Applying
One More Stab at the Race to Nowhere
Earlier this week I shared some thoughtful comments from Alice Kleeman, a high school counselor in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Kris Hintz, an independent college counselor in New Jersey, who were responding to a post that I wrote on the higher-ed documentary Race to Nowhere. Here is the post that contains Kris and […]
27Jan2011 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | Continued
Phooey: Race To Nowhere
Last month I wrote a blog post about the movie Race to Nowhere that’s being shown at high schools across the country. I pretty much trashed the movie – here is the post: Race to Nowhere Skeptic If you want to get an idea of why I’d like to hurl some overripe tomatoes at a […]
25Jan2011 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 2 comments | Continued
The Dirty Little Secrets of College Admissions
Today I want to share a piece, which originally ran in the Washington Post, that was written by Dean P. Skarlis, who is president of The College Advisor of New York in Albany. I liked what Skarlis had to say so much about today’s college admission climate that I asked if I could share it […]
29Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 4 comments | Continued
A Race to Nowhere Skeptic
Race to Nowhere, a documentary about the stress that college-bound teenagers experience, has gotten a lot of attention. I first heard about Race to Nowhere a couple of weeks ago after I gave a college presentation to a group of financial advisers and their clients in Irvine, CA. An adviser, who raved about the film, […]
18Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 2 comments | Continued
The Skinny on College Recommendation Letters
I wrote this post a year ago when my son was asking for college recommendations. He’s in college now, but I thought parents and teenagers could benefit from what I wrote in 2009. This is the time of year when high school counselors and teachers are flooded with requests to write college recommendation letters. Writing […]
15Dec2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 3 comments | Continued
8 Things High School Seniors Need To Be Doing Now
For high school seniors, it’s crunch time. Deadlines for college applications are looming, so it’s time to get focused. Here are 8 things seniors need to be doing now. 1. Meet college reps. This is the time of year when admission officers are racking up frequent flyer miles as they meet with prospective students throughout […]
6Oct2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 1 comment | ContinuedCommon Data Set 101
The Common Data Set can be a great tool for researching colleges and universities. You can learn what a Common Data Set is by reading the post that I wrote yesterday: Researching Colleges With the Common Data Set Today I’m going to explore how you can use the Common Data Set to gain insights into […]
2Sep2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 0 comments | ContinuedNo. 1 Tip for Writing a Great Admission Essay
Hey, how about starting your college admission essay today? Are any parents out there already bugging their soon-to-be high school seniors to start writing their college admission essay? I realize this is going to be a hard sell with teenagers, but summer is the perfect time to write the admission essay. So here’s my No. […]
14Jun2010 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 1 comment | Continued
Don’t Write Like a College Professor
Do you write like a college professor? If you do, rid yourself of the habit. College graduates who write like their college professors could find their job search even harder. The business world favors employees who can write simple, declarative sentences. In contrast, college professors are masters at obfuscation. They write stilted prose. They embrace […]
11Nov2009 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 3 comments | ContinuedWriting a Winning College Essay
The seniors at my son’s high school are in a panic. They can’t procrastinate any longer. They have to write their dreaded college essay. A lot of college essays fail because students are so afraid of messing up. It’s hard for teenagers to be genuine when they worry about alienating admission officers. I had the […]
9Oct2009 | Lynn O’Shaughnessy | 2 comments | Continued
