I send warm greetings from Los Angeles and hope you are all healthy and safe wherever you may be. I am in the annual lull following the college application season. My students had a fantastic …
Overcoming Affluence: How Students of Modest Means Can Defy the Odds
Every topic under the sun can be studied, and enjoyed, in a million different ways, in a million different environments.
On Seismology and the Humanities
No one academic discipline is inherently more interesting, more fun, or more professionally valuable than any other.
College Essays and the Misuse of ‘Voice’
To an inexperienced or reluctant writer — which describes many college applicants — advice about “voice” is scarcely more useful than merely saying, “Write well.”
From New Jersey to the World
At a time when so many universities are flaunting themselves like brands — or, worse, like franchises — Princeton’s commitment to tradition serves it well. It serves the world well, too.
From New Jersey to the world
The fervor for American education — with a disturbing, and often naïve, reverence for an Ivy League degree — is arguably more intense in Beijing and Abu Dhabi than it is in Boston and Ann Arbor.
Richard Florida’s Reckoning: Review of The New Urban Crisis
Richard Florida’s forthcoming book, The New Urban Crisis, will likely elicit one of two responses.
College Essays: Where (Not) to Begin
The first sentence of a college essay isn’t the “answer” to the question. The “answer” is the entire essay.
A Plea For Politics In The Classroom
Teachers who are honest about their opinions can encourage productive, respectful debates.
College Essay Prompt Pet Peeves
I feel little solicitude for the Common Application prompts, contrivances that they are. I do, however, respect institutions’ right to define their curiosity and probe students accordingly. Here are some, though, that deserve a second thought.
Insight into New University of California Application Essays (Part I)
If these prompts inspire more candid, creative answers, then UC might be on to something.
Accepted Inc’s Study Guide Review Book for AP Human Geography Exam
Author of study guide for Advanced Placement Human Geography exam.
Critical Thinking And The College Applicant
Time and again, though, it’s the students who see through the platitudes who are the most attractive college applicants.
Some Recommendations About Recommendation Letters
Students often behave as if recommendation letters don’t exist.
The Infantilization of College Admissions
No matter where they’re teaching, no clear-minded teacher enters the classroom every day wanting to make students “college-ready.”
College Rejection Doesn’t Have to Mean Frustration
Students can do a great deal, both before and after applying, to ensure that they maintain their sanity, embrace colleges’ decisions, and actually increase their chances of getting into their favored schools.
HuffPost Blog Series
This is Josh’s series of blogs on college counseling, college essays, and related topics.
Ask, Memory: Interrogation and the College Essay
A college application carries not the slightest fraction of the gravity of a life sentence. Even so, whenever I speak to students about college essays, I implore them to interrogate themselves, not as suspects but as witnesses. Witnesses to their own lives.