Your college admissions reading list

college admissions strategy

Love college admissions? Want to learn more? Here are a few places to go:

Blogs

There are three excellent blogs shared by college admissions offices. If you are looking for an honest, reflective sense of what happens “inside the room” or just want to understand more about admissions work, these are three excellent, intelligent perspectives to consider. All three have robust search features.

  • MIT Admissions (this one is fun because it is a mix of students, alums, and people from the admissions office who write)
  • UVA Admissions -- Dean J writes excellent, refreshing perspectives on the process 

Twitter

There are a lot of people who tweet regularly about college admissions. Some great folks to follow would include:

  • Eric Hoover (@erichoov) -- writes for the Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Rick Clark (@clark2college) -- author of the GA Tech blog
  • Jon Boeckenstedt (@JonBoeckenstedt) -- VP of Enrollment at Oregon State
  • Ethan Sawyer (@CollegeEssayGuy) -- independent consultant and essay guide
  • Jeannine Lalonde (@UVaDeanJ) -- author of the UVA blog
  • Jeff Selingo (@jselingo) -- author of “Who Gets in and Why”

Books

Other Writing

There are sometimes great editorials in the New York Times about college. Here are a few:

Grown and Flown blog -- 6 Ways a College Counselor Counsels Her Own Son about Admissions

[Tony Jack’s book covers, among other topics, food insecurity in college. If you want to learn more try this NYT piece.]

Elise holds a BA in Political Philosophy from Williams College and an MEd in Administration & Social Policy from Harvard. She has spent the past twenty years working in top-tier independent schools.

Comments

topicTopics
academics study skills medical school admissions MCAT SAT college admissions expository writing strategy English writing MD/PhD admissions LSAT physics GMAT GRE chemistry academic advice graduate admissions biology math interview prep law school admissions ACT language learning test anxiety personal statements premed career advice MBA admissions test prep AP exams homework help creative writing MD study schedules mathematics computer science Common Application history research summer activities secondary applications philosophy organic chemistry economics supplements admissions coaching dental admissions 1L grammar statistics & probability PSAT psychology law legal studies ESL reading comprehension CARS PhD admissions SSAT calculus covid-19 logic games engineering USMLE admissions advice medical school mentorship Latin Spanish biochemistry parents AMCAS English literature case coaching verbal reasoning DAT STEM adjusting to college dental school excel genetics political science skills French Linguistics MBA coursework Tutoring Approaches academic integrity astrophysics chinese classics freewriting gap year letters of recommendation mechanical engineering technical interviews units Anki DO Social Advocacy algebra amino acids art history artificial intelligence business careers cell biology cold emails data science diversity statement finance first generation student geometry graphing kinematics linear algebra mental health pre-dental presentations quantitative reasoning revising software engineering study abroad tech industry time management work and activities writer's block 2L AAMC DMD IB exams ISEE Japanese MD/PhD programs MMI Sentence Correction algorithms analysis essay argumentative writing athletics business skills executive function fellowships functions genomics infinite information sessions international students internships logic networking office hours outlining poetry proofs reading recommendations research fit resume scholarships science social sciences statement of purpose trigonometry 3L ADHD Academic Interest ChatGPT EMT FlexMed Fourier Series Greek Health Professional Shortage Area Italian JD/MBA admissions Lagrange multipliers London MD vs PhD Montessori National Health Service Corps Pythagorean Theorem Python Shakespeare Step 2 TMDSAS Taylor Series Truss Analysis Zoom acids and bases active learning architecture art art and design schools art portfolios bacteriology bibliographies biomedicine boarding school brain teaser burnout campus visits cantonese capacitors capital markets central limit theorem centrifugal force chem/phys chemical engineering chess chromatography class participation climate change clinical experience community service competitions constitutional law consulting cover letters creative nonfiction curriculum dementia demonstrated interest dimensional analysis distance learning econometrics electric engineering electricity and magnetism embryology entropy escape velocity evolution extracurriculars fundraising harmonics health policy history of medicine history of science hybrid vehicles hydrophobic effect ideal gas law immunology induction infinite series