BRITTANY MASCHAL CONSULTING

2016 MBA Admissions Webinars to Watch

By Brittany MaschalDec 28, 2016

This past year, the dream team of former admissions gatekeepers at Fortuna Admissions shared their insights in a series of webinars covering key topics from M7 School Application Strategies to How to Ace Your MBA Interviews. In case you missed any of these, now is a great time to catch up on the wealth of insider information they shared on how to get into a top MBA program.

Here are Fortuna’s 9 recent webinars, and within each recording, you can fast-forward to specific topics that interest you the most:

1. Countdown to Round 2 & How to Bounce Back from a Round 1 Ding

2. A Winning Strategy for Round 2 and Rolling Admissions

3. MBA Application Essay Development – Top Tips from ex Admissions Directors

4. Creating a Strategic Resume for your MBA Application

5. A Winning MBA Admissions Strategy for the M7 Schools – with Former HBS, Stanford, and Wharton admissions gatekeepers

6. How to Build a Winning MBA Application – with Former LBS & INSEAD Admissions Staff

7. How to Ace your MBA Interviews

8. The Inside Track to MBA Admissions Success for the M7 Schools – with Former Wharton and Booth admissions gatekeepers

9. Standing out in an International Applicant Pool – with Former LBS & INSEAD Admissions Staff

Newsbschool, Fortuna Admissions, MBA, MBA admissions, webinar

Thank You Notes (Yes, You Should Write Them)

By Brittany MaschalDec 27, 2016

Reminder for all students admitted under ED and EA programs! It can be easy to forget the many individuals who were there every step of the way of the college application process, guiding you towards college. But remember you didn’t make it here all by yourself. Take some time to thank the people who helped you along the way by writing them a thank you note!

People to thank: parents, guidance counselor, teachers, letter of recommendation writers, anyone else who read your essays/app, college admissions officers you met with, and tutors just to name a few!

Advice, Newsadmissions, college, college admissions, college application, college counseling, counselors, gratitude, high school

Let’s give non-Ivy Leaguers a chance to rule the world

By Brittany MaschalDec 23, 2016

Just read a great piece by Dustin McKissen, the founder and CEO of McKissen + Company, a strategy, marketing, and public relations firm based in St. Charles, Missouri.

Most of us know you don’t need to go to the right schools and come from the right family to change the world for the better. But, apparently, you do need to go to the right school if you want to change the world from Washington D.C.

By the time Donald Trump’s term ends in 2020, the country will have been led by an Ivy League graduate from 1988—2020. That’s 32 years of unbroken White House rule by graduates of schools that educate a statistically insignificant number of all college students. (It’s also 32 years of rising income inequality.)

A First Family preference for the Ivy League is nothing new: during 20 of those 32 years (the administrations of George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama) the presidency was held by someone whose father also graduated from an Ivy League school.

Favorite takeaway: “Knowing your way to the Ivy League is not synonymous with knowing what you’re doing.”

Give it a read here!

Newscollege, college admissions, college counseling, Cornell, Harvard, Ivy League, White House

The Plague of ‘Early Decision’

By Brittany MaschalDec 22, 2016

Another great article by Frank Bruni on the craziness of college admissions, specifically, early decision.

But what worries me more is how the early-application process intensifies much of what’s perverse about college admissions today: the anxiety-fueling, disappointment-seeding sense that one school above all others glimmers in the distance as the perfect prize; the assessment of the most exclusive environments as, ipso facto, the superior ones.

That’s hooey, but it’s stubborn hooey, as the early-application vogue demonstrates.

Worth a read here!

Newsadmissions, college application, college college admissions, college counseling, early decision, Frank Bruni, New York Times

What Do Teenagers Want? Potted Plant Parents

By Brittany MaschalDec 19, 2016

Many parents feel that their adolescents hardly need them anymore. Teenagers often come and go on their own schedules, sometimes rebuff our friendly questions about their days, and can give the impression that interacting with the family is an imposition that comes at the cost of connecting, digitally or otherwise, with friends.

So here’s a complaint one might not expect to hear from teenagers: They wish their parents were around more often.

Interesting read on the importance of a parent’s physical presence on adolescent health. Check it out here!

Advice, News, NYT

Text to Text: John Milton’s ‘When I Consider How My Light Is Spent’ and ‘Today’s Exhausted Superkids’

By Brittany MaschalDec 16, 2016

Right now, many students are entering the final college-application sprint. They’re wondering Are they enough? about their lists of accomplishments. Some may even be wondering Is it worth it? about college at all.

Centuries ago, the poet John Milton wondered how best to live his life as he went blind. In his sonnet “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,” he contemplates his condition. While for him, the “light” he spends is literal — he was completely blind by age 42 — he uses it metaphorically to meditate on what it means to really live.

In this Text-to-Text they pair Milton’s poem with Frank Bruni’s Op-Ed “Today’s Exhausted Superkids,” which discusses the high costs of following the narrowly defined and proscribed path to an elite college.

This a thoughtful read for parents and students alike, or really, anyone working with adolescents today. Check it out here!!!

Advice, NYTcollege, college admissions, college application, college counseling, counselors, Frank Bruni, Milton, New York Times, parenting, sleep deprivation

NYT Student Contest – Write a Rap About the News of 2016

By Brittany MaschalDec 13, 2016

https://youtu.be/vomvO54P7oA

For the sixth year in a row, 13 to 19 years old anywhere in the world are invited to write a rap about the news that mattered most to them this year.

So whether you choose international or national news, politics or education, sports, science or technology, the arts or fashion, post your entry by 7 a.m. Eastern on Jan. 10, 2017. Then, the educational hip-hop experts at Flocabulary, our annual partner for this contest, will choose their favorite rhymes to publish both here and on their site.

Second Language Acquisition Can Improve How You Think

By Brittany MaschalDec 12, 2016

An oldie but goodie re-posted on the New York Times SundayReview on the advantages of bilingualism. Worth a read and just in time for the new year, when learning a second, third or fourth language could be on your to-do list!

Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

Read the article here!

Advice, NYTacademic exploration, bilingual, languages, learning, New York Times

Upcoming Early Application Decision Release Dates

By Brittany MaschalDec 09, 2016

It’s that time of year again!

TODAY (FRIDAY)
(12/9) Wiliams (PM), Bowdoin (PM), UPenn (3pm ET), Stanford (3pm PT)

SATURDAY
(12/10) Wesleyan, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon

SUNDAY
(12/11) Week of 12/11: Boston College

MONDAY
(12/12) Vassar (5pm ET), Columbia (6pm ET), Colgate (mailed)

TUESDAY
(12/13) Harvard

WEDNESDAY
(12/14) Brown (7pm ET), Dartmouth, Duke (7pm ET)

THURSDAY
(12/15) MIT (6:28pm ET), NYU (5pm ET), Yale (5pm ET)

Newsadmissions, college, college admissions, college application, early action, early decision, high school

You Just Took the PSAT—Now What?

By Brittany MaschalDec 09, 2016

PSAT scores are now available online for counselors and will open to students on Monday. Compass Prep has prepared a number of resources that can help with interpretation, provide context, and illuminate where to go from here. I suggest checking them out!

–Understanding Your Score Report

–Using PSAT Scores to Compare SAT and ACT

–National Merit Semifinalist Preview: Class of 2018

–PSAT National Merit FAQ: The Road to Becoming a Finalist

Academic Resources, News, Testingadmission testing, college, college admissions, College Board, Compass Prep, PSAT, standardized testing