Category: Wise Insights

Writing Authentic Essays: Avoiding the Chat GPT Dark Side

Time for some trivia! Who said, “It’s against my programming to impersonate a deity”? If you answered C3PO, the beloved droid from the Star Wars movies, you’re right! For those of us...

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Why American Students Should Consider Pursuing a Full Undergraduate Degree Abroad

“Happy Birthday, Study Abroad! – Packing for One Year vs. Four” While the year 2023 will go down in history for many memorable events both notorious and noteworthy, you may not know...

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Write on: Organize your Essay Writing Early!

American universities love essays. Our College Planning Chair and Chief Outreach Officer for Student and Family Engagement Peter Olrich shares a video with tips for identifying and organizing all the essay writing...

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Spain vs. Italy: Comparing IE University and Bocconi

If you are a student from the U.S. or an international student looking for a great college experience in Europe, consider IE University in Spain or Bocconi University in Italy. Bocconi has...

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The Independent School Admissions Gazette

We are excited to launch our new newsletter, where we update you on the dynamic admissions landscape, and invite you to explore the only directory providing thorough and unbiased boarding school data...

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SCOTUS Race-Conscious Admissions Ruling’s Impact on College and Independent School Admissions

Yesterday, as expected, SCOTUS struck down existing race-based admissions policies, deeming “many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built,...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: Choosing My Attitude

I have just finished reading about the Pike Place Fish Company’s work philosophy and I love it! They focus on play, being there, choosing your attitude, and making other people’s (and your...

Wise Insights

My Whole Heart and Soul: What Being a Fish Means to Me

What being a FISH means to me? The FISH Philosophy website asks, “Imagine what would happen if people at your organization felt comfortable to be themselves and throw their whole heart and...

Wise Insights

What Education Means to Me

I’ve always loved stories, especially biographies and memoirs. In elementary and middle school, I always seemed to have my nose in a book about a famous person. It wasn’t unusual for me...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: What’s Out There in the Big World?

When I think about what being a fish means to me, I think about my pregnant belly as a fish tank and my baby inside as a fish bonking the glass trying...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me

I am starting to think it is no coincidence that I am tasked with writing this blog a few days before Father’s Day. When I think of the people closest to me...

Wise Insights

My Life on a Continuum

Running, playing guitar, and speaking Spanish; these three activities are some of the most rewarding yet most frustrating parts of my life. The runner’s high, nailing the rhythm of a song, or...

Wise Insights

Blood, Sweat, and Sisterhood: Thoughts on Character

As I scramble up yet another steep incline, my buddy asks what happened to my leg. I look down and see blood streaming down my calf. Not feeling a thing, I laugh...

Wise Insights

Finding Myself in Nature

A friend recently asked me if I considered myself a spiritual person. Of course this means different things to different people. For me, much of my spirituality revolves around the outdoors. I...

Wise Insights

A Gift from my Parents: Lessons in How to Be a Character

My dad was a character. My mom is too, in her own somewhat less outrageous way. Or maybe she’s the more outrageous one? Either way, I learned about character from my parents,...

Wise Insights

The Joy is in the Planning

What I love about camping isn’t just the camping itself, it’s the lead up. It’s selecting the site, expertly crafting the cooler friendly grocery list, and in my case, it’s also climbing...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me

Every card or letter my mother ever sent me was signed the same way, “Hugs and kisses, Love Mama, A.B.N.” A.B.N. was my mother’s acronym for, “Always be nice”. It was so...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me: SNL’s Grumpy Old Man & Coping With Cam’s Deployment

One of my dad’s favorite parenting mantras was “mind cheerfully.” It would roll off his tongue several times a week. Translation: it’s not enough to do what I say … do it...

Wise Insights

What Character Means to Me ~ Nanny Noyes

It was after my mum had suggested a shortcut through Fenway Park that turned out not to be when I told myself “to get over it.” You see, I was carrying my...

Wise Insights

In Sickness and In Health: What Character Means to Me

It has been said that suffering hardship builds character. For most of my life, that statement didn’t mean much to me. I lived a semi-charmed life, for the most part, and considered...

Wise Insights

“What Being a Fish Means to Me: Just Keep Swimming”

After attending our annual NACAC and EMA conferences in Seattle last fall, we returned to Boston refreshed and renewed after reconnecting with colleagues and touring Reed, Lewis & Clark, and the University...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: It’s Not About the Catch

My husband is an avid fisherman. Freshwater fly fishing, saltwater fly fishing, spinning, tuna trolling, you name it and he does it. He ties his own flies and strings his own rods....

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: Come Swim with Me!

If you read my colleagues’ recent blogs, you know that we at McMillan have embraced the Fish Philosophy to bring more joy and productivity to our work. As a result, a lot...

Wise Insights

What Being a Fish Means to Me: You Are Not Alone

Growing up, our family had such a large goldfish that we named him Big Fish. He was the only fish in the ten-gallon tank in our kitchen surrounded by a faded green...