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ILUMIN Blog

Helpful tips about college admissions, test preparation and just being a better student, leader and person from ILUMIN Education.

Filtering by Category: Hot Topics/Trends

What Does the Supreme Court’s Ruling Against Affirmative Action Mean for Your Student?

Elton Lin

The status of affirmative action in college admissions, or admission policies that consider the race of applicants in order to admit more students of underrepresented and historically-discriminated groups into higher education, has been in question for years

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Why ChatGPT Won’t Help You Write Your Perfect College Essay

Elton Lin

Chances are good that you’ve heard people wondering how ChatGPT-influenced essays will affect the college admissions process. It’s guaranteed that the available resources — everything from the advancement of AI to official guidelines from the universities themselves — will always turn over new updates for the most effective strategies. As for now, we’ve experimented with different ways that using ChatGPT can benefit or harm a student’s college application essays.

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Webinar Transcript: 2023 Admissions Trends: What’s Changed?

Elton Lin

We're tackling a pretty interesting topic tonight – because now that summer's here (happy June!) we're going to look back at this past 2022-2023 admissions cycle, and talk through some of the trends we've been seeing in college admissions.

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Is Standardized Testing Back?

Elton Lin

Was “test-optional” just a COVID anomaly?

The idea of ditching “standardized” testing isn’t new. Test-optional policies have been around long before COVID-19. All that the pandemic did was push many schools to put it into practice – a live “test run,” if you will.

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Should UC Berkeley Have a Max Enrollment?

Elton Lin

Colleges across the board are getting more and more competitive – especially among the big names. This graph shows just the past ten years:

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What is Yield Protection?

Elton Lin

It’s the beginning of the new year, which means many seniors have just recently turned in their last few applications and are now eagerly awaiting results. But in the back of their minds they might recall hearing odd results from previous years, such as students getting waitlisted or rejected by their safeties. Is that a sign for bad news to come? Or is there something deeper going on?

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Class of 2026 Early Admissions: Results and Trends

Elton Lin

It’s mid-March, which means that across the world, students of the incoming Class of 2026 are waiting to hear back from colleges about their Regular Decision responses.

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The new, digital SAT

Elton Lin

Over the last several years, the SAT has undergone some phenomenal changes. For parents who took the test themselves to get into college, and are now hoping to help their children do the same… unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. This guide will catch you up to where the SAT is in 2022.

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Colleges Are Reopening - How to Make the Most of your Summer 2021 College Tour

Elton Lin

During the brunt of the pandemic, colleges across the nation made their tours virtual and closed doors on in-person campus experiences. The pandemic is still far from over, but in light of widespread vaccinations, many colleges—including the Ivy League—have announced plans to reopen for in-person learning starting Fall 2021. Some are also allowing in-person campus visits once again. If you’ve been vaccinated, here are some tips to help you (safely) make the most of your summer college visits:

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The Waitlist: What Is It, And How Can I Get Off It?

Elton Lin

When it comes time for college applicants to open emails and check their admissions results, their nerves are understandably on edge. Will there be acceptance or rejection waiting for them on the other side? There is a third option, however: the waitlist, which, to many nervous students, may seem like an even more worrying result.

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