With all due respect to Madonna, I think we need to revise her lyrics from “material world” to “virtual world”. We are definitely living in a virtual world. Everything from play-dates to school classes to doctors’ appointments to yoga have all moved to a virtual platform.

How are you doing? It’s a lot, isn’t it. It feels almost impossible to find the balance between being informed and being overwhelmed. Sometimes, it feels like the end of the world and other times, you find yourself outside in the fresh air looking up at the sky or giggling at something one of your kids said and it feels like everything is going to be okay.

“I can’t go to that college, it has a high acceptance rate, what will people think”?

It’s fun for me to talk to students once they’re in college and remind them that they once said that.

There are definitely some expressions that we’ve overused.  Like “thinking outside the box”, a phrase that’s definitely been overused in the business world. 

Chances are, if you’re the parent of a teenager, you’ve asked these questions or wondered about the answers.  And understandably so. 

You know how there are some experiences we go through that prepare us for what’s next, in ways we don’t even realize at the time.  

October is definitely one of the scariest months of the year.  No, not because of all of the spookiness of Halloween, but because October is when the FAFSA becomes available to file.

It’s easier in August to deny or delay the beginning of the school year, even though some schools begin mid-month.  But after Labor Day weekend it’s officially “back to life, back to reality” and that means schedules are changing, workloads are enhanced and the stress level escalates.   

“We recently got a new can opener and I have never been so frustrated!”

I attended a conference for independent educational consultants last week in Providence, Rhode Island.  It was an amazing opportunity to attend breakout sessions on all different topics and hear from a wide range of experts in all areas of higher education.

I’ve never wanted to be famous.  I know that sounds weird, but It’s just not something that has ever been a goal of mine.

Imagine you're cooking for an important dinner party where there's a lot riding on the meal.  You plan ahead, you take the time to choose the dishes you want to prepare and start to make a shopping list. 

In a perfect world, every student would have the opportunity to attend college or vocational school for free, every student would get in to the college they apply to, and 31 Flavors Quarterback Crunch would be available year-round.

This is the dictionary.com definition of “all the feels” the urban slang way to describe the range of overwhelming emotional reactions we get from joy to sadness and everything in between.  

“Think about when you purchased your first home. It was a new experience so I’m guessing you did some prep work first: researched online, talked to people who had “been there, done that” and came up with a list of a few “must-haves” and “definitely do not wants” before you ventured out to look at your first few homes. It’s no different when it comes to visiting colleges.”

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

If November is the month of hope, December can be the month of despair in the college admissions world. That’s when students start to get word on their early action and early decision acceptances.

I recently met with a student who said that he had wished that his high school had encouraged their students to explore a wider variety of college choices and pathways to get there.

October is definitely one of the scariest months of the year.  No, not because of all of the spookiness of Halloween, but because October is when the FAFSA becomes available to file

I recently read an article in Cooking Light magazine (Sept '18), of all places, on ways to clear your mind of mental clutter. Specifically, the things that trigger our brain to go into worry mode.