College Planning Blog with Expert Admissions Advice
The Perfect College Search Timeline: What to Do in Sophomore and Junior Year
For many families, the college search feels like it sneaks up overnight. One minute your student is adjusting to high school, and the next you’re...
5 Proven Strategies to Boost Your ACT Score Before Senior Year
Students who retake the ACT without preparation only score higher 57% of the time, and when they do improve, the average gain is just 1.5 points....
How Higher ACT Scores Can Save You Thousands
According to a recent article, 12.4 percent of students with an ACT score of 21 or higher win private scholarships. That's compared with just 7.7...
How do I find the right colleges, and where do we start?
Simple Solutions to Important Questions The college search can be daunting, with an overwheling array of options and no clear start line. The...
How do college applications work?
Here's a condensed version of episode 23 on the Tom Talks College podcast with the graphic I referenced. Hey, Juniors This is the first in a series...
Pacific Northwest Expedition (or How I Traded My Credit Card Miles for Campus Visits)
Here's a condensed version of episode 21 on the Tom Talks College podcast with some slick visuals referenced on said podcast. Itinerary We just...
Estimating College Costs with Net Price Calculators
This is part 3 of a 3-part series on College + Money, and you can learn more about this topic as well as parts 1 and 2 referenced below on the Tom...
Merit Aid: Your Teen’s Best Part-Time Job
This is part 2 of a 3-part series on College + Money, and you can learn more about this topic and also hear last week’s “College Costs Simplified”...
College Costs Simplified: The 15/35/45 Rule
Comparing costs at different colleges is often more complex than it needs to be, partly due to a lack of consistency from one college website to...