Estrela Consulting Blog

It’s August 1st, which means the start of application season for rising seniors! The Common App is an online application used by almost 900 colleges and universities across the country and allows students to apply to multiple schools using one platform.  Ready to get started? Check out our tips for making the process a little bit easier:

For those of us living in the northern half of the U.S., the weather makes summer feel like a LONG way off. But, in reality, it’s already April and school will be out before we know it. Summer is a great time for outdoor BBQs, swimming with friends, and catching up on some ZZZ’s after a busy end of the year. It is also the perfect time to work on your college planning process!

Starting anything new is hard – the first day of a new school year, a new class, getting in shape.  We tend to put these things off, and they linger and linger. Add to that the pressure of wanting it to be “perfect” (which nothing is!), and sitting down to write the common app essay for your college applications can seem pretty daunting!  

In 2015 the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) released their State of College Admission Report. The result of their survey revealed that colleges ranked the application essay as the 5th most-important factor in the admission process. The only items ranking higher in importance were grades, GPA, curriculum and test scores. Recommendations, extracurricular activities, ...

Eliot Sloan, Essay Specialist on our college planning team, is currently developing an anthology of essays by family members of white-collar criminals. Her own memoir was featured in The New York Times "What We're Reading" section this week!