Volunteering can often be a requirement for your school, but you can leverage the opportunity to get to know yourself better. Instead of thinking of the requirement as just a quota to fill, consider volunteering a moment to define and flex your empathy.

It's crunch time!

Deadlines that determine the rest of your life are right around the corner. If you're getting a (very) late start on essays, here's a quick guide to surviving the next few weeks and salvaging your admissions chances.

Your college essays speak for you within your application. They tell your story and your dreams. They remain your best opportunity to really pull together your resume, transcripts, and letters of rec in order to create a complete picture of who you are as a student. And it’s your first and last chance to make an impression on the admissions officer who has never met you before but will eventually decide whether to accept or reject your application.

This pressure is no joke. But rather than paralyze you, it should serve to emphasize the importance of the final draft you submit! With stakes like these, you should absolutely edit your drafts to ensure you catch the little details. 

We know—the editing process proves difficult for lots of people. That’s why we’re here to explain the ten most common editing pitfalls so that as you’re combing over your essays one final time before you send them off, you’ll know what to avoid.

The University of Washington application evaluates student candidates holistically, emphasizing more than grades and scores. That means that the essays you submit are absolutely critical! Your writing needs to effectively tell your story to reviewers and convince them that you should be at their school.

Let’s take a look at the prompts you’re working with to make sure your essays hit the right note.

The key to succeeding on test day?

Sure, there are certain academic standards you’ll need to know and intellectual skills you can perfect with practice over time. But if you’re down to the wire and looking for some quick and dirty tips for how to boost your scores quickly, here are three easy fixes to improve your results.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a universal form that all students in the United States can submit in order to receive government support to help pay for their education. The 2020-2021 form opened on their website on October 1st, 2019 and will be accessible to submit until June 30th, 2021. However, the sooner you submit, the better—and yes, you SHOULD submit one!

Before you sit down to fill it out, here are some things you need to know in order to get the most aid possible.

Participation points can be nearly impossible to quantify. Teachers each have their own metrics, and you don't typically receive a rubric for how to demonstrate your engagement best over time. While each class will differ, knowing more about yourself as a student will help you succeed regardless. Introverts and extroverts both have unique qualities to bring to their learning environments—you just have to play to your strengths! Take our quiz to learn what you should be doing.

Undergraduate research remains one of the most sought-after qualities in the college search. Students want to know how, when, and where to find opportunities for hands-on projects. Not only do these research projects allow students to express creativity, take control of their education, and delve deeper into their specific interests, it's a great way to demonstrate leadership and initiative on your resume—for any career you want to pursue. From humanities to STEM, opportunities to produce independent work under the supervision of a highly-qualified faculty member are a golden ticket to standing out. Convinced?

Here is a run-down of the top spots for undergraduate research in 2019.

If you cringe at the thought of new social situations, the word “networking” can bring up some negative connotations. Like it or not, networking won’t go away—in fact, as you get older, it gets even more important! But it doesn’t have to be painful. Whether you're a social butterfly or shy bookworm, you can always improve your networking skills to get the best results. Here are 7 easy tips for building a great network of connections.

Picture this: college app deadlines are looming and you’re hard at work on your applications. You’ve compiled and narrowed down a college list, made a strategy for presenting your extracurriculars, and started brainstorming and drafting your essays. Good for you! On top of all this work, you notice that a few of your applications allow for that perplexing, dark horse component: the optional essay. 

For most students, college is expensive. 

Each year, the costs of attending rise, and show no signs of slowing. Between tuition, textbooks, lab materials, and room and board—the path to a diploma exacts a large price. Yet degrees remain highly in demand. Families are asking: how can we afford it? 

Not everyone has the clubs and teams that meet their interests readily available. That's when taking initiative to start your own organization can come into play. It is a lot of work, so never do this just because you think it looks good on a resume—it does, but so do lots of other less draining extracurriculars! If you do decide to strike out on your own, we have some advice to help you on your way. 

The California Institute of Technology—better known by the nickname CalTech—is widely regarded as one of the top ten universities in the United States. In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently named CalTech for the coveted spot #5 on its 2020 list. Want to know how to crack the CalTech essay supplements and present your best self to the admissions committee? In this post, we’ll go through each of their school-specific prompts for you and discuss how to best ace each answer.

The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education recently published their joint 2020 list of Top US Colleges. Curious who made the cut? Want to know what all this data means? The WSJ puts their article behind a subscription paywall for now, but if you want to read the full list you can find the same rankings published on the Times website. We'll explain what to do with it.

Though often one of the most overlooked parts of the college search, safety schools are actually a very critical component to ensure you have options after the admissions season is over. Everyone applying to colleges should have a safeguard. But as the college admissions field becomes all the more competitive across the board, at what point can we no longer consider mainstay safeties as near-guaranteed acceptances?