Pandemic or no pandemic, researching colleges is an imperative for high school students. Typically, it involves many modes of research, including in-person campus visits and ours by students and families, and attending college representatives’ public information sessions and their visits to high schools. Gathering up all this information guides a student towards their short list of colleges, ranked in order of preference. Now, in the age of COVID, everything about college research has changed and teens must focus their efforts on online resources, the college website being the primary focus of that research. Fortunately, colleges have been enriching their websites and can provide stude...

There have been so many challenges and disruptions to our everyday lives since the COVID pandemic started its deadly march across the world – in-home quarantine, required social distancing, no visits with friends or distant family, no travel. and even a shortage of toilet paper. This article addresses the special circumstances for students who are engaged in their high school academics and extracurricular activities, college-bound juniors and seniors in particular. For this group of young people, it’s important to remain optimistic that the crisis will, in fact, bring about a sea change in the world of college admissions, leading to changes for the better in a system that for man...

In a March 2020 education paper printed in the Harvard Business Review, Vijay Govindarajan and Anup Srivastava, both renowned international business professors, stated the following: “Tectonic shifts in society and business occur when unexpected events force widespread experimentation around a new idea.” The Covid19 pandemic represents such a tectonic shift and has deeply impacted education from kindergarten to the highest levels of higher education. We are having to experiment with alternate ways of learning, we are questioning traditional teaching methods, and we are taking on the processes by which education is delivered. So, assuming that your fall semester will be either 100...

NBC News - How hiring a private 'college navigator' helps our family survive the high school years

By Jan Kerchner, MBA CEO,
The College Blueprint, LLC

The Ivy League - In reality, the term began as a way to name a football league. Yes, that’s right. It was a football league composed of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth and Brown. These are some of the oldest and most competitive colleges in the United States, but let’s not lose sight of the other amazing colleges that are not included in this “league”, such as Stanford, Berkeley, William and Mary, and Vanderbilt, to name just a few.

Although many of us wish there was, there is no formula to gaining admission to the Ivy League or other very competitive colleges. The key to admission is to fi...

GPA is the most important factor in the college admissions process. One way to improve your grades is to know your preferred learning style. Each learning style has specific strategies which can be helpful to assist you in learning material. Take a look below and see if you can figure out YOUR learning style. Once you have done so, we encourage you to utilize some of these strategies while studying for your classes.

Visual Learning Style

Visual Language

These students learn language skills by sight, mainly by reading and watching. They tend to be fast thinkers, to gesture freely while talking, and to communicate very clearly and concisely. They learn well from demonstration process – they...

Several times each month we will be sending short informative articles addressing college planning topics. Our hope is that you will find them to be a quick way to stay current on timely admissions information. Feel free to pass them on to friends and family members. Additionally, if you have topics you would like to see us include in future issues of Expert Insights, please let us know. We would love to hear from you!

Summer Experiences & Programs

During the summer months, there are countless interesting and unique opportunities to pursue as a high school student. Going to the beach, hanging out with friends and sleeping-in are an appealing part of summer. But make sure you balance your free ...