Category: College Lists
Finding Your Best-Fit College: Spotlight on Colby College

IvyWise Intern Sarah tells us how she knew Colby College was her best-fit school.
Finding Your Best-Fit College: Spotlight on NYU Liberal Studies

IvyWise Intern Janeen tells us why New York University was the best fit for her academic goals.
Making Your Own College Rankings

A constant concern of universities, and the media, is the next list of college rankings. Where will an institution land on a list with other “top” colleges, and which schools will be a surprise top 5?
Finding Your Best Fit School: Spotlight on Cornell University

I was the kid that loved the college process. I loved visiting campuses and imagining what it would be like to attend each school. I loved coming up with essay topics and trying to be creative so that I would stand out. I put a great deal of time, thought, and effort into my college applications, but at the beginning, I never would have imagined that would end up at Cornell.
March College Planning Checklist

You’re half way through the semester! Are you doing everything you can to stay on track for college admissions and a productive academic year?
Best Colleges for STEM, Campus Culture, and More

When researching colleges, it’s important to find an institution that matches your interests and goals, and with over 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, there’s a great fit school out there for everyone. Whether you’re concerned with location, academic offerings, or just the right campus culture, all facets of a school should be examined when determining if you can see yourself attending that institution or not.
January College Planning Checklist

It’s a new year, a new semester, and the perfect time for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to get a head start, or keep up the momentum, on the college admissions process.
December College Planning Checklist

The end of the fall semester and the fast-approaching Regular Decision deadlines, coupled with the release of early decisions, makes December an especially busy, and crucial, month. Students need to prepare for finals and standardized tests, while also juggling extracurricular commitments and, for seniors, the added stress of finishing college applications.
How to Avoid Undermatching When Applying to College

Are you applying to the right schools? During college admissions season we talk a lot about creating a balanced college list of schools that are best-fits for your personal and academic goals, but some students may not be choosing schools that are the best academic and budgetary matches.
2014 Princeton Review College Rankings

This week The Princeton Review released its 2013-14 Best 378 Colleges rankings, ranking some of the country’s best colleges in 62 different lists. While we don’t encourage you to make rankings a defining factor when building your balanced college list, these lists can be a good place to start when researching what you want from your college experience.
Finding Your Best Fit School: Spotlight on Boston College

This week our client relations associate Catherine tells us what she loved about attending Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA.
IvyWise Webinar Series

At IvyWise, we’re always thinking of news ways to get families the information they need in order to succeed in the college admissions process. Available now are on-demand college counseling videos featuring our expert counselors speaking on a variety of topics, from community service to how selective schools evaluate applicants.
5 Ways to Narrow Down Your College List

It may be the middle of summer, but application season is fast approaching! In just a couple of weeks the Common App will be released, but with the prior announcement of the essay topics, and some schools announcing their supplement questions early, many rising high school seniors have already started on their applications.
Best College Pranks in History
College students have conducted some of the best pranks in history. Rival schools, politicians, school administrations, and fellow students have all fell victim to elaborate and harmless pranks. A lot of technical planning, crafting, and attention to detail was put in to these projects so they would go off without a hitch.
Unique College Majors
While many students opt for college majors like business, history, and biology, others decide to take a more unconventional path in school. Interdisciplinary studies allow students to combine a variety of interests into one major, but some schools decide to create distinct majors on their own. Colleges across the country offer a slew of unique majors for students with highly individualized interests, and the list grows every year.
Colleges Announce Misreporting Data for Rankings
Within the past year, four undergraduate programs and one graduate program have admitted to misreporting their admissions data for U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, causing some to question just how many schools may be inflating statistics. Bucknell University and Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business are the most recent schools to announce misinformation, both coming forward in the past two weeks. They join Claremont McKenna College, Emory University, and George Washington University which have already reported false standardized test scores, class rankings, GPAs, and other statistics for admitted and enrolled students.
Finding Your Best Fit School: Spotlight on Stanford

This week our client relations manager, Alex, tells us what she loved about attending Stanford University in Stanford, CA.
Wacky College Courses

Did you know that at some schools you can take a classes on Harry Potter, how to watch the TV show The Wire, and even one on Lady GaGa’s (actual) fame? Many colleges these days are offering interesting course selections that take pop culture and familiar icons and use them as tie-ins to deeper, more intellectual ideas and lessons.
College Campus Life: Wacky Student Clubs and Organizations

Making new friends and getting involved on campus starts with exploring your interests. Student clubs and organizations are a great way to meet new people and build on the skills and interests that you already have.
Demonstrated Interest and College Admissions

In this month’s newsletter, we highlight the importance of the college visit and how to prepare for and what students can expect during their tour. While the college visit is very important in deciding where you want to apply, it’s also a part of helping you get in.