I am often asked for college counseling advice by friends and family from states well beyond Connecticut. When students are freshmen, I tell the parents to maximize grades and activities.  When students are sophomores, maximize grades and develop depth in an activity. The best advice for most high school juniors applying to competitive colleges: maximize […]

As Connecticut high school seniors receive their Early Decision and Early Action results, many have been deferred (or rejected) and are scrambling to finish applications from other schools. The Learning Consultants can help.  While the essays are ultimately the creation of the student, our experience working with thousands of students applying to college can make […]

For all the noise and perhaps wishful thinking regarding SAT scores not being super important for most every elite college, take a look at Early Action and Early Decision results from your local Connecticut high school.  The Ivy League universities are releasing their decisions now.  Some already have and some will be soon. Since we work […]

Yes, I know, it shouldn’t be so but it is… as Connecticut high school juniors get their PSAT results back, they can’t help but hear about the success of some of their classmates.  “I heard Katie scored 1350” and so forth. Parents and educators are often quick to counter that the student who scored a […]

The PSATs are both a very important number and a meaningless one, for all but top scorers. The importance: The PSATs provide a baseline score to give a sense of one’s potential SAT score.  Anything connected to the SAT is connected to college.  Anything connected to a big life change like college is a big […]

The PSATs are back. Connecticut high school juniors will suddenly note that “it’s getting real.”  Parents feel the same way. In working with students in the CT shoreline through the last two decades, I’ve noticed some common themes when the PSATs come back: Some parents and students will note the importance and significance of both […]

The Connecticut Shoreline is an idyllic community.  Having lived in or outside New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, I have some perspective on the greatness of growing up in the Connecticut suburbs.  Other than the ubiquitously rampant legitimately horrible mean girl bullying that goes on, most of the problems for most of the kids growing […]

If your child attends one of the stronger schools in the area – Guilford High School, Daniel Hand in Madison, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, East Lyme, among others that come to mind – I regret to report that I meet with an abundance of students from these and other top Connecticut high schools that have […]

Talking to one’s children about college is stressful. Whenever I give talks in our Connecticut offices about the subject, heads nod when I say that line. Parents don’t walk to talk about the subject because thoughts of their baby leaving the nest are sad. Children don’t want to talk about college because they know the […]

Parents, at least in our suburban Connecticut college counseling base, are often stuck in a paradox regarding their children and college costs. College costs are out of control and there is rarely any other large investment that can be made to help their children transition from high school to college. Let’s start with the first […]