When you apply to college, admission officers look at more than just your grades — they also take note of what you have done outside the classroom. Your extracurricular activities, such as jobs, sports, clubs and volunteer work, give colleges a better sense of who you are and show them what you can bring to their campus community. Remember that college folder you were supposed to be collecting throughout high school? The one stuffed with … [Read more...]
PSAT Scores Release Dates
What to Do When Your PSAT Scores Come In Have you gotten your PSAT scores back? Scores from the October 2020 PSAT will be released on different days, depending on the area of the country. Texas students should get their scores on December 8, while students in the northwest will get scores on December 7. No matter what your scores are, now is not the time to gloat, panic, or feel indifferent. Your scores can give you an insight into potential SAT … [Read more...]
Parent Quiz: Are You Financially Prepared for College?
Students are going back to school and parents are again thinking about the future. Between AP classes, sports, extracurricular activities, and community service kids, these days are very busy. Parents are also worried about how to pay for all of those things plus the upcoming college costs. Are you preparing your family correctly? Take this quiz to see! 1. Have you set up a 529 or college savings plan? 2. Have you calculated the future college … [Read more...]
National College Fairs Scheduled for 2020
National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) released its list of dates and cities for National College Fairs. These College Fairs are free to the public and designed for information-seeking college-bound students and parents. 2020 National College Fairs: Houston: April 14 Austin: April 16 Dallas/FT Worth: April 19 **NACAC is monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus threat. At this time, NACAC has made the decision to … [Read more...]
Conversations for Families with College Kids
For most families with a kid away at college, Thanksgiving is the first time they will return home. This can be a great time to relax, see family and friends, and a great opportunity to have some important conversations. After letting your college kid catch up on sleep and get in touch with old friends, here are some topics to bring up before the whole family arrives for Thanksgiving dinner: 1. Academics By this time into the semester, students … [Read more...]
Assured and Automatic Admissions at Texas Colleges
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...]
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...]
10 Most Important College Financial Aid Terms
Your college education is an extremely important and expensive investment. Before you shell out thousands of dollars for an advanced education, you need to give yourself a basic education in the financial aid process. Navigating the college financial aid process can be hard enough even for the most highly educated people. So to help, I’ve put together a quick reference guide on the 12 most common financial aid terms used. 1. FAFSA (Free … [Read more...]
When Are Admission Decisions Released?
Here's When Colleges Are Releasing Regular Admissions Decisions for the Class of 2016 It’s March and there’s finally a light at the end of the admissions tunnel for anxious high school seniors – colleges will soon start releasing their regular admissions decisions! Here are regular application decision notification dates for current seniors, class of 2016, or soon to be- the Class of 2020. Expect these dates to change as we draw closer to … [Read more...]
