In 1997, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 588 – also known as the Texas Top Ten Percent Law – guaranteeing automatic admission to all state-funded universities for Texas students in the top ten percent of their public high school class. This law was later amended to allow universities to cap their admissions to the Top Ten Percent students as 75% of their freshmen 'seats'. This has allowed University of Texas Austin campus to restrict … [Read more...]
Jolyn was interviewed for U.S. News Education
Jolyn Brand was interviewed by U.S. News Education reporter for her article titled "Use AP Credits to Graduate from College in 3 Years" Public institutions tend to be more flexible in allowing AP credits. "I have found that public universities are more accepting of AP and dual credit courses for credit than private universities," says Jolyn Brand, a Houston-based educational consultant. Brand also has a son at Purdue … [Read more...]
UT Austin Changes Admissions Requirements
UT Austin announced changes to its admissions process and requirements for students in the class of 2019. These students can begin applying August 1, 2018 using the ApplyTexas application. Essay Requirements All freshman applicants will be required to submit one essay -- Topic A -- in ApplyTexas. Other long-form essays in ApplyTexas (B, C, D, S, etc.) will no longer be needed for freshman applicants to UT (but may be required for other Texas … [Read more...]
Houston College Search Series
College Search Series will be in the Houston area on June 19, 20, 21, and 25 to speak with high school students about colleges. … [Read more...]
College Acceptances for Class of 2018
Yay! All of our college admissions decisions are in and all of our clients have selected their college for next school year. We assisted 24 current seniors, class of 2018, through the college admissions process. They received a total of 112 college acceptances. Some great stand-outs at out of state universities include: Two admits to Case Western University One accepted at Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, and NYU Two students accepted to … [Read more...]
How Safe are Texas Universities?
Parents are always worried about college and student safety. Unfortunately, many families only base their information on the reputation of the college, its location, or rumors. To help families make more informed decisions, we conducted a data search of Texas 4- year universities with student bodies of more than 5,000 students, excluding for-profit colleges and those without residential housing, for a total of 35 universities. This data was … [Read more...]
What is a good SAT or ACT score?
Well, it depends. It depends on the colleges you're applying to, the majors you're selecting, and scholarship goals. Here are average SAT and ACT scores for a few colleges: … [Read more...]
College Acceptances for Clients- Class of 2017
Yay! All of our college admissions decisions are in and all of our clients have selected their college for next school year. We assisted 27 current seniors, class of 2017, through the college admissions process, including 4 who were pro bono clients, mostly teenage moms. They received a total of 96 college acceptances, for a group of 23 students, that's an average of 4.2 each. Clients ranged from two college applications to 12! Some great … [Read more...]
How soon should we begin working with Brand College Consulting?
The earlier in the process, the better! The best, most helpful college planning starts before or during freshman or sophomore year of high school. This allows time to flesh out the student's ideal academic program, delineate interests and lay the foundation for a progression of directed summer and extracurricular activities. Many of the interesting and most helpful courses and electives have prerequisites that need to be taken by freshmen and … [Read more...]
Featured Testimonial
We love to hear from happy clients and students! Want to read them all? Click here for more. Client Review of the Month Jolyn and her team of tutors are awesome! With ACT tutoring, our daughter was able to raise her overall score and raise her English score 9 points. Jolyn is always so helpful and informative and replies promptly to any question I may have. In addition to the personalized tutoring, Jolyn's essay writing class was beneficial … [Read more...]