Estrela Consulting Blog

Hooray! You did it! Take a moment to celebrate this significant milestone on your college journey. You should be incredibly proud of the work you've put in up to this point, and we hope you feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Let’s be honest: most people don’t love being interviewed. Nevertheless, when given the chance to interview with a prospective college, we encourage most students to go for it! Interestingly, only a handful of schools explicitly require interviewing as part of the admissions process. However, many colleges do offer interviews as optional opportunities for student applicants. PRO TIP: You can ...

College visits can get expensive quickly. Between gas, airfare, hotels, meals, and time away from work and school, families can spend hundreds—or even thousands—of dollars visiting colleges during the search process.

*UPDATED September 2026! Are you looking for additional money for college? While many colleges offer automatic scholarship consideration based on your application for admission, many also have scholarships with additional application requirements and/or deadlines that vary from the published application plans. As if the college search and application process isn't complicated enough, the ease of ...

The standardized testing landscape continues to evolve, leaving many students and parents wondering: Do I still need to take the SAT or ACT? Should I apply test-optional? Which test is better? When should I start?