By Delece Smith-Barrow Sept. 21, 2015 (U.S. News and World Report) — When home-schooled students apply for college, the process is pretty similar to what teens from traditional school backgrounds go through. Home-schoolers may write personal statements, take the SAT or ACT and submit a transcript. When it comes to letters of recommendation, though, many home-schooled students often […]

Jordan Friedman Sept. 22, 2016 (U.S. News and World Report) — When it comes to applying to the nation’s top colleges, the competition is fierce. And as the number of applications they receive each year rises, experts say getting admitted is only becoming tougher. A dive into data submitted to U.S. News in annual surveys […]

By Susan Saulny Mar 31, 2006 (NEW YORK TIMES) — “Help!!!” screamed one of the messages posted by a high school student this week on the Web site www.collegeconfidential.com. Another said: “Desperately need help choosing college!!! Need advice please read!!! Can’t sleep!!!” And pennylane01, on her blog, wrote: “Thank you O powerful (and treacherous) college […]

By Kate Stone Lombardi Sept 20, 2006 (NEW YORK TIMES) — Annie Allhoff was valedictorian of her high school class, and everyone expected her to apply to Ivy League colleges. Annie, 18, had other ideas. I knew I wanted a small liberal arts school comparable in academics to the Ivy League, but without the name-brand […]

By Hillary Chura Jan 27, 2007 (NEW YORK TIMES) — As the price of a degree at a private college shoots toward the cost of a Lamborghini, parents and grandparents are looking for a leg up as well as to correct mistakes that could cost them dearly when applying for need-based financial aid. Mistakes range […]

By Anne Marie Chaker and John Hechinger Mar 15, 2006 (WALL STREET JOURNAL) — In the wake of grading errors that wrongly lowered the SAT scores of thousands of students, a number of guidance counselors and college test-prep services say they are urging test takers to pay extra for backup scoring services to verify results. […]

By Jon Weinbach Apr 6, 2007 (The Wall Street Journal) — Before mailing out acceptance and rejection letters over the past week, thousands of colleges and graduate schools conducted their usual reviews of test scores, transcripts, and essays. But less publicly, admissions officers focused on something else: police databases, plagiarism checks, and reports by private-investigators. […]

By Anjali Athavaley Nov 14, 2007 (WALL STREET JOURNAL) — The elimination of early admissions at Harvard University and Princeton University — effective this year — is helping to fuel a rise in applications at other elite schools that offer nonbinding “early action” programs. The trend will make it more difficult for top colleges to […]