Last June, the New York Times shut down its blog The Choice much to the chagrin of college applicants and their parents. The blog’s tagline was “Demystifying College Admissions and Aid,” and for four years it did just that. The archives of the site are still available, and they hold a wealth of information. Below I discuss posts that should not yet be forgotten.
First and foremost, I recommend reading their Counselor’s Calendar posts: monthly checklists for college-bound juniors and seniors. Use them as a resource to make sure you’re on track for college applications. For September, they recommend juniors begin researching where they want to apply to school and look into the PSAT and diagnostic standardized tests. Seniors should be be scrutinizing their class schedules, organizing their test schedule, and begin reaching out to teachers for letters of recommendation. Because they were published last year, you can read ahead to see what October holds.
Another excellent section of The Choice is called The Envelope, Please. It follows eight exceptional high school students from around the world as they apply to top US schools. Not to ruin the ending or anything, but the students end up going to Yale, Cornell, Williams, and Duke—just not name a few. The information they provide is akin to what you’re getting in the advice section of AdmitSee profiles, but a bit more in depth. We plan to make up for this with blog posts submitted by our interns, but until then you have The Envelope, Please. You can also read the accounts of eight students from the class of 2012 and 2011.
One final gem from The Choice blog is an article by Martha Merril, the Dean of Admissions from Connecticut College. She provides a great list of things to keep in mind, and questions to ask, when you go on campus tours. This is a must read for both students and parents to make sure you’re getting the most out of the college visits.
Hope this helps, and if you’re looking for another college admissions blog, here’s a list of the best broken down by subject. We hope to be on that list soon!
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