CPE Complete Blog

Rising Seniors Take Note: AI Can Level Up Your Education and Your GPA, but It Won’t Get You into College

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When I was a graduate student at Boston College School of Education, I was lucky to learn from some of the finest researchers, writers, and educators in the field, including Drs. Polly Ulichny, Tom Keating, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Walt Haney, and Otherine Neisler. They all taught and role-modeled the importance of making as transparent as possible any personal biases about a subject right from the get. In that spirit, I confess a clear bias about the topic at hand: I love technology in general, and educational technology in particular. It’s an affinity that goes way back. One of my abiding childhood […]

12 Hot Tips for SAT & ACT Game Day

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If you’ve been preparing over weeks or months for an ACT and/or SAT, then you’ve probably spent most of your time learning and reviewing all the math and English grammar covered on them. If you’re shooting for a competitive score at the most selective colleges on your list, I bet you’ve also been taking practice tests to develop effective strategies and recognize common question types. In the end, your SAT or ACT score won’t likely correlate with any meaningful aspect of your future, but it WILL be an accurate measure of two things: knowledge of highly refined academic material and […]

Finishing STRONG! Tips to Maximize GRADES

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It’s easy for juniors to forget during the standardized testing crunch of May and June that the most important thing you can do to get accepted to competitive colleges is to earn the best grades you can in whatever courses you’re taking. Period. So here’s some solid advice to remember down the home stretch. Conventional wisdom is that the first impression we make is the most important, but when it comes to academics, the LAST impression is the most important, i.e., the most LASTing. Take it from a 20+ year classroom teacher: When teachers go to enter students’ final grades, […]

The CommonApp Personal Essay, Identity Formation, and Two Apples a Day

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  There are many ways to slice the question, “Who are we?” We are, for example, in a literal and physical sense, what we EAT and drink and breathe. When we digest something, we literally take the external world and make it part of ourselves (hence the magic of the pig, who, as Jim Gaffigan has noted, can take an apple—basically garbage—and miraculously turn it into bacon!). Less literally, we are the sum total of our THOUGHTS and FEELINGS: what we think about all day and the emotions those thoughts generate form the template of our personality. We are also […]

A Vacation Exercise Tip via Harvard Law School as You Gear Up for Finals

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For those who like to exercise… and those who exercise even when they don’t like it 😉 Like most other freshmen at Harvard, I lived in the Yard my first year, which, alas, was sometime during the last century. It turns out, the Yard is closer to Harvard Law School than any of the upperclassmen houses, and I had a close friend who had his eye on attending HLS after graduation. (P.S. He got in, and yes, he made Law Review just like his dad. Anyway.) Because he’s sharp, Ben spent more time on the Law School campus next door than […]

Early is the New Regular: Why “Early and Excellent” is the ONLY Winning Strategy in Today’s College Admissions 

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WARNING If you’re applying to selective colleges in the next couple of years and not planning to take advantage of Early Application Programs—ED (Early Decision), EA (Early Action), REA (Restrictive Early Action), EDII, and EAII—STOP! Do not pass go! You won’t be collecting $200 or very many acceptance letters that way. There is only one truly savvy application strategy today: Early and Excellent. Math doesn’t lie, and the data clearly show a HUGE advantage to applying to top, second-tier, and third-tier colleges EARLY, typically two months before a school’s Regular Application deadline. They also show that many savvy applicants are […]

Grappling with a Big Math Mystery: The Key Difference between Mathophobes and Mathophiles

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A new assignment this year teaching middle and high school students in a new school in a new state has reinforced many of my long-held thoughts about two fundamental types of math students: 1) those who think they can’t do math without lots of help and 2) those undaunted to try, who see problem solving in math as an extension of problem solving in other arenas. Painting in broad stokes, we might label these two types of students mathophobes and mathophiles, and the neurological, psychological, and performance differences between them are striking, fascinating, and perplexing. Equally striking, fascinating, and perplexing […]

TWOFERS: Why April Is a Fabulous Test Prep Month for Most Juniors

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Each year there are 14 total national college admissions exams offered (seven each of the SAT and ACT), making 14 total opportunities (not including individual State in-school exams, e.g., March in CT). As you can see in the linear academic calendar, these exams are fairly evenly distributed across the 12 months (one each approximately every 7.5 weeks), with a couple of notable exceptions. Twice a year each, in Oct/Nov and June/July for the ACT, and in Oct/Nov and May/June for the SAT, two exams each are offered closer to ONE MONTH apart than two, and the 3+ week difference does […]

Reducing Stress—Especially for JUNIORS—is Part of Our Mission

 tagged admissions process / junior year / senior year / stress management by

Junior year has always been a notorious rite of passage: the hardest classes, most demanding teachers, grades counting the most, and, oh yeah, standardized tests.  In September everyone’s talking about how college admissions committees look most closely at junior year final grades, PSATs come up fast in October, and the work and pressure keep mounting through SATs, ACTs, AP Exams and final exams and projects in the spring.  And all the while students are supposed to start thinking about what colleges they’d like to attend, what programs appeal most to them, and which ones will be on their list of […]

How AP Scores Can Boost Your College Admissions Chances!

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If you’re a high school student or a parent navigating today’s college admissions process, let’s talk about something super important for getting into the most selective schools—AP exam scores! ? 1. Stand Out in a Sea of Applicants ?‍♀️ In today’s competitive college landscape, standing out is the name of the game, and that, quite simply, explains why so many students are taking so many Advanced Placement classes. AP scores of 3, 4, or 5 can set you apart from other candidates by showcasing your ability to handle college-level coursework and pass college-level exams. It’s all about demonstrating mastery of […]

The Three Most Important Qualities to Impress College Admissions Committees

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Successful applications in today’s ultra-competitive college admissions game tend to be as varied and unique as the individuals who write them. If you’re planning to have AI do the heavy lifting for you, I’m sorry to inform you there is no algorithm to generate ideal answers to any of the writing prompts, let alone a compelling overall application (for more on this topic, see How Telling the Truth Can Get You Into College). Nevertheless, underpinning this great diversity among applicaitons that work are three common features. If you are a fan of the SNL skits in the early 90s, you […]

TWO Crucial CommonApp Questions for Second Semester Juniors

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How to prepare an… …that will bolster your candidacy and help you get in wherever you apply! Question #1: When should I register on Commonapp.org? Short Answer #1: As soon as possible. Question #2: When should I focus on actually writing my CommonApp? Short Answer #2: Between your last final exam this year and the first day of school in the fall. Why Register Early? There is absolutely NO DOWNSIDE to registering sooner rather than later, and there is tremendous upside to sooner. All you need to do to register (commonapp.org) is to spend five or so minutes completing a […]

Test Prep in the Flow of the College Admissions Game

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Much has changed in U.S. secondary education for college-bound students over the past half century, from values to curriculum to graduation requirements. But one thing that has remained largely the same is the overall academic flow of the formidable rite of passage of junior year and the crush of fall semester senior year. As busy as juniors may think they are now, or are going to be shortly, most are in for a rude awakening. I say this not to derive any joy or instill fear, but to share a vast experience of working with students through this specific period. […]