US Colleges and Universities and Extracurricular Activities
The “Liberal Arts” model of education favored by many US colleges and universities promotes the development of critical thinking and the broad value of learning from one’s peers over direct training for any one profession or career. As a result, admissions to many of these schools can seem opaque, and at least equally focused on […]
Getting Started with Applications Early!
Every November, we get some from international families of seniors seeing application assistance. Sacre bleu! Mamma mia! Or as my mother-in-law says, “Maria Petruchka Petrovna”! No, mi amigo, you must start early! We strongly encourage students to do most of their application work during the summer before their final year of high school. They don’t […]
Developing the Right Questions to Research Schools and Colleges
Eager to find out more about a potential school or college? Prepping for a campus visit or interview? The road to inquiry begins with asking the right questions. Way back in my days of prepping to be a journalist in college, we were introduced to a basic exercise and key words to facilitate our preparation […]
Toxic Stress is Crushing More Than Just Our Kids: Turning Outrage Into Compassion
In the right doses, stress builds healthy and productive skills that allow us to survive adversity and even thrive in challenging conditions. Yes, above and beyond the survival instincts of flight and fight, stress can activate our arousal system, allowing us to access our higher-order thinking capacities so that we can problem-solve efficiently and effectively, […]