June 2026

Happy Summer, everyone!

I’ve spent the past few weeks having delightful conversations with students as we brainstorm ideas for Common Application personal statements. I always begin with the question “what do you want colleges to know about you that isn’t already clear in your transcript and test scores?” And 99% of the time, students have a really hard time answering it. So we go over some more specific and easier questions and then circle back to the big one. But “what do you want colleges to know” is definitely the main idea of the writing prompts.

While I do this exercise with rising seniors, I think it would be a great exercise for high school students of all levels. This goal isn’t to go ahead and get your essay over with early; it’s to practice writing about yourself—what you want to say, not what you think they want to hear—so that you’ll be better prepared when it’s time to turn in a final draft to colleges. Most seniors will write several different essays before they settle on the one they’ll submit, but none of those earlier ideas or drafts are a waste of time or energy. They all add to the finished product. So whatever your grade, no matter how long you have until applications are due for you, spend some time this summer thinking about what you’d like people to know about you that isn’t already clear in your high school grades.

One more thing: I don't want to make any grand predictions about the future or spin my wheels with explanations that are nothing but conjecture, but I will say that there have been no major Higher Ed stories I’m aware of this month about AI. That’s a refreshing break.

—Benjamin

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Here’s What I covered on the website in May:

What should I be doing now? Rising seniors. Here are my recommendations for things you can do this summer to make your fall semester a little easier. It’s not a checklist to do in order, though. Each piece can affect all the other pieces, and you’ll find yourself updating and going through the cycle multiple times.

What should I be doing now? 9th-11th grades. What should rising juniors do this summer to better prepare for college? Train. You're like a professional athlete during the off-season. What should rising 9th and 10th graders do? In terms of preparing for the next three years of high school, preparing for college, and preparing for productive adulthood, there's no magical activity that you really must do to get ready.

Here are some blog posts from the archive that are good for this June:

If I’ve said it once…. Where I explain the thoughts and motives behind some of the sentences I use most in my job as someone who writes about college admission and advises students on their own admissions paths.

How do you write a great application essay? Some of the most miserable high school seniors I’ve ever worked with were students trying to write application essays days before the deadline. You should have a solid draft ready to go by September 15th at the latest. If you need to keep revising and editing, that’s fine. But get yourself to “only an hour left to finish it” as soon as possible.