PSAT Scores Have Been Released: What Next?
How can you use your 10th or 11th grade student’s PSAT score to make a test prep plan? Read this...
The Vine
A blog where Ivy Experience disentangles college admissions.Ivy Experience’s Fall 2024 Webinar Schedule
We are excited to announce our full schedule of webinars this spring! See below for topics, dates, and registration links....
Big Changes to the ACT Coming Spring 2025
ACT has dropped a bombshell announcement of three major changes to the test coming to the National test dates in...
5 Questions with Lech Harris
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview Lech Harris, one of our College Admissions Specialists! What...
5 Questions with Kevin Trudel
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview Kevin Trudel, one of our College Admissions Specialists! What...
5 Questions with Jordan Holmes
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview Jordan Holmes, our Assistant Director of College Admissions! What...
5 Questions with Alyssa Coltrain
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview Alyssa Coltrain, our Director of College Admissions. What is...
How to Brainstorm Your Personal Statement
The most important work on college application essays comes before you write the very first word of your very first...
Writing the Identity Essay
In the summer of 2023, the United States Supreme Court determined that the admissions programs used by the University of...
Why Rankings Matter Less than You Think
Every year, the US News and World Report publishes its rankings of the top National and Liberal Arts universities in...
Building Good Study Habits
“I have this huge test I have to study for.” This is an email or text message that we get...
Financial Aid 101: The Basics Every Family Should Know
This year, the Department of Education has been working out issues with the new version of the Free Application for...
AP, IB, and Dual Enrollment Courses: What’s the Difference?
When we speak to students about the five factors under your control, one of the most important factors is grades...
How to Contact Admissions
No matter where you are in the college process, you will eventually want to reach out to someone on a...
Ivy Experience’s Spring Webinar Schedule
We are excited to announce our full schedule of webinars this spring! See below for topics, dates, and registration links....
Applying as an Out-of-State Applicant
As decisions begin to roll out from some colleges around the country, it’s important to remember that some institutions were...
SAT/ACT Accommodations
We have always preached that knowing how to navigate the college preparation process is essential to saving families time, energy,...
Why Diagnostic Testing Makes All the Difference: A Story
Let us you tell you a story… The following is a personal reflection by Ivy Experience co-founder Eric Karlan. Growing...
Building Rapport with an Admissions Officer
At the other end of your application is an admissions officer—another human being tasked with getting to know you in...
Who are Admissions Officers?
Who are admissions officers? Gatekeeper? Resources? Representatives? At the core of it, admissions officers are people—human beings who have preferences...
How Colleges Evaluate Activities
How you spend your time outside of class is very important to colleges. Spending time doing what you love is...
College Admissions is Not a Race
The college admissions process can seem like a race to the top. High school students seem to be thrown into...
Statistics that May Surprise You
Applying to college can be full of surprises, including some statistics about the process. Below we share some of the...
Introduction to the University of California system
With ten campuses and a study body of nearly 300,000, the University of California (UC) system is an attractive option...
College Transition Tips
It is a great feeling once your essays and applications; you’ve heard back from colleges, and are finally able to...
Finding Support Systems in College
When students are looking for what they want in college, they think about academic opportunities, location, school spirit, and so...
All About Applying by Major
Many colleges and universities ask applicants to choose their course of study, or major, in their applications. Not all students...
What Is a Personal Statement?
Writing a personal statement can be a difficult task for students. Used to writing analytical essays for their classes, students...
Why Choose Ivy Experience?
Ivy Experience works with students at every phase of their high school journey and college preparation process. We work closely...
Our Favorite Personal Statements
Writing a personal statement is ultimately personal. However, just like admissions officers, each of our essay coaches has their own...
How Do You Choose a College?
For many students, the month of April can be both exciting and scary. They have heard back from all of...
The Best Time to Write College Essays
We are going to be honest with you: there is no good time to write college essays. There are only...
What to Do about a Waitlist
So, your application has been waitlisted. Now what? A waitlist decision is never what you were hoping for and can...
5 Questions with Jim Wismer
Get to know our test prep team! We sat down to interview our Director, Jim Wismer! What were you looking...
5 Questions with Teddy Allor
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview Teddy Allor, one of our College Admissions Specialists. What...
College Visit FAQs
In the coming weeks and months, high school juniors and their families will take advantage of vacations and long weekends...
5 Questions with H. Ulrich
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview H. Ulrich, one of our College Admissions Specialists. What...
5 Questions with Eric Karlan
Get to know our essay coaches! We sat down to interview Eric Karlan, one of our co-founders. What changes to...
Making the Most Out of Summer Activities
Making the Most Out of Summer Activities Summers are a time for students to relax and rejuvenate––and after a challenging...
Why Your Student Should “Fall In Love” With Their Likely Schools
While it is common to hear a student rhapsodize over a reach school, it is unusual to hear much enthusiasm...
Finding Balance: Thoughts on How to Select Classes for High School Students
Once upon a time… We had a student who was deciding whether or not to take AP Chemistry. To advise...
An Honest Conversation About Grades
Let’s be honest. There’s a lot that goes into college applications: grades, test scores, recommendations, activities, and essays. It can...
How to Prepare for a College Interview
The college admissions process can be overwhelming. Beyond applications, essays, and standardized tests, some schools also require college interviews. So...
My College Application Essays VS ChatGPT
Much has already been said about ChatGPT. The Atlantic declared “The College Essay Is Dead”—but they are referring to...
What To Do After Submitting Your College Applications
Congratulations! You are done submitting all of your college applications. But don’t be tempted to sit back and wait for...
All about Deferrals
Getting deferred from your Early Decision or Early Action school is never the decision you were hoping for. But it...
The Five Things in Your Control
There are seemingly innumerable factors that go into every decision, whether it is an acceptance, deferral, waitlist, or rejection. Many...
Ivy’s Recommendation Letter Primer
We often say that there are very few things under your control in the admissions process: your grades, your activities,...
5 Questions with David Pauls
Get to know our test prep team! We sat down to interview David Pauls, our Curriculum Development Specialist. What is...
5 Questions with Torie Berke
Get to know our test prep team! We sat down to interview Torie Berke, our Coordinator of Tutoring! What was...
Six Advantages of Liberal Arts Colleges
Often our students aren’t excited about the idea of liberal arts colleges, believing them to be too small, expensive, or...
6 Types of College Application Deadlines
What’s the difference between early action and early decision? What about single-choice early action? How do I choose? The way...
Everything You Need to Know about the Digital SAT
College Board announced in January that the SAT is going digital. Starting for U.S. students in the spring of 2024,...
SAT Announces New Digital Format Starting in 2024
The College Board has announced this morning that they are launching a computer-based version of the SAT starting in March...
College Essays about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In recent years, many colleges and universities have expanded their supplemental college essay prompts to include topics about diversity, equity,...
Test-Optional Policies: What Juniors Need to Know
With the spread of “test-optional” policies nationwide, the term itself has become broadly used and widely misinterpreted. In this post,...
How to Show Demonstrated Interest
Beyond essays, applications, grades, and activities, what more can your student do to strengthen their application at their dream school? ...
Finding the Right Scholarships for You
When thinking about how to pay for college, many families immediately turn to student loans. But there are thousands of...
Paying for College: Maximizing Merit Aid
Your student has worked hard all through high school, and now it’s time to apply to college. Hopefully, their grades...
What is Superscoring?
As you research a college and its application process, you may find a passage that defines the school’s score choice...
What to Do Before the SAT or ACT
We get it: the ACT and SAT can be terrifying tests. Students spend days, weeks, and months preparing for them....
The College List: Aiming for Appropriate Target Schools
As students build their college lists, they may have a balance of likely, target, and reach schools. Likely schools are...
The College List: An Honest Conversation About Reach Schools
We see the headlines every year: Student gets into _____ of the eight Ivy League schools to which they applied....
All About Applying Undecided
I have no idea. That is not an uncommon answer when we ask students what they want to study in...
What Is the Experimental Section?
You made your way through four hours of standardized testing, whether the SAT or ACT. Maybe you are reviewing your...
College Search, Applications, and Essays Outline: Grades 9-12
Ideally, students complete the bulk of their college applications during the summer after 11th grade. But when it comes to...
Academics Outline: Grades 9-12
What courses should my student take? What year of high school is the most important in their college application? There’s...
Activities Outline: Grades 9-12
Extracurricular activities are perhaps the most fun part of high school and college applications—they are an opportunity to unearth curiosity,...
Standardized Testing Outline: Grades 9-12
Below is a concise guide to testing for each year of high school, along with some basic advice for each...
New Year’s Resolutions for High School Students
While students might feel like they are returning to the same old grind after a fun and relaxing break, January...
How to Research Colleges Beyond Virtual Tours
Look Within Our advice is to look within when beginning your college search. Remember that you are not just looking...
Summer Activities in the Age of COVID
Summer programs, trips, camps, jobs, internships, research, and more are likely to be canceled or moved online. Some are still...
How To Create A Stellar College List
Building a college list can be daunting – and oftentimes the most intimidating part is just figuring out where to...
Making the Most of Virtual School
With most students in a virtual or hybrid school model for at least the start of this school year, we...
How Does Online Tutoring Work?
Though we have worked in person with families in the Philadelphia and San Diego areas, many of our families only...
An Updated Guide to Virtual College Tours
Where to start Without the option to visit colleges in-person, virtual tours and online content can provide a bridge and...
Test-Optional Policies: What Do They Mean?
Before COVID-19, there were already more than 1,000 colleges and universities that were test-optional. But with so many institutions changing...
Recommendations & Application FAQs
With continuing uncertainty about when (and if) schools will resume this spring, we recognize that juniors and families will have questions...
How to Take Advantage of Unexpected Time Off
With many students getting time off from school due to the spread of coronavirus, we thought we should share some...
My College Visits Got Canceled – Now What?
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, many colleges have made the decision to shut down their campuses for the remainder...
Popular Schools With Why College Essays
American University Why are you interested in American University? 150 words Bard College Why Bard? 250 words Barnard College What...
How the High School Experience Can Make Your Student a Better Person (and a Better Applicant!)
Begin with what you love. We often talk about activity advising in terms of the Japanese concept of ikigai. The...
How to Turn College Visits into Why College Essays
We all know campus visits are an important part of applying to college – they can give students and families...
Midterms Study Tips
It’s midterm season (or finals, depending on how your school structures things). The new year means that many students are...
ACT Online Testing, Section Retesting, and Superscore Reporting
ACT announced three new policy changes today. Below is a summary of the changes, effective starting September 2020. ACT Online...
The Ivy Experience College Application Essay Prompt Database 2019-2020
While most students will have to write a personal statement for the Common App or Coalition, many universities change their...
Information for Athletic Recruits
Guest post by Matthew Gnall The Athletic Advantage Forced to transparency by the SFFA lawsuit, Harvard revealed in a report...
List of Our Students’ College Acceptances 2019
Allgeheny American Amherst Arizona State University Auburn Babson Bard Barnard Baylor Belmont Bloomsburg Boston College Boston University Bowdoin Brandeis Brown...
Test Anxiety Conversation
Listen to Ivy Experience Director Jim Wismer and Academic Coach Gail Slogoff discuss test anxiety, including causes, symptoms, and strategies...
State of Admissions 2019
‘The Most Competitive Admissions Cycle Ever’ – Again If you have read any articles on admissions statistics this month, you...
Maximizing College Visits – the “Why College” Essay
We all know campus visits are an important part of applying to college – they can give students and families...
How to Handle College Decisions
Below is an email we sent to the parents of our senior students, but its message is important for all...
7 Common Mistakes on the Common App
If you are applying to college, you will almost certainly be using the Common Application. Here is our list of...
The ACT is Shifting to Computer-Based Testing
The ACT has had plans to shift to a computer-based testing format for years. For the 2018-2019 school year, all...
What Does the UC System Value in an Applicant?
The University of California system recently published a list of 13 factors they weigh in evaluating every student’s application. While...
Acceptance Rates for Top Colleges – 2018
Every year, colleges become more competitive. The top colleges in the country are not growing as quickly as the number...
Pitt and Penn State Join the Common App!
Another year, another group of schools joining the Common Application. Notable for many of our students are the additions of...
State of Admissions 2018
This is our first (of what we intend to be annual) State of Admissions – an email that recaps our...
How to approach the Common App essays (2018-2019)
The Common App recently released the prompts for the 2018-2019 personal statement. After making some tweaks for the past few...
What is the Coalition Application?
In this Q-&-A-style guest post by Philadelphia area college guru Cigus Vanni (edited by Ivy Experience), Cigus explains what rising...
How ACT Scores are Calculated
People are often confused by the ACT’s scoring system. Out of 36? How the heck does that work? Sometimes the scoring...
Ivy Experience Founders Analyze the Recent ACT
Ivy Experience’s founders, Eric Karlan and Karan Shah, tackled the most recently released ACT to offer insight on its contents relative...
Planning your college visits
In the coming weeks and months, high school juniors and their families will take advantage of vacations and long weekends...
Why work with Ivy Experience on essays?
With college essays and applications looming on the horizon, you may feel overwhelmed by what is ahead. What are colleges...
The Pros and Cons of Study Groups
Is studying in groups helpful, or does it slow you down? Yes… and no… to both questions. Like anything else,...
Pre-midterm study tips
It’s midterm season. We’re about halfway through the school year, and that means students are about to be tested on...
When is the right time to start the “college” conversation?
Junior year is a tough time. Classes are harder than ever, and grades are at their most important. Students have...
5 Biggest Regrets Students Have AFTER getting into college
1. I didn’t shoot high enough. We’ve seen this play out countless times: a student gets into every school they...
End of Year Goals
With the week of Thanksgiving around the corner, the holiday season will be here before we know it. Don’t let...
Top Ten Common App FAQ’s
The Common App is intended to save you time, energy, and stress in the college application process. It is meant...
Changes to ACT Writing scoring; New August SAT date!
The ACT has changed the Writing test back to a 2-12 scoring scale. Meanwhile the SAT will start August test dates in 2017!