Will Dix

The College List: Go Your Own Way

Will Dix is back this month with some illustrative advice for students working on the list of colleges to which they'll apply. Find out how to move off "standing out" and toward "standing up" as you decide where you will spend the next four years in "I'm The One That I Want!"

 

If you’re a high school senior, your interior monologue is probably going something like this right about now:

College Admission is On the Road Again...

College Admission is on the road again... We'll be traveling for the next ten days to speak to students and parents in northern and southern California and Oregon. We'll still be posting and Tweeting and Pinteresting, but it will be lighter for the next week. Nevertheless, don't miss our weekly advice for juniors and seniors, the Q&A with our Counselor of the Month next Monday and the next guest post from Will Dix, aka The Crabby Counselor, who has some excellent advice for students about the college search. And, in the meantime, we'll be finding out what's on the minds of juniors and seniors -- and their families -- so we can provide even better advice about the college application process.

The "Tyranny of Choice": Confronting the Wall of Colleges

We are delighted to welcome Will Dix as a monthly guest blogger. A former teacher and Amherst associate dean of admission, Dix is now Program Director at Chicago Scholars. Today, Will has some advice for students and parents as they contemplate the many -- too many? -- great options students have when choosing colleges.  And cautions against seeking just one to be your "Emerald City."

 

Once in a while at the grocery store I’m flummoxed by the varieties of toothpaste to choose from as I try to figure out which one is the best for me. Breath-freshening, whitening, plaque fighting, striped, mouthwash-containing? What do I really need? How are my gums this week? Should I get the whitening one even though it doesn’t have the mouthwash? What size? What brand? What permutation will give me perfect teeth? I start to feel queasy, realizing that any choice I make probably won’t be adequate, but also knowing that, really, it doesn’t matter: all toothpaste has fluoride, all of it will clean my teeth, and whether it’s minty cinnamon or cinnamon-y mint, it’s pretty much the same.