Posts by Bentham Team
Applying to College is Not a Game of Chance
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If you’ve ever watched someone play roulette, the casino game with the longest odds, you will see that many improvident bettors spread their chips over several numbers, thinking it improves their chances of winning. They almost always lose, anyway. Many college applicants and parents think applying to college is like roulette – a pure gamble,…
Read MoreWhat Extracurriculars should I do?
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Grades and test scores alone don’t make a successful applicant. Neither do grades and sports, unless you’re going to be recruited for the college team. Extracurricular activities are increasingly significant as more and more students, with the assistance of tutoring companies, are applying with perfect or near-perfect grades and scores. And colleges and universities are…
Read MoreWhat the Affirmative Action Ruling Means for You, the Applicant
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On June 29th, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that Affirmative Action policies in College Admissions violate the 14th Amendment – equal protection under the law. The colleges and universities affected by the rule don’t agree with the court’s thinking, and continue to prize diversity, not only as a way of addressing inequity of opportunity, but…
Read MoreCollege Essays are Personal Essays – Learn the Conventions of the Genre
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When most students are confronted with a college essay, they encounter a conflict – should the personal statement be like the essays they’ve written in classes, or should it be a story? Usually, students reach the conclusion that it should be a combination of the two. But how to combine them? In the course of…
Read MoreYou’re Doing It Wrong: Mistakes You Make as You Try to Bolster Your Profile
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Getting into highly selective colleges has become ridiculously competitive. Rather than exploring whether their future happiness and success really depends on attending one of the most selective schools in the country (the answer is probably not), students put ever more ridiculous burdens upon themselves in an attempt to get in. But often they are doing…
Read MoreWhat courses should you take to get into a highly selective college?
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Every year in mid-September the question arises for high school students and parents – what courses should we select for next year? How will college admissions officers view the schedule we create? Should we take that impressive course with the reputedly terrible teacher? Should we take the course where the teacher is great but the…
Read MoreThe Importance of Being Earnest – Writing an Effective College Essay
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The most effective way to write a college essay is to be personal, honest, and vulnerable. There are other ways, but this is the most surefire route to creating a bond with readers in the admissions office and making them your allies. For many applicants, particularly those who are the children of immigrants, this kind…
Read MoreTransferring to an Elite School
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It’s difficult for seniors in high school to know what they want in a college, what a particular school is really like, and even what they want their major to be. For this reason, 30 % of college undergraduates transfer to another school at least once. They transfer because they decide that going to college…
Read MoreGetting Started on Your College Essay Part 2: Some Exercises to Get You Started
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Here are a few exercises to get started As we said in the last blog, the objective of the college essay is to make a deep connection with the essay reader, so they remember your essay and want to be in your corner. The key to this is to make your writing intimate, specific, and…
Read MoreGetting Started on Your College Essay Part 1: Some Advice Before You Begin
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If applicants are smart, late spring or early summer is the time to get down to drafting the college essay. The essay will go through several revisions, and your trusted readers (teacher, counselor, cousin who went to Brown, admissions consultant, etc.) will often need a few days to get down to reading your draft carefully…
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