and parents are sometimes surprised to find that most top colleges also have supplemental essays, beyond the common app's personal statement. The various essays need to work well together, each making its own contribution. At IvyMaven, we’ll use essay organizing software to streamline the process and keep track of the various pieces. But the creative aspect? I pride myself on this being the heart of a very personalized, one-on-one approach to college counseling. Why do colleges include extra essays? They are trying to distinguish amongst many applicants who have already passed their bar of being admissible ( read : have the grades, challenging coursework, and scores to indicate that you could do the academic work at their college). They want to discover that you have the self-awareness—and the willingness to share—how you imagine yourself growing over four years of college. And that you’ve invested the energy to research their offerings and resources, academic and otherwise. And that you can make the match for them: how you’ll make use of their (note to applicant: be specific here! ) resources. Flip side of the coin: how you’ll contribute. That’s it! One more thing, though. They are looking for a match in voice and polish with your personal statement. I won’t let you even think of whisking this one off without the careful consideration you gave your personal statement!

As students transition from high school to college, they are often not only moving away from home, but also towards new freedoms. Freshmen enter an exciting realm where they are responsible for themselves, their stuff, and…their time. And it turns out that by far the #1 factor distinguishing those who succeed at college is how well you manage your time. Most of the high school students I advise attend long days of classes, five days a week. A parent might help get them out the door to school, and sometimes even to school. And the school schedule that takes up so many hours weekly is typically supplemented with a full calendar of sports or other extracurriculars. It’s often a case of the schedule managing the student. Once given the responsibility to take charge of their own schedule, students often need new strategies to thrive. As a college student, you might spend 15 hours a week in class. Lab science classes might tack on a few more hours weekly. But just as in high school, there are 168 hours in a week. That leaves about 140+ hours that you now get to decide how to spend. That’s a lot, and it’s easy for time to just “slip away.” Suddenly, its midterms, and you’re not prepared. How do you prevent this? College students should keep a calendar, scheduling everything. Block off 2-3 hours for “homework” or study time to prepare per each hour of class. That adds another 30-45 hours weekly to put in your calendar, more at exam time. Block off time for showers and meals and exercise and even doing your laundry! Join some extracurriculars of interest and make sure to put those in your schedule, too. Even block off specific hours to hang with friends, see your girlfriend or boyfriend. If you treat it like a 9-5 workday, you should have free time in the evenings and on weekends for joining new friends at concerts and games or parties. Or to be by yourself and practice that hobby or read that recommended book that’s just for fun. Check out the local community. Considering what an “I’m-In-Charge-Of-Me” pivot you’ll need to make once you leave home for college, here’s a proposition: Start small, now. It’s very, very empowering. And, paradoxically, you’ll find pockets of time to just veg that you didn’t even know existed.

This time of year, I get lots of inquiries about the college interview. How important are they? Should they interview? What should they expect? And: will it help with “getting in?” Some colleges offer zero interviews. (Most of these are giant state universities whose admissions are mostly based on quantitative measures--GPA, SAT/ACT--where the sheer number of applicants being processed is so large as to preclude interviews.) Other schools almost insist (“strongly encourage”) that each applicant interview. These are typically small liberal arts colleges, where admittees are cherry-picked to add something valuable to the campus community. Some colleges and universities offer interviews with local alums. (This serves multiple purposes, not least of which is keeping volunteer alumni engaged with their alma mater and giving when the development office calls!) Some schools offer interviews with admissions officers or current undergraduates who work in the admissions office, on campus or zoom. Some colleges start offering interviews early on, as a way of engaging applicants in the process to encourage follow-through with an application. (After all, colleges can only be deemed selective if they get lots of students to apply, keeping a “healthy” ratio of applied-to-denied.) Some colleges won’t offer an interview until you’ve submitted your application, which, in its own way, encourages students to “get the damn thing in!” Finally, some schools contact you to set up an interview; this is common amongst those offering up local volunteer alumni. Yet at others, you need to know to read the fine print of their admissions site for where to sign up—before all spots are full! At IvyMaven, I encourage students to pursue interviews. We brainstorm how they might present their best self, making sure to have an anecdote or two to back up their points. How to avoid repeating what they’re writing about in their applications, as that would waste an opportunity to broaden and deepen the portrait they are presenting to the admissions office. How to relax and be friendly and curious, treating it as the human interaction (a conversation!) that it is, inviting the interviewer to get a sense of them. What would this teen be like to room with, to have as a seminar classmate, to team up with on a sport or a musical ensemble or in lab research? It is impressions like these that college interviewers seek. I like to provide my students with practice interviewing. You can get your jitters out, while getting feedback on how to present yourself in a way that is charming and effective and, ideally, memorable. Learn to ask genuine opinion questions of someone who is affiliated with the school you are interested in. You can later reference in your “why this school?” supplemental essay something you learned in the interview that furthered your interest in attending. And sometimes, you click with the interviewer in such a way that they sense what a good fit you’d be for their college—enough to advocate for you in the admissions office. Even when that college claims their admissions interviews are “informational only.” Really.