Blogs | Ivy Central

College Applications

What’s an ‘Extracurricular Spike’?

When I meet with students to review their extracurricular activities for the first time, many are curious about whether or not they should focus on a single activity until they apply to college. I think for anyone considering an application to US universities, this is an important aspect to consider given the ‘holistic’ nature of the admissions processes, that is, thinking about how diverse your ECs should be.

February 13, 2022

Study Skills

21st Century Skills

Over recent years a new terminology has been spreading through the worlds of education and business, 21st Century Skills. In this blog, I’m going to explain where this terminology comes from, just what they are and why they are important for young people today.

February 3, 2022

College Applications

What are AP Tests and should I do them?

In a recent webinar Ivy Central did with students there were lots of questions about AP Tests, unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explain about them in detail so hopefully this article will fill the gaps.

January 27, 2022

Admissions

Deferred! What do you do next?

When you apply to your top choice college in the early application round you will get one of three responses, accepted (yippee), rejected (boo) or deferred (what?). In this article I’m going to explore what it means if you are deferred and more importantly what to do about it.

January 10, 2022

College Application Checklist for Grade 11th Students | Ivy Central

College Counseling

A College Application Checklist for Grade 11 Students

While it is a busy time for Grade 12 students as they apply for their regular decision schools (if applying to US unis), Grade 11 students are gearing up for their winter break. As you know, your next year would be crucial in getting you placed in a college of your choice.

December 9, 2021

A Guide To STEM Majors – How To Avoid Dropping Out

Majors in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are the most popular choice of major for the students we work with, so it was rather a shock to come across a statistic taken from the Engage to Excelreport, stating that 60% of students who start college intending to complete a STEM major end up graduating with a non-STEM degree.

There are many reasons for this, and in this blog I will explain some of the most significant ones, and some things to consider when you choose your college.

November 25, 2021

Why Should You Work With an Independent College Counselor?

College Counseling

Why Work with an Independent College Counselor?

As a person who earns a living as an independent college counsellor, you will not be surprised to know that I believe working with somebody like me can be a solid investment in your family’s future, in this blog, I will set out why. I don’t intend for this to be an extended advert for Ivy Central, rather I hope to give some pointers on what anybody who is contemplating employing a private counsellor should consider.

November 18, 2021

Writing Essays for the University of California

The UC application is round the corner and we are prepping for the 30th November deadline just as most of you are. If you are applying to one or more of these amazing universities, then these tips may be just the thing you need right now.

November 15, 2021

US Colleges

Summer Programs for High School Students

While few Summer Programs have already opened their applications for an early-round, the others will follow suit shortly! This blog comes in the form of a step-by-step guide towards planning your summer for the next year.

November 1, 2021

5 Tips to Help You Write Your Personal Essay

With the submission deadline for applying in the early round of US college applications coming up, you will hopefully have already finished your personal essay. This is the one opportunity that you have to help the admissions teams get to ‘meet you’ and understand something about the individual behind the grades and scores.

Writing a strong personal essay is, for many students, the most challenging part of the application, its test comes because what is required is significantly different from the types of essays that most students have been writing during their schooling. In this blog, I will share five tips from admissions professionals to help you if you are still working on your personal essay.

October 7, 2021

College Essays

Supplemental Essays: A Take on Short Takes

The Application Season is here and we are as excited as you are!

In this blog, I will take you through tips for writing those seemingly insignificant short take supplemental questions that first few, now many, colleges are including as part of their mandatory essay requirements.

September 5, 2021

Career Counseling

So You Want to be a Doctor? Qualifying in the UK

This is the second of two posts where I am exploring the different routes to qualifying as a doctor in the United States and the United Kingdom. Over the years, these are the countries that most Ivy Central students have chosen to apply to for medical training but of course there are many other options to consider.

In the first post, I focused on the pathway to becoming a doctor in the United States, in this second article I will be focusing on the route followed by aspiring doctors in the United Kingdom.

September 2, 2021

Career Counseling

So You Want to be a Doctor?

With the help of all the medical programmes on television, you may have thought to yourself that becoming a medical doctor may be the career for you. Over the next two blog posts I will take you through the steps, needed to achieve this goal, but as a regulated career, the requirements to qualify as a doctor differs from country to country. In this first article, I will focus on providing an overview of the steps required to train and work in the US,

August 26, 2021

Getting to Know the Common App

Anybody aspiring to attend college in the United States will come across the Common Application. In excess of one million students use it each year to make their application to colleges from Maine to California. Here is the Ivy Central quick guide to the Common App.

August 5, 2021

Career Counseling

Make Application Season Less Stressful with These 5 Tips

It is not surprising that, with the need to juggle the demands of school, extra-curricular activities alongside applying to college, application season can be highly stressful.

There’s also the worrying: Students worry about missing deadlines or not scoring high enough in their standardised tests. They worry that their peers will receive dazzling scholarship offers and acceptance letters, while they’ll be stuck with a pile of rejections.

They worry that there simply isn’t enough time for everything they need to accomplish.

Fortunately, you can reduce college application stress by following the 5 tips explored in this article.

July 29, 2021

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