The following piece was written by Kofi Kankam. Kofi has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and is a former admissions interviewer for The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the co-founder of Admit Advantage. His face was alight with the joy of life. Not a care in the world, he would always greet me, arms open, beaming, “I love you, Mom. Good morning. I trust you slept well.” Anything I needed, from the floors being mopped to cleaning out the refrigerator, done without pestering or even request. But all of a sudden, fall semester of senior year, he morphed into some other teenager. So, if you ... Read More About How to Handle the College Application Process as a Parent

The following piece was written by Zach Kwartler. Zach is a graduate of Princeton University and the Marketing Manager for Story To College, an admissions consulting service. He can be reached at zach.kwartler@storytocollege.com.   Imagine you’re applying to Harvard. You attend one of the top high schools in your area, are ranked in the Top 10 in your class, scored above 700 on all three sections of the SAT, and just returned from a 5-week immersion trip in Argentina. With these numbers, how can you not get into a great college? Now, imagine you’re on the Harvard admissions committee. You received over 36,000 applicati ... Read More About What to Know When Writing Your College Admissions Essay

The following piece was written by Rachel Korn. Rachel has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and is a former University of Pennsylvania admissions officer, as well as the founder of her own admissions consulting firm.   By the fall of senior year, much of your academic and extracurricular record is complete, so one of the only remaining elements of your college applications that you can still control is your major essay. Above all, the goal of the essay is to provide personal information about you. Thus, you will need to deeply reflect about what additional things the admissions committee should learn. In gen ... Read More About How to Choose Your College Admissions Essay Topic

The following piece was written by Dr. Michelle Finkel. Michelle has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and is a former Harvard Medical School faculty member. She is the founder of Insider Medical Admissions. At first glance, medical school admissions might seem a far cry from the subjects of reality television confessionals. The players are stalwart, steady characters who live restrained lives and channel their passions with extreme discipline. Yet the admissions game is arguably one where the drama is real, the intensity is palpable, and the stakes are high. There are winners and losers, with thin margins separating one grou ... Read More About How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School

Varsity Tutors brings you insider tips and advice straight from nationally recognized admissions experts. Stephanie Klein Wassink is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She also holds years of experience on the Kellogg School of Management admissions board and runs her own consulting business, Winning Applications. Stephanie’s expertise lies in many areas of admissions, but shared her insights on the undergraduate application process with us below.  VT: How far ahead of time should a student begin working on his or her college application? Stephanie: Regardless of where I ... Read More About Ask an Admissions Expert: Stephanie Klein Wassink