Capstone College and Career Advising

Along with taking rigorous courses, a strong GPA can be the most important factor in the college admissions process.  That is why it is critical to choose the right courses, work hard and do your best throughout high school.  Every high school level course factors into your GPA (even high school courses taken during middle school) and starting high school with a low GPA can be very difficult to raise. As I mentioned in a previous article, taking rigorous courses are an important factor as wel…click for more...?>

One of the key factors (along with GPA) colleges seek in the admissions process is a strong rigorous High School curriculum.  Colleges look at the high school profile sent from your school and compare it with the classes you selected through your high school career and compare the two.  They will be looking to insure you took the most challenging classes your high school offered and determining if you took advantage of that challenging curriculum.  Therefore, it is important to choose course…click for more...?>

After you have completed your essay, make sure you share it with those who will provide constructive feedback on it.  Every person has a unique set of skills they can bring to the table when evaluating your essay. Make sure you utilize   those skills by getting input from others.  I go over each of our student’s essay before they submit them to help clean them up and remove wording that I know colleges may not like.  However, each of my students are also encouraged to let their Englis…click for more...?>

There is a common misconception that essays must use impressive words which you need a thesaurus for.  While it is important to use strong language and be descriptive, students have a tendency to over-use flowery language and go overboard on adjectives.  When writing, it is important to use strong verbs that connect and bring emotion and visually enhance the essay.  For example, instead of saying The cold north wind blew strong as we stood outside standing in the frozen terrain, you could sa…click for more...?>

Recycling is something we should all do to help the environment.  However, many people don’t think about recycling essays.  Since most of the applications are done electronically, recycling essays does not technically save paper, but it will help save energy when sending in essays for colleges.  As you complete more and more essays you will find that some of the prompts will be very similar if not exactly like some of the prompts you have already completed in other applications.  As a re…click for more...?>

  As we mentioned in our last article, organization is the key to writing a good essay.  It is also essential to not becoming overwhelmed.  Learning how to time everything and complete all of the tasks associated with a college application is important to sending in a quality submission which will be competitive.  Without advanced planning and preparation, it can have an affect on you being accepted or being offered thousands of dollars in scholarships.  Therefore, there is a lot riding…click for more...?>

Tip 2 – Organize The key to writing an essay is to organize your thoughts.  Once you have a story and an idea which you want to write on, it is good to organize your thoughts on paper so you can construct a solid written essay.  Follow these steps to help you create an organized paper that flows through the story and ties together all of your ideas. Identify key ideas of your story. Depending how long the essay needs to be, you need to identify a few key ideas that you feel are important…click for more...?>

The key to writing a good college essay is to be yourself.  A college’s top priority in reading an essay is to attempt to get to know the student at a more personal level.  Since they do not have the resources to meet with every applicant, they strive to find out more information about each student. Who are they? What is their unique personality? What is their background? As a result, they are more interested in discovering who you are than they are at seeing how many flowery words you can…click for more...?>

According to a US News and World Report, waiting to take hard classes and looking at college scholarships your Junior or Senior year is too late to prepare for college. It may seem early in the game, but now is also the time to really think about scholarships.  You want to have that scholarship resume look the way you want it to, and you want to start right now, your ninth-grade year… – Use All 4 Years of High School to Prep for College – September 9,2013 You can go to Capstone’s F…click for more...?>

by: Mark KantrowitzNov. 24, 2015      Sarina Finkelstein (photo illustration)—Getty ImagesSome states want you to list an in-state, public college first as a sign of your interest. You probably know that yourincome and assets are important factors in determining your eligibility for college aid. But did you know that the schools you list on the Free Federal Application for Financial Aid, or FAFSA, can also play a role? When students file the onli…click for more...?>