Blogs | Ivy Central

Majors

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

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

College Applications

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

Supplemental Essays | The College Community Essay 2021-22

College Counseling

Supplemental Essays: The Community Essay

The community essay prompt is one of my favorites. As mentioned in many of my blogs, US colleges and universities are looking at crafting a community and that’s exactly why colleges ask this question. They want to know how you see yourself as part of a community – any community. You do not necessarily have to be in a leadership role, but you could be.

July 25, 2021

Records Broken and the US Universities Slip

At the start of June, the 2021 the QS World University Rankings were published and 1300 universities across the world poured over the lists of colleges and universities to see if they had gone up or down from last year.

July 15, 2021

WHY THIS MAJOR ESSAY?

In less than a month’s time, the big reveal of Supplemental Essays will take place. While there could be a variety of supplemental essays that colleges/universities ask their students to answer, one of the most common and prominent is the one about what would you like to study in college. We call it the ‘Why this Major?’ essay prompt.

July 11, 2021

College Essays

Creating Your Own Reading List

Having been an English facilitator, I am often asked about book recommendations by students I work with and otherwise. On one hand, this question is straightforward. After all, there are so many books that most people enjoy reading.

June 27, 2021

Majors

Should I Study Computer Science?

The field of computer science has seen a surge in applications from students wanting to study the subject for their higher education degree. In the UK, applications to study computer science have seen a year on year increase of 4%, a massive increase over such a short period, while in the United States the numbers of people graduating with a degree in the field has increased from 39,000 in 2010 to well over 88,000 in 2019.

This increase in interest is perhaps no surprise given the prevalence of tech in our everyday lives and the vast amounts of money that some technology companies have made since the start of the new millennium. So if you are thinking that computer science might be for you, or are just interested to know what all the fuss is about, read on.

June 24, 2021

Career Counseling

“Who’s the text from?”

Over the past decade, I have experienced the concept of ‘multitasking’ become fashionably cool. I remember reveling in my multitasking skills as a teenager whenever I listened to EDM in the background while solving math problems.

June 13, 2021

Study Skills

13 Reasons Why You Should Journal Every Day

As a counselor, I recommend students develop journaling skills that can be helpful to them in so many ways and situations. With the stressful situation that pandemic has put us all in, either through online learning or lockdowns that stretch to perpetuity, we are facing the need to share our thoughts but not finding the most effective tool to do that. Journaling is the answer to this dilemma.

June 1, 2021

Admissions

Housing at US Colleges and Universities

Upon accepting your college admission offer, the first thing you want to secure is your accommodation. For that, it is important to do some research into the different options available to you. Understand why you feel one would suit you better than the other based on your personal preferences.

May 23, 2021

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