Caroline Koppelman
Ultimate Guide to Letters of Continued Interest ...

Getting waitlisted or deferred from your dream school is hard. We know it’s hard! You feel rejected, but it’s this weird non-rejection rejection that can leave you feeling lost and confused. And while a lot of things in college admissions are totally out of your control, there is something you can do if you’ve been waitlisted or deferred to give yourself another chance. A letter of continued interest, sometimes known as a waitlist letter or deferral letter, is one of the few, actionable things you can control when admissions decisions seem so out of your control. It’s your only chance to make a good second impression, and we help students write them every single year.

Caroline Koppelman
Ultimate Guide to Getting Waitlisted 2025

Getting waitlisted is the ultimate limbo – it’s not not a rejection, but it’s not a full-on denial, either. And depending on your circumstances, you could be feeling everything from mild disappointment to full-on panic. Don’t get yourself into a tizzy just yet, because there are things you can do to give yourself a shot at getting off the waitlist and make sure that you have a plan in place for the next year.

Caroline Koppelman
Best Early Decision II (ED2) Schools 2024-2025

Hey, look, sometimes ED doesn’t work out the way we want it to, and we have to change strategies. If you just got rejected or deferred from your ED/EA option, we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Early Decision 2. ED2 is just as binding as ED, and it signals to the school that you are serious about attending that school, and guess what? Schools like when you’re serious about them.

Caroline Koppelman
Why This College Essay Question Guide and ...

Why do you want to go to school here? If there’s one prompt you are certain to write more than once, it’s this one. This prompt comes in a few different flavors, but at the end of the day, they all want to know why their school is the perfect school for you and why you’re the perfect student for them. No pressure or anything.

Caroline Koppelman
Official Common App Essay Guide 2024-2025

We’ve spent the last few weeks breaking down the Common App essay prompt by prompt, and today we’re going to give you our ultimate guide to writing the Common App essay. There might be seven different prompts, but ultimately, all schools want the same thing from their applicants’ Common App essays: a story.

math

Math Extracurricular Activity Strategy for Sophomores

If you are passionate about math, you understand the power of numbers. This is especially true if you want to major in math in college. Every top undergraduate school in America has a top math program, and getting in isn’t an unsolvable equation (lol!). You need to be exceptional. Your grades must be exceptional across the board, not simply in math. Your standardized test scores must be exceptional, and not only in the math sections. And your activities, or how you spend time outside of the classroom, must also be exceptional. However, you don’t need to cure cancer or write and publish a novel as a high school student. You’re a prospective math major, and colleges want to see you immersing yourself in the subject beyond course offerings.

9th Grade College Strategy for Math

Calculus? Algebra? Trigonometry? There’s so much math, we don’t even know what to do with it! If you’re here, you think you might want to study math in college, and we don’t blame you. Math touches every single field and has applications within business, finance, education, the social sciences, and so much more. Maybe you’re drawn in by the allure of solving complex problems, the fascination with how math underpins everything in our world, or just the fact that mathematical concepts are integral to every part of our modern society. Now, you, as a 9th grader, want to know what you can do to start the college prep process.

10th Grade College Strategy for Math

Addition! Derivatives! Exponents! Math! It’s probably used to some extent in every single topic, job, and hobby in the world. The career applications with a degree in math are endless. Teaching, finance, economics, data analysis, accounting, truly almost every field can benefit from someone with a math degree. If you’re here, you are probably interested in studying math in college. Or maybe math is your best/favorite class. Either way, let’s talk about it.

Best Applied Math Undergraduate Programs

Applied math is not simply math. Math as a whole is not just math. At the collegiate level, math can be broken up into a bunch of types but there are two big buckets: pure math and applied math. Pure math is math for the sake of math. It’s beautiful and it’s amazing, but it isn’t really focused on how that math can be applied. Applied math is focused heavily on the application of math, which shouldn’t be surprising given the name.