Author: Alex Thaler

Fzzzztt! Sparks are flying out of my computer like it’s the Fourth of July and after a few seconds the plastic around the keyboard begins to transform into a molten soup of graphite-colored pudding. I work with high school seniors and counselors. As my laptop spirals down into an epic – and literal – meltdown, I can’t help but wonder what this sort of catastrophe would have meant for the college applicants of the past (i.e. before the year 2000). It would have been horrendous. Fortunately, the advent of cloud-based apps has solved the fried-laptop problem, as well as the ...

The Common Application recently announced some important changes for the upcoming admissions season based on feedback from students and nearly 600 member colleges. Although the new Common App won’t “go live” until Aug. 1, these changes have important implications for students getting a head start on their college application essays. Here are the updates: 1. Revised essay prompts Minor changes have been made to essays No. 1 and No. 2. There are no changes in No. 3 and No. 5. The No. 4 essay, however, has been completely revamped. Here’s a comparison. The changed language is in italics. No. 1: ...