The Beauty of Advanced Placement (AP) Courses
This guide explores the true value of AP classes beyond just earning college credit. AP classes, designed to mirror introductory college courses, offer high school students an opportunity to explore a wide range of topics within a subject, helping them decide whether to pursue it further in college. These classes also provide a chance to challenge oneself academically, fostering critical study habits and stronger learning skills. While earning college credit is a well-known benefit, AP classes also offer significant cost savings, potentially reducing thousands in college tuition by earning credits before even stepping onto campus.
How to Prepare Early for College
When preparing for your college applications, it’s not a big secret that you should start early, but what exactly should you be doing? This guide will help you be smart with your limited time to set yourself up for the best chance at college admissions, but more importantly, help you become a happier and more effective version of yourself (which is actually something colleges want to see as well!)
Essential College Guide for 11th Grade
11th grade is the most important year when it comes to college applications. This guide serves as an essential checklist for what you should be doing throughout your 11th grade year.
You had a great summer, but what now?
Did you know that what you do with your summer experience after it’s over could make or break your college application? As the school year kicks off, you might think your summer experience is over. But that’s a missed opportunity! Every summer experience has value, and you can build on it even after it ends. This guide takes you through some options to make the most of your past summer.
Guide to Taking Better Notes
Taking notes is an essential skill for any student, but we are rarely ever explicitly taught how to do it. Check out this two-part guide on how to take better notes. Part one is all about the guiding principles for how to approach note-taking before, during, and after class. Part two details some specific note-taking methods like the classic outline or the famous Cornell Method.
How to Set Goals You’ll Actually Achieve
What if there was a way to write goals in a way that made them more achievable? Smart goals can help you be much more effective in achieving your goals.
Preparing for Your College Interview
Whether you’re interview is in-person, remote, or even pre-recorded, this guide can help you prepare so you can make a great impression with any interviewer. Although most interviews are conducted during or even after peak application season, some students may have the opportunity to interview alongside their campus tours this summer.
Make the Most of a Campus Visit
Summer is open season for campus visits. Check out this simple guide to help you make the most of your visit and make a great impression on the staff.
Make the most of your summer (regardless of your plans)
With summer upon us, many students are embarking on their summer vacations with equal parts excitement and anxiety. I frequently hear students worrying about “making the most of their summer,” so here is a universal guide for how to maximize your experience regardless of what you already have planned!
The Ugly Truth About Advanced Placement (AP) Classes
APs are a growing trend in high school. Although there are many benefits to taking these advanced courses, there are also some potentially damaging misconceptions. Understand what AP exams really mean for the college application process and how AP credits impact your road to graduation after you’ve already been accepted.
Every Flavor of Early Apps Explained
There are a lot of terms like ED, EA, and REA when it comes to applying for college. Before you finalize your college list, you should familiarize yourself with these terms to plan ahead and spend your time more effectively during your application season. Here is a very brief overview of what each term means, along with some general pros and cons for each.
When is the Best Time of Day to Journal?
This is a quick post addressing one of the most common questions I get asked about journaling: what time of day should I journal? TLDR: It doesn’t matter so long as it fits with the rest of your routine and schedule.
How to Build a Journaling Habit
Developing a habit is the most effective way to journal and how you can get the most out of your experience. Because of this, habit-formation should be your ultimate goal as you practice. There are many ways to do it right and only one way to do it wrong (by giving up) so the important thing is to find a method that works for you. This article contains a few techniques that have worked for me.
How to Build Your Journaling Setup
Journaling does not require anything special. All you need is something to write with and something to write on. But as you get more comfortable and confident, you can explore how different designs can help you optimize your journaling for certain goals.
Weighted Grades Explained
The process of weighting grades probably started off as an innocent attempt to make the grading process a bit more fair. After all, honors-level courses are harder, so those grades should be rebalanced to make them comparable to non-honors courses. But this inadvertently triggered an academic arms race that has left high school graduates more stressed and confused than ever before. This guide is to help you understand and resist the pitfalls of weighted grades so that you can pick courses that will enable you to be more effective and healthy.
What to Write in Your Journal
It’s not always easy to decide what you write about in your journal and it can feel quite daunting if you are just starting off. But with a gradual approach, you can build up your journaling muscles to get deeper and more thoughtful without burning out. Becoming good at journaling is a practice that is developed over time.
Why You Should Set Goals
If you want to achieve more while staying happy and healthy, then getting good at setting goals is an essential skill for you to develop. Goals help to focus our energy while sustaining our motivation, and in a world of hyper-competition and stress, it’s more important than ever to reflect and deliberately think about where you want to go and who you want to be. This is a guide that explains why you should add goal-setting as a tool to your arsenal.
Why Every High Schooler Should Keep a Journal
Journaling is one of the most valuable habits that a high school student can develop. It improves mental health and wellness and helps you see the narrative arch of your life. It also adds a tremendous amount of value to your future college applications by creating more meaning and personal significance out of your experiences.