Category: Common App

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to Rollins College

At the end of June I visited Rollins College during a trip to central Florida. I had been peripherally aware of Rollins for years, but only in the sense that I knew it was well regarded for the beauty of its campus and that it often appeared on “best of the South” ratings lists. Having moved […]

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to the University of Virginia

In early August I visited the University of Virginia, the flagship university in the Commonwealth, and a perennial presence on “top public universities” ratings lists.  I attended an information session with about 100 people in attendance, and then took part in a student-led tour. The University is quite old, having been founded by Thomas Jefferson […]

My Thoughts on Three New College Admissions Methods

At age 17,  I decided to limit my college search to tiny Marlboro College in Vermont (which eschewed traditional classes for one-on-one tutorials) and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts (whose professors give detailed narrative evaluations instead of grades). There were other reasons–I wanted a college where I could watch Red Sox games on local television, for […]