Sophomore

Take a College Virtual Tour and Save Money and Time

Take a College Virtual Tour and Save Money and Time

Visiting colleges can be expensive. Between airfare or gas, hotel rooms, rental cars, parking and food, you could end up spending thousands of dollars. So before you fly, travel in the virtual world. College virtual tours can be a great way to screen colleges and find your fit.

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Building a Compelling College Application Portfolio: Four Keys

Building a Compelling College Application Portfolio: Four Keys

Here's how to focus students' attention on a few areas of interest and aptitude and build an outstanding college application portfolio.

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Concerned About the Coalition Application? Five Things You Need to Know as a Parent or Student

Concerned About the Coalition Application? Five Things You Need to Know as a Parent or Student

The Coalition Application is one of the biggest changes in the college application process this year. Here's what it means for you.

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How to Make Sense of College Rankings

How to Make Sense of College Rankings

Each September, the week the vaunted U.S. News and World Report college rankings come out, you'll find parents looking over them anxiously. For many universities as well, these rankings are critical, since universities vie for top spots on this widely-publicized evaluation of their quality. For parents and students, the report adds to the complexity of decision-making about college. Here are tips on how to think about college rankings.

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Is College The Best Choice for Everyone?

Is College The Best Choice for Everyone?

The number and percentage of high school students who go on to four-year college have been rising steadily for years. But as the costs of college increase and many college graduates see only middling job prospects, more and more families are asking the question: is college the best choice for everyone?

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Five Reasons to Work With a College Admissions Coach

Five Reasons to Work With a College Admissions Coach

A great college admissions coach can help reduce the stresses of applying to college and make the process much easier to navigate.

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Acing the SAT and ACT: What You Need to Know

Acing the SAT and ACT: What You Need to Know

Standardized testing is stressful for many students and parents because it has such high stakes. At many U.S. and international universities, test scores are a major factor in admissions decisions. But taking a standardized test like the SAT or ACT doesn't have to be stressful and scary.

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The New Sat: How It’s Changed, and How You Can Prepare for It

The New Sat: How It’s Changed, and How You Can Prepare for It

In March of 2016, the CollegeBoard (which administers the SAT and PSAT), kicked off the new SAT, which is a major change from the old one which had been in use for a decade. The new SAT has now been used for almost two years, and there's still not much understanding about how parents and students should best adapt. So here is a summary.

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Here’s How You Can Ace the SAT and ACT

Here’s How You Can Ace the SAT and ACT

LifeLaunchr now has a way to help parents and students to ace the SAT and ACT, through it's partnership with Aspire Education Project. For over a decade, Aspire Education Project’s expert tutors have led the highly competitive San Francisco Bay Area tutoring market, helping students reach their college goals at schools including Stanford, Cornell, Duke, and the University of California, Berkeley.

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Five Things Teens and Parents Should Know about College Admissions: Part 5

Five Things Teens and Parents Should Know about College Admissions: Part 5

At many high schools, counselors don't start engaging with students about planning for college until spring of junior year.
But if you're a parent or student, waiting till spring of junior year makes college planning harder for many reasons. In fact the best advice for parents is to start early: as early as possible, in freshman year if you can. College planning really starts the first day of high school, since its when all the work your teen will do starts making a difference.

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Recent Posts

What Families Need to Know About College Financial Aid

What Families Need to Know About College Financial Aid

Student loan debt in the U.S. now exceeds $1.5 trillion dollars. Parents and students need to know how college financial aid works.

Questions You Should Ask on a Campus Tour

Questions You Should Ask on a Campus Tour

Most campus tours will focus on amenities and prestige factors But as a parent helping your child, here are questions you should be asking at a campus tour.

Creating An Authentic Balance in Your College List

Creating An Authentic Balance in Your College List

To make a good college list, focus on finding good fits, rather than chasing after the highest-ranked colleges. Rankings are arbitrary.

How You Can Thrive During Remote Learning

How You Can Thrive During Remote Learning

Last spring taught us some lessons about thriving with remote learning. Here are keys to success with online education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Writing About COVID-19 in Your College Admission Essay

Writing About COVID-19 in Your College Admission Essay

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact, and those different sections have differing goals.

Keys to a Great College Admission Essay

Keys to a Great College Admission Essay

This time of year, many students are working on college admission essays. A great essay can help you be selected over others with similar scores and grades.