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July Reset Week 2: The School Profile

Digital graphic titled “What Is a School Profile?” featuring clean icons of transcripts, charts, and school documents in navy, cyan, green, and white.

Many schools still don’t have a school profile — but this quiet document plays a big role in how colleges read your students’ applications. Here’s what it is, why it matters, and free tools to help you create one that supports equity and context.

July Reset, Week 1: The College Counseling Summer Checklist

Graphic titled "College Counseling Back-to-School Checklist" with a clean, modern layout. Features a green folder icon with a checklist, navy and cyan text, and circular accent shapes on a white background. Includes a “July Reset” label and the tagline “Small wins now = fewer headaches later.”

Before the year ramps up, take a moment to reset. This back-to-school checklist for college counselors covers all the small but important updates that can make August less chaotic — from school profiles and folders to FERPA forms and rep visit tools. Even the obvious stuff is here, because sometimes that’s what gets missed.

The Money Talk – A Guide to the Family College Cost Conversation

Illustration of a family discussing college costs together at the kitchen table, representing the importance of the family college cost conversation early on in the process.

I know this blog feels like it’s jumping around — essays one week, college lists the next, and now finances? You’re not wrong. But I’m intentionally trying to hit the most critical advising topics up front, so counselors have tools ready for the year ahead. In my experience, the family college cost conversation is one […]

College Essay Brainstorming… Tips on Guiding Students

Illustration of a student brainstorming ideas for a college essay, sitting at a desk with a thought bubble above his head, representing the early stages of the college application writing process.

College Essay Brainstorming – College Counselor Guidance and Resources This is a bit of a deep-dive on a previous post I wrote about college application materials. However, here I will focus specifically on college essay brainstorming for the “main essay,” “CommonApp” essay, or “personal statement” – although much of this could apply to other essays. […]

Building a College List That Works

Illustration of a categorized college list with sections for aspirational, target, likely, and anchor schools, designed to help students organize and reflect on their college choices.

There’s the occasional moment in a junior meeting where I can see the pressure mounting — students staring at a blank college list, parents eager to suggest the alma mater or the “top” school they read about in U.S. News, and me trying to bring the focus back to fit. Because the truth is: A […]

What Really Matters in a College Application?

Illustration of a student holding folders beside a college application checklist including GPA, course rigor, extracurriculars, essays, recommendation letters, and test scores.

One of the most common questions I get from students (and sometimes parents) is: “What do colleges actually care about?” or “What do I need to do to get into a ‘good’ college?” In a previous post, I discussed the problem with talking about “good” colleges as if it were a universal measurement. The truth […]

Helping Students Define Their Own College Fit

Illustration of a colorful signpost with arrows pointing to different colleges, representing student choice in the college search process.

In my last post, I talked about how prestige is often just an illusion—especially when it comes to college choice. We know the highest-ranked school on a list isn’t necessarily the best fit for every student. But if students are going to take ownership of their college process, they need tools and frameworks to actually […]

“Prestige” is an Illusion… Literally: Helping Students Understand College Fit

Illustration of a magician labeled “Prestige” performing a trick over a top hat labeled “Illusion,” surrounded by glowing college buildings — symbolizing how perceived prestige in college admissions can be misleading.

Fun fact: The word prestige actually comes from the Latin praestigium, meaning illusion. So when students say they’re only interested in “prestigious” schools, it’s worth remembering that what they’re often chasing is the appearance of excellence—not necessarily what’s best for them or where they’ll be successful and happy. Over the past few years in college […]

Junior Year College Planning: A Guide for Counselors and Students

Maybe the biggest surprise to me when I started this job was how crucial junior year is in college planning. When I did this decades ago, I don’t think I even started thinking about college until my senior year started. Not sure how much of that was due to changing times and how much was […]