One of the biggest mistakes students make is assuming the first few drafts are supposed to sound impressive.

They are not.

Early drafts exist to help you think. The strongest essays emerge slowly, usually after several rounds of reflection, restructuring, and realizing your first interpretation was not actually the interesting one.

That is normal.

Here is what the process actually looks like.

Draft 1: Get Something Ugly on the Page

Draft 1 has one job: exist.

Do not worry about sounding smart. Do not worry about structure. Do not worry about whether the essay is 鈥済ood.鈥�

Just get the story out.

Many students write best when they stop trying to write like an applicant and start talking like a human being. Use voice-to-text. Set a timer. Stream-of-consciousness it. Tell the story the way you would tell it to a friend in the car.

Your first draft will probably be:

• too long
• too literal
• and too focused on what happened

Good.

That means you have raw material to work with.

Draft 2: Fix the Structure

Now step back and ask:

• Does this essay actually flow?
• Does each paragraph build on the one before it?
• Does the ending feel earned?

Most students skip this step and immediately start polishing sentences. Big mistake.

Fix the architecture first. Pretty writing cannot save a structurally confused essay.

Drafts 3 Through 7: Push Your Thinking

This is the real work.

Stop asking:

鈥淲hat happened?鈥�

Start asking:

鈥淲hy did this actually matter?鈥� “What did I learn?” “How am I different as a result?”

This is where second-order insight starts to emerge.

What assumption did the experience challenge?
What did you realize that surprised you?
What did you misunderstand at first?
What uncomfortable truth did you discover?

The strongest essays usually become messier during this phase, not cleaner. That is a good sign. It means your thinking is evolving.

And this kind of insight rarely arrives while staring at your laptop.

It shows up:

• driving home
• lying awake at night
• replaying conversations in your head
• talking with someone who asks the question you had not considered

This is why exceptional essays take time.

Not because writing is hard.

Because thinking deeply is hard.

Draft 8: Build the Opening and Closing

Once the insight is clear, now you can focus on impact.

Your opening should pull the reader into a moment, not summarize your story.

Your conclusion should leave the admissions officer with a feeling, an insight, or an “aha,” not a recap.

And, please, please avoid a summary statement:

鈥淚n conclusion, this experience taught me鈥︹��

Please no.

The best endings feel forward-looking. Reflective. Earned.

Drafts 9 Through 15: Precision

This is where polish finally matters.

Now you tighten:

• word choice
• sentence rhythm
• clarity
• voice
• word count

Every sentence should earn its place. Every word should have meaning.

This is also the stage where grammar enters the conversation. Not before.

In our work with students applying to Ivy League and similarly selective colleges, it is completely normal to go through 15 or more drafts before the essay reaches its full potential.

That is not a reflection of weak writing ability.

It is a reflection of serious thinking.

And ultimately, that is what elite colleges are looking for in successful applicants.

Stef Mauler

Founder, 黑料大事

Elite College Essays Part I: You Are Asking the Wrong Question

Elite College Essays Part 2: Why You Can鈥檛 Write a Winning Essay in a Day

Elite College Essays Part 3: Second Order Insight

The post Elite College Essays Part 4: Your Essay Roadmap appeared first on 黑料大事.

It is not.

Admissions officers at highly selective colleges have read hundreds of thousands of essays. They have seen sports injuries, mission trips, grandparents, debate tournaments, research projects, and cultural identity stories thousands of times before.

There are no new topics left.

What separates memorable essays from forgettable ones is not the experience itself. It is the quality of insight behind it.

Most students stop at what I call the first-order insight. The obvious takeaway. The lesson that thousands of other applicants are also writing.

鈥淚 learned perseverance.鈥�
鈥淚 learned gratitude.鈥�
鈥淚 learned the importance of teamwork.鈥�
鈥淚 learned never to give up.鈥�

These insights are not wrong.听They are just predictable.

The Soccer Essay Problem

Let鈥檚 say your soccer team is playing in the state championship for the first time in 30 years.

There are three minutes left. Your team is down by one goal. Then your captain and star scorer twists his ankle and is out of the game.

The team looks defeated.

Then, with 1:30 left, your right-forward scores on a breakaway. YAY! Overtime. Penalty kicks. The least memorable player on your team steps up. You bow your head, afraid to watch. The crowd goes wild. you look up to see he has just scored the winning goal.

STATE CHAMPIONS!

What is the obvious essay takeaway?

Probably something like:

• Teamwork makes the dream work
• Persistence pays off
• Never give up

That is first-order insight, the insight that anyone in the situation would have.

The second-order insight sits underneath the obvious lesson. It is the insight that only you take away.

Maybe the real realization was that your team only discovered new leadership once everyone stopped relying on a single star player.

Maybe it changed the way you think about hierarchy and hidden talent. Maybe you realized how often people become invisible when someone else dominates the spotlight.

Or maybe the uncomfortable realization was about yourself. When your captain went down, part of you mentally accepted defeat, too. The essay becomes about how fragile confidence can be when it depends entirely on one person.

Now the essay is no longer about soccer.

Now it is about how you think or how you have grown.

That is what admissions officers remember. Because if you can make them change their thinking or have an “aha” moment, they know you will be able to push your future classmates to do the same.

That is why two students can write about the exact same experience and have vastly different outcomes in the admissions process.

And that’s why the essay topic doesn’t really matter.

It’s the insight that matters.

Insight gets the acceptance letter.

Stef Mauler

Founder, 黑料大事

Elite College Essays Part I: You Are Asking the Wrong Question

Elite College Essays Part 2: Why You Can鈥檛 Write a Winning Essay in a Day

Elite College Essays Part 4: Your Essay Roadmap

The post Elite College Essays Part 3: Second Order Insight appeared first on 黑料大事.

It’s time to write your college essay. If you are like most high school students, even the ones who love to write, you will likely dread the idea of writing your college essay. It’s got to be personal and vulnerable and unlike anything you have been taught to write before. And, you probably think that, unless you have suffered an awful tragedy or saved a small village, there’s nothing special about you.

鈥淲rite your personal statement in three hours.鈥澨�

鈥淥ne session, polished draft, done.鈥�

“Failure-proof essay exercise. Fifteen questions to get to your college essay.”

Honestly? That sounds amazing.

You are busy. You are exhausted. You have supplemental essays, AP classes, applications, sports, activities, and somewhere in there, you are also supposed to 鈥渄iscover your authentic voice鈥� in 650 words.

But here is the problem.

You can write a competent college essay in a few hours.

You cannot write an exceptional one.

Not because the writing takes that long. Because the thinking does.

Since starting 黑料大事 in 2010, I have worked with thousands of students who have gained admission to the most selective colleges in the USA. I have worked with brilliant writers and mediocre writers. I have never had a student finish a successful college application essay in a day.

Here’s why: The best college essays are not written. They are discovered.

The Role of the College Essay

Most students think the essay is about storytelling.

It is not.

Your transcript already tells admissions officers whether you can handle academic work. Your recommendation letters tell them how teachers perceive you. Your activities list tells them what you have done.

The essay serves a completely different purpose.听It shows admissions officers how you think.

And that matters because selective colleges are not simply building classes full of accomplished students. They are curating a class where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. They want to know how your future classmates will benefit from your participation in the class discussion, late-night conversations in the library, or on the bus to the away football game. They are looking for students who:

• ask interesting questions,
• challenge assumptions,
• notice nuance,
• and push conversations forward.

They want students who make other students think differently.

Your essay is your opportunity to demonstrate that you are one of those students.

Not through dramatic storytelling or impressive vocabulary. Through insight.

The Difference Between High School Thinking and College Thinking

Most students stop at what I call the first-order insight. The obvious lesson. The predictable takeaway.

鈥淚 learned perseverance.鈥�
鈥淚 learned gratitude.鈥�
鈥淚 learned not to give up.鈥�

Those insights are not wrong. They are simply surface-level. Thousands of students arrive at the exact same conclusion every year. Boring. Forgettable. Denied.

The essays that stand out go one layer deeper.听They arrive at what I call second-order insight.

Second-order insight happens when you begin questioning your assumptions, complicating your original interpretation, or noticing something unexpected beneath the surface of the experience.

That is college-level thinking.

It is the difference between simply describing what happened and demonstrating intellectual maturity.

And admissions officers notice the difference immediately.

Because if you can make an admissions officer think differently about something for even thirty seconds, they know you are capable of doing the same thing in a college classroom. Interesting. Memorable. Why

Insight Takes Time

Getting to that level of insight is difficult because your first interpretation of an experience is usually not your most interesting one.

The deeper realization often arrives later, as you continue to push your thinking about your essay:

• while driving to practice,
• while brushing your teeth,
• while replaying a conversation in your head hours afterward

Strong essays require reflection. Reflection cannot be rushed.

And often, getting there requires a thinking partner who knows how to push beyond your first answer. That’s what our writing coaches are trained to do.

Sometimes the breakthrough comes from a simple question:

• Why did that moment matter to you so much?
• What assumption were you making at the time?
• What surprised you about your own reaction?
• What if the opposite interpretation were true?

That process feels less like writing and more like intellectual excavation.

And this is exactly why truly exceptional college essays are rarely finished in a single sitting.

The writing may only take a few hours. The grammar check mere minutes.

The thinking takes much longer.

But, it’s the thinking that gets you admitted.

Stef Mauler

Founder, 黑料大事

Elite College Essays Part I: You Are Asking the Wrong Question

Elite College Essays Part 3: Second Order Insight

Elite College Essays Part 4: Your Essay Roadmap

The post Elite College Essays Part 2: Why You Can’t Write a Winning Essay in a Day appeared first on 黑料大事.

Every summer, high school seniors across the country sit down and ask themselves the same question:

听What should I write my college essay about?

It feels like the right place to start. It is not.

Most of you have been trained to think about essays as assignments. There is a prompt, a word count, and a deadline. You complete the task, polish it, submit it, and move on.

But elite college admissions essays do not work that way.

The better question is this:

What role should my essay play in my overall admissions strategy?

Those two questions may sound similar. They are fundamentally different.

The first treats the essay as a standalone deliverable. A topic to select and execute. And, the 鈥減erfect topic鈥� is often the least important part of the process.

The second recognizes the essay for what it actually is: a strategic component of a much larger admissions narrative.

If you treat your college essay like an isolated assignment, admissions will only see one small piece of your whole picture. They will miss learning about what makes you special and different and about the many valuable contributions you will bring to their community. And, you will miss getting an acceptance letter.

Your essay topic should be the last decision you make, not the first. Before you write a single sentence, you should understand:

• What story does the rest of your application already tell?
• What dimensions of yourself are currently missing?
• What do you want admissions officers to understand or feel when they finish reading your file?

Once those questions are answered, your essay topic usually selects itself. Now, it鈥檚 about how you treat the topic. That鈥檚 what distinguishes a competent college essay from one that gets you admitted.

Stef Mauler

Founder, 黑料大事

Elite College Essays Part 2: Why You Can鈥檛 Write a Winning Essay in a Day

Elite College Essays Part 3: Second Order Insight

Elite College Essays Part 4: Your Essay Roadmap

The post Elite College Essays Part I: You Are Asking the Wrong Question appeared first on 黑料大事.

Summer is just around the corner, and many high school students are preparing to head off to college campuses where they will take summer courses, dive into academic interests, and get a taste of college life.

If you’re one of them, congrats! Spending part of your summer in a pre-college program is a great way to meet new people, explore new ideas, and maybe even discover a future major. But beyond the coursework and campus vibes, these programs are a golden opportunity to move the needle on your college applications, if you know how to take advantage of your time on campus.

Here鈥檚 how to make the most of your summer program:

1. Get to Know Your Instructor

Instructors aren鈥檛 just teachers; they could become valuable mentors. Show up on time, ask thoughtful questions, participate actively, and visit office hours if they鈥檙e available. Building a real connection can lead to an invitation to collaborate on future research, a glowing recommendation letter, or even a personal call to admissions on your behalf.

2. Attend a Formal Info Session and Campus Tour

Even if you鈥檙e already on campus, signing up for an official admissions info session and tour matters. Why? Many colleges track 鈥渄emonstrated interest,鈥� which can boost your 鈥渓ikelihood to attend鈥� score, which can positively influence the admissions decisions should you decide to apply. It鈥檚 also a great opportunity to meet current students and find out what college life is like from the people who are living it year-round. So, register for an official campus visit, ask good questions, and pay attention to things you can鈥檛 tell from the school website or marketing materials.

3. Visit the Admissions Office and Meet Your Regional Rep

Most colleges assign admissions officers by region, so meeting the person who will likely read your application can make a lasting impression. Stop by the admissions office and introduce yourself. A quick, friendly chat could help you stand out when your application crosses their desk.

4. Explore the Local Area

Colleges aren鈥檛 just classrooms; they鈥檙e part of a bigger community. Spend some time checking out the local town or city. Can you see yourself living there for four years? Do you feel safe? How will you get home for the holidays? Try local coffee shops, parks, and bookstores. Take public transportation if it’s available. Identify where you will get groceries. Getting a feel for the area can help you decide if a school is the right fit beyond academics.

5. Tour Nearby Colleges

If you鈥檝e got some time before or after your program, squeeze in visits to other colleges in the area, even if you don鈥檛 think you want to apply. The more colleges you visit, the more you will be able to identify what you want in a college and what you don鈥檛. Touring the campus, grabbing lunch at the student center, or sitting in on an info session can help you figure out what you want in a school, and demonstrate interest if you end up applying there later.

A summer program is more than a resume booster; it鈥檚 a chance to explore your intellectual curiosities, make connections, and show colleges you’re serious about your future. So, make it count!

Stef Mauler

College Coach

The post 5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Summer Pre-College Program appeared first on 黑料大事.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court delivered its long-anticipated decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, in which it ruled that affirmative action in the college admissions process violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Colleges and universities will no longer be permitted to consider race in the admissions process.

What Does This Mean?

I have spent the last few months visiting with admissions officers at a variety of colleges, public and private, in anticipation of today鈥檚 Supreme Court ruling. While every admissions officer with whom I have spoken has communicated that their institution will follow the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision, I have not heard a single opinion that disagrees with Lawrence S. Bacow, President of Harvard University, who wrote to alumni, 鈥溾�o affirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences.鈥� Although historically rival institutions, on this decision, Yale and Harvard remain united; Yale President, Peter Salovey, upholds Yale鈥檚 belief that, 鈥淎 student body that is diverse across every dimension, including race, improves academic outcomes for all students, enhances the range of scholarship and teaching on campus, improves critical thinking, and advances the understanding and study of complex topics.鈥�

So, while the question of race may be removed from the college application, I do not personally believe that the decision process will be significantly altered. When I visited Tufts a few weeks ago, the admissions officer plainly stated that their team is not interested in rank ordering applicants by grades and test scores and filling their freshman spots with the top of the list. She explained that, once they know the student can thrive in their academic environment and has the ability to successfully graduate, they will turn their attention to the other ways students will contribute to the school鈥檚 community: talents, skills, curiosities, community impact, and personal experiences. In my opinion, these are influenced by a variety of factors, including geography, socio-economic status, gender identity, religious and political beliefs and, yes, ethnicity and race.

What will change?

Access: With a focus on 鈥渉igher quality鈥� students, meaning those with higher GPAs, tests scores and more competitive extra-curricular activities, colleges are more likely to admit a greater proportion of students who come from affluent families because they are the students who typically have access to better high schools, academic tutors, test prep partners, impressive internships, and costly extra-curricular opportunities. This growing chasm of access will be especially true of colleges and universities that practice 鈥渘eed-blind鈥� admissions decisions. Without knowledge of a student鈥檚 race or financial need, schools like Harvard and Yale are more likely to admit classes of homogeneous students, breaching the core educational philosophies and institutional values that Presidents Bacow and Salovey are committed to uphold for the benefit of all students, regardless of race or socio-economic status. For schools that practice 鈥渘eed-aware鈥� admissions decisions, the students who are not wealthy enough to pay the full sticker price of $300K across 4 years at a private college, but are also not poor enough to require full need, will likely be disproportionately disadvantaged as many admissions officers will begin to rely on financial need as a proxy for racial diversity. This 鈥渟quished in the middle鈥� scenario applies to the majority of students who are already feeling the burden of 鈥渢oo rich to be helped but not rich enough to feel no pain.鈥� Now, in addition to the financial burden of being squished will be the added challenge of the admissions squish.

Transparency: Without the ability to ask demographic questions in the application, transparency into the status of racial diversity will suffer. Although colleges may be able to ask and report demographic statistics after a student is admitted, they are prohibited from asking this question to applicants and therefore, will be unable to determine how effective DEI efforts are or whether or not to continue investing in them.

Applications: Although higher education is not typically known for its agility and ability to pivot in the face of changing environments, I do anticipate there will be a flurry of activity among admissions offices across the nation as they decide how to approach the 2023-2024 application season. With the removal of the race boxes from page one of the application, I expect we will see the addition or modification of supplemental short answer and essay questions that will attempt to uncover the diverse perspectives and experiences that colleges are still committed to embracing in their student body. And, coupled with the advent of ChatGPT, this may result in decreased reliance on college essays entirely. Instead, I predict we may see an increased importance of non-written submissions, such as timed video questions and interviews, where the admissions officer can see the applicant without the need to ask the student鈥檚 race and hear the student鈥檚 thoughts without interference from artificial intelligence that may 鈥渆nhance鈥� a student鈥檚 application.

How We Will Support Students?

At 黑料大事, we believe every student brings a rich set of experiences, talents and viewpoints that will inevitably add to the learning and growth of their future classmates and will enrich the elaborate tapestry of their future school communities. Simply put, nothing has changed in how we will approach the college application. We will continue to do what we have always done. We will find opportunities throughout the college application process to illuminate what makes each student unique, special, and different from every other talented student who is applying to their target schools and will communicate 鈥� emphatically — why any college would be lucky to have them join their incoming class and community for life.

Stef Mauler

President, 黑料大事

The post Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College appeared first on 黑料大事.

Being comfortable is not good. Life isn鈥檛 about being comfortable. To grow it is imperative that you choose to be uncomfortable. This is a realization that I wasn鈥檛 expecting as new opportunities arose this year. I hadn鈥檛 realized how comfortable I had become with the status quo.

This past month, I challenged myself to do something I was not comfortable doing鈥ancing. Specifically, salsa dancing.

I am the most rhythmically challenged Latina out there. I am certain my ancestors are weeping (or laughing). As I joined my friend at her salsa dance class, I had grave reservations. I signed up for six classes because if I did not, I knew I wouldn鈥檛 go a second time.

Needless to say, I was not good at the dances we were learning. Not even close to what would pass as dancing. What I did add to the class was an amount of levity that I am sure the instructor was not prepared for.

I have resigned myself to dancing never being one of my skills. Frankly, I had become rather comfortable in being 鈥榞ood鈥� at what I did do. I have been a teacher, ahem, for a long time. I have been an SAT coach for long enough that my clients have made consistent gains in their scores. Both these positions have become 鈥榗omfortable.鈥� I don鈥檛 want to say *whispers* 鈥榚asy鈥� because that isn鈥檛 true. Neither is easy, but I鈥檝e done them for so long that I had become complacent.

Comfort leads to complacency. Complacency leads to mediocrity. That鈥檚 not where I want to be, not where anyone should want to be.

I realized that I am okay with failing. I readily recognize that it is not easy to choose to fail, but I have learned more about myself and what I can accomplish by choosing to do so.

Failing isn鈥檛 about failure. Failing is about learning how to overcome. How to get back up and try again, even when the embarrassment as your 鈥榟ips don鈥檛 lie鈥� a la Shakira, show that salsa dancing was not going to be in my repertoire, not something I would brag about鈥�. ever.

I am not sure what my next failure will be, but I will push myself to try something new and challenging, even if I have to laugh at myself. It just might end up that what I thought I would fail at I end up excelling.

Rebecca Orona

College Coach and (Bad but Improving) Dancer

The post Choosing to Fail appeared first on 黑料大事.

I was the first in my family to attend university. My father was a migrant worker who joined the military to get out of poverty, and my mom was a teen mom who loved my dad for the almost fifty years they were together.

My father was a strong advocate for education as he saw it for what it was, a way to move up in the world. In elementary school, Satan was my first-grade teacher. She told my parents that I was 鈥渙mitted鈥� (a term we no longer use because it is offensive) because I struggled with reading. Unbeknownst to her, largely because she did not care, I had not attended kindergarten, so the skills my peers had, I had not been exposed to yet.

My father did not take kindly to what Satan had to say. From that day on, I had homework every day regardless of whether work had been assigned. In second grade, I had an angel for a teacher, Mrs. Pringle. My parents still have her picture in one of our many photo books. Through her, I learned to love to read. By the end of second grade, I had passed my peers in reading ability and was reading at the sixth-grade level.

This focus on studying and learning continued throughout high school. When I was told in high school that because I was Hispanic and female in a military town I would not graduate, I was astounded. Regardless of this counselor鈥檚 opinion, I still managed to graduate in the top 10% of my class. Largely because my parents expected my siblings and me to do well.

When I was accepted to The University of Texas at Austin and then, subsequently, realized that my family and I could not afford to attend. I resigned myself to following my father鈥檚 footsteps in joining the military. Until my mom received a call from a private, Christian university.

This call changed my entire family鈥檚 future.

As the first in my family to attend university, I did stumble in my undergraduate coursework. I changed majors and it took me five years to graduate. But I graduated. What my struggle did for my family is immeasurable. My parents learned the process of what was needed for my siblings to attend university.

To date, my three siblings and I have all earned advanced degrees. When I stopped my PhD coursework at the dissertation stage, my parents were appalled, but I no longer wanted to be a school administrator. They did not agree with my decision, but they recognized that education does not disappear because a degree was not completed.

Education for my family is about opportunity. My three siblings and I, the children of a migrant worker turned career military and a teen mom turned store manager, all have our master鈥檚 degrees. Statistically, at least one of us shouldn鈥檛 have earned a degree, but we learned early that education is what you make of it. What will you choose to do with your education? Opportunity is knocking.

Rebecca Orona

College Coach and Educational Opportunist

The post Education is Opportunity appeared first on 黑料大事.

After months of waiting, the time is finally here. Decision Day. With bated breath and butterflies flapping so strongly they threaten to fly away, we log into the University of Texas portal to learn about our admissions fate.

CAP?

What does that even mean?

As admissions to selective universities becomes increasingly competitive, universities look for opportunities to admit more amazing applicants than they can manage through traditional routes. For fall 2023, UT received a record 66,000 applications, of which nearly 12,000 were automatic admits. For applicants not automatically admitted, there will be about a 12% overall admission rate.

CAP students elect a satellite campus (UT Arlington, UTEP, etc.) to begin their education and, as long as they meet the requirements, move to Austin in second year to complete their degrees in the College of Liberal Arts.

While the CAP offer is a great option for many students, it is possible to appeal the decision and be reconsidered for direct entry. Here鈥檚 how to go about a CAP appeal:

1. Letter of Recommendation: Submit one letter of recommendation from a teacher, school official, or community member who can speak to the nature of the appeal, which should include compelling background. Since UT doesn鈥檛 require a letter of recommendation with the regular application, you should already have this letter done. You just need to make sure it is sent.
2. Updated Transcript: Hopefully, senioritis has not set in yet. Demonstrate your continued commitment to your academics by sending in your first semester transcript
3. Expanded Resume: If you didn鈥檛 submit UT鈥檚 expanded resume in your initial application, be sure to do it now.
4. Short Answer Essay: “Describe the new information (not already included in your original admissions application) that should be considered by the appeals committee, and why.” (500 words or fewer)

Here鈥檚 a suggested structure:

• Introduction
  • Introduce your name, high school
  • Indicate that you were disappointed by the decision to CAP but understand, given the strength of the applicant pool
  • Restate interest in UT as #1 choice
• Academics
  • Review of first semester grades (if strong)
  • Any areas of improvement?
  • Any new research projects or extra-curricular classes?听

• Testing
  • If you did not submit test scores, explain why test scores may not be indicative of academic potential (test anxiety, lack of professional test prep, etc.?)
  • If you were able to take test scores since you submitted your application, consider submitting them if they are in the middle 50%
• 听Extra-curricular Activities and Accomplishments
  • Any new activities, employment or internships?
  • Any new accomplishments with your current extra-curricular activities?
  • How are you impacting your community?
  • Any interesting plans for the summer that will be compelling?
• Why UT
  • Why do you want to study your specific major? Please reassess your major in terms of your high school transcript and popularity of the major you selected. 听If your chosen major is not consistent with strength in grades or is one of the most popular/difficult to gain admission to majors, reconsider your choice
  • How will you take advantage of the extra-curricular opportunities at UT? Be specific!听 Which clubs or activities or traditions will you participate in and how will they enhance your growth and development.听 I suggest you pick at least one that relates to your chosen course of study, one that continues an interest from high school and one that pushes you outside your comfort zone to try something new.
  • What have you done to prepare to be successful in this major? What appeals to you about the Academic opportunities at UT? Be specific!听 Which classes, professors, research opportunities, experiential learning, etc. will you take advantage of and how will these experiences help you achieve your goal (see elevator pitch/unique value proposition)听

• Conclusion
  • Reiterate your dream of becoming a Longhorn and why. If you have a family connection or personal experience at UT, say so.
  • Explain how you will contribute to UT鈥檚 community (what values or experiences will you bring with you)
  • Indicate your additional letter of reference will further elaborate on why you are a great fit for UT

听With the volume of applications, a CAP appeal is unlikely to be successful, but there is no downside. So, I say let鈥檚 give it a go!

Stef Mauler

The post UT Austin: Am I In? Am I Out? What is a CAP Anyway? appeared first on 黑料大事.

Choosing classes in high school can feel like a high-stakes game of Tetris. You’re trying to fit all the required courses into your schedule, while also trying to find time for extracurricular activities and maybe even a part-time job.听 And, if your school does arena scheduling, get prepared for the high school version of The Hunger Games, where a student’s future largely depends on quick reflexes and a steady internet connection and is often determined in six seconds flat.

It can be really tempting to take the easy route, one that is sprinkled with As and free weekends that allow sufficient time for all the other things that compete for time in a high schooler’s calendar. As an educator, I have seen many students take this route because 鈥榳hy not鈥�?

I get it. I understand why this is attractive to young people. Unfortunately, taking the easy route is detrimental to future success.

As I counsel seniors on their next steps after high school, we often consider their course load, and I am often astounded by the lack of rigor they have pursued their senior year. These are seniors who are college bound. They have taken English IV, government, and economics in the summer because, in their opinion, it is easier, and by the number of students taking this course of study I do believe they are correct. Their senior year is riddled with late arrival and early dismissal and one or two core classes. When I challenge them to take AP courses or at the very least dual credit courses, they laugh. 鈥淲hy would I want to do that? I want my senior year to be easy.鈥�

The road to success is not paved with 鈥榚asy鈥� bricks. How are students going to be ready to manage the rigor and self-control needed to be successful in university and in life? High school should be the training ground. As universities become more competitive, our students need to train harder. Yes. Train.

Students should take advantage of a full schedule of courses each semester. They should take classes that challenge them. Courses that make them uncomfortable. These classes will help them build their study and self-governing skills and stamina. In addition, a rigorous course of study enables them to practice critical thinking and problem-solving skills, both of which are life skills not just skills in education. Students鈥� ability to handle rigorous courses parlays into the real world.

Do not let your students be comfortable. Challenge them. Train them for what they will encounter both in university and in the workforce. Enable your child to manage the stresses that will come.

If education is not supplying rigorous, challenging curriculum, then when will they learn how to manage challenging situations? How will they manage being accountable for the effort when it really matters?

Challenge your child to take the 鈥榟ard鈥� course or the 鈥榟ard鈥� teacher. Students will find, 鈥淣othing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.鈥� 鈥� Booker T. Washington.

Rebecca Orona

College Coach and Very Hard Worker

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