Essays, field notes, and commentary on what actually moves the needle in admissions — written from inside the method. No hot takes. No hype. Just the thinking behind the work.
Every year, around October, I get a version of the same phone call. A parent has just learned that a classmate qualified for a national olympiad, or founded a nonprofit — and the question underneath is always the same.
The student — call him Daniel — did not arrive with a project. He arrived with an argument. Here's how an opinion about rent became a two-sided fairness study with real users.
Families often imagine the admissions office as a laboratory with a formula humming in the back. The more accurate picture is a wine tasting conducted at speed.
The Grade 11 phone call has a particular sound: is it too late for us? No — but the honest version of "no" comes with conditions, and you deserve to hear them plainly.
"Who am I?" has a public-relations problem. It sounds like the soft option. I want to argue the opposite: self-awareness is the hardest-working component in a strong application.
New essays and field notes as we publish them.
Every family wants two things, whether or not they say the second one out loud: a child admitted to an excellent school, and a child who is genuinely thriving. Too many counselors treat this as a trade-off when in reality, the latter is what affirms the first.