April 2020

Once considered the “party school” of the UC system, UCSB is a highly rated, selective school, particularly known for its science and engineering programs. Located on 1,000 acres in Goleta, the campus might be one of the nicest you’ll ever step foot on, bordered on two sides by the Pacific Ocean. With 24,000 undergrads, it’s […]

Whitman is a small liberal arts college on 117 acres at the base of the Blue mountains in Walla Walla, Washington. (Say that 3 times fast). Walla Walla is a small town in Eastern Washington, located 4 hours from Portland and 4 hours+ from Seattle . Whitman has 1455 students, with a Pacific Northwest vibe. […]

I’ve been encouraging my students to do a few virtual tours a week given that in person visits are not happening and we all have extra time on our hands. One thing I’ll say is that pay attention to how schools handled their schools closing. Did they give students 24 hours to clear out of […]

Northwestern is located on 231 acres 12 miles north of Chicago in Evanston and runs for a mile along Lake Michigan. The campus is split into North (Tech) and South (Arts). It’s mid-sized with 8,000 students and has is preprofessional. Students talk about the work hard, play hard environment and are curious, passionate, and creative. […]

Loyola Marymount is a mid-Sized with 6,000 students in LA. The 142 acre campus is a mile from the beach and overlooks the pacific ocean. The campus is close to Marina Del Rey and a short drive to Santa Monica. LMU’s has a Roman Catholic foundation. Popular majors include management, marketing, communications, psychology, film and […]

Duke is a selective mid-sized school with 6,700 students located in Durham, NC. The 9,000 acre campus divided in to east/west campuses butts up to 9,000 acres of open space – and is nicknamed “the University in the Forest”. Duke is a unique with DI championship sports that coexist with stellar academics. School spirit is […]

The college admissions process in a normal year is full of uncertainty and anxiety. Add a global pandemic into the mix and things are really upside down. High school students have had all the normal measurements of their work taken away. None of what we are all experiencing is normal. I know not having the […]

WashU is a competitive school with strong academics across the board. WashU is mid-sized with 7,000 undergrads. The most popular majors are business, engineering, biology, social science, chemistry, biomedical engineering, philosophy-neuroscience-psychology, and premed. There are many research opps for undergrads and students rave about the collaborative environment. Students consistently talk about the ways in which […]

Located in Portland, OR, Reed is a small liberal arts college with 1,400 students. Reed attracts serious students, but has a non-traditional learning environment. Letter grades are not emphasized, professors give detailed feedback. There is academic rigor, but the environment is collaborative and non-competitive. You hear over and over at Reed that students love to […]

Today’s tour is my alma mater, Penn. Full disclosure: It’s hard for me to be objective with this tour because I just love this school so much. If you are looking for a highly selective school that doesn’t take itself as seriously as some of its Ivy League peers, Penn is worth considering. Penn’s campus […]