Resources & Tips
CEA Blog
How to Write a College Essay Fast
There are myriad reasons why you might need to pen a college essay at lightning speed. You may have scribbled down the wrong deadline by mistake and then realized you had two days to submit—not seventeen! You may have fallen head over heels for a college that was barely on your radar after a marvelous […]
The Single-Choice/Restrictive Early Action Loophole You Need to Know About
So many students think that applying Single-Choice Early Action or Restrictive Early Action is basically the same as applying Early Decision—and they could not be more wrong!! Of course, you should always double check with your top-choice school’s website regarding their policies, since some schools like to do their own thing; but overall, Single-Choice and […]
How To Write Diversity Supplemental Essays When You Feel Like You Don’t Have a Story to Tell
The diversity-focused supplemental essay has been gaining traction on college applications for years. These prompts allow admissions to get a sense of a student’s background, culture, and values. They often provide meaningful context for a student’s resume, transcript, and other application materials. And, as of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, they serve […]
College Admissions Offices May Never Be Able to Use AI to Review College Essays
There’s a lot of talk surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and its use, or misuse, in college admissions offices across the country. In fact, some colleges have already started using AI to sort through the thousands of applications they received last season. We’ve heard from students and parents who are concerned that colleges using AI in […]
A Message From our Founder Re: Affirmative Action and The College Essay
Ever since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn affirmative action, students around the globe have been wondering how the decision will affect their chances of acceptance to American colleges and universities. Most critically, students of color have been grappling with how they can attempt to get a fair shake in an inherently biased admissions system […]
Six Medical School Secondary Essays You Can Start Writing Right Now! (And which ones you should wait on!)
Introduction Each year, we work with a select number of medical school applicants to help them draft strong, distinct personal statements and descriptions for the Work and Activity sections within their AMCAS applications, which are due at the end of May. They inevitably ask us, in the days after submitting, “This is when we get […]
Test Optional: What it Means for Your College Applications
In the wake of the pandemic, a lot of schools became test-optional, since many students weren’t able to take the SATs or ACTs due to COVID-19 shutdowns and other safety measures. Even after schools brought testing back and adjusted to new protocols, many schools continued to keep their test-optional policies in place, in part to […]
Early Decision and Early Action Deadline Organizer 2023-24
Early Action and Early Decision deadlines will be here before you know it. If you have one school in mind that is your ride-or-die, you should definitely consider applying Early Decision to put yourself toward the front of the pack. Many schools tend to accept a higher percentage of both Early Decision and Early Action applicants than […]
Ivy League Tuition and Fees 2023-24
There are so many things to consider when choosing which colleges and universities to apply to, including, but not limited to: location, distance from home, alumni network, graduation rate, degree requirements, study abroad and research opportunities, internships, coursework, specialized programs, school size, professor to student ratio, campus vibe and (drumroll, please!) cost. This is what […]
Test-Optional, Test-Flexible, Test-Blind: What’s the Difference?!
Starting in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the world as we knew it, many colleges and universities waived test score submission requirements for first-year applicants. In the years that followed, most schools continued with this trend; however, different terms started popping up to clarify the ways in which admissions would (or would not) consider […]
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