Blog – College Dollars and Sense

Controlling the Conversation with Your Additional Information Section

Distinctive College Consulting
Activities
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By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Sometimes, what’s left unsaid means more than what’s spelled out. Think about how your mom or dad might prepare your favorite meal after a stressful day and let you…

The Neurodiversity Perspective

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. This one’s personal for me. While I’ve never hidden my own neurodiversity, I’ve also never before addressed it in a public forum like this one. But part of my neurodiversity…

A Beautiful (Organized) Mind

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Adrian Cho, Ph.D. “All the noise in my brain. I clamp it to the page so it will be still.” –Barbara Kingsolver When I was in high school, I didn’t keep any notes. In my youthful arrogance…

Five Ways to Elevate Your Application Essays

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. As the first wave of college application deadlines looms, high school seniors around the country are starting to feel the pressure. With so many supplemental essays to keep track…

Goodbye Legacy Admissions? The Slow March Towards Change

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Adrian Cho, Ph.D. On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court overturned Affirmative Action in two joint opinions in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, and SFFA…

Killing Your Darlings

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and…

Four Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block as You Start Writing Your Admissions Essays

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. In many ways, July is the peak month of summer break: removed enough from spring semester to have fully broken out of your school year routines and still far enough away that you’re…

The 10 Commandments of Being Online

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
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By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. I have seen it all – alcohol, curse words, even boobs. This is just a sampling of what has turned up on spur-of-the-moment requests to see my students’ social media…

What Really Matters Most to Colleges

Distinctive College Consulting
Admissions
662 views

By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Several years ago, the mom of one of my students expressed her frustration that no one before me told her that her son’s transcript was going to be the most important…

It’s a Cruel Summer… Or Is It?

Distinctive College Consulting
Activities
435 views

By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Child of a single working mom, Daniel has just moved from New Jersey to California where he lives in the only ramshackle apartment complex in Reseda that his mother can afford…