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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: College Planning

What 9th Grade Students Should Do to Start the Year off Strong

Elton Lin

Ninth graders’ first steps in their four-year plan should revolve around exploring their interests. Which class subjects capture their attention? Which club or extracurricular gets them excited? Figuring out these interests will be essential in guiding your ninth grade student through their college-focused high school career.

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What 10th Grade Students Should Do to Start the Year off Strong

Elton Lin

Welcome to the tenth grade! After this past year of largely remote learning, going back to school this fall semester may feel like you’re adjusting to high school again for the first time. Here’s some advice on steps to take as you adjust to your tenth grade experience.

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Webinar Transcript: College Essay Series: Crafting Your Personal Statement For The Common Application

Elton Lin

Today we’re talking about the personal statement, but you might also be looking at the UC questions, since that's a place where we like to point students to start off first. But today we'll give you a crash course about the personal statement, how you're gonna pick your prompt. You're gonna work out of seven.

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Webinar Transcript: Live Q&A with Santa Clara University Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions

Elton Lin

We had the privilege of sitting down recently with AJ Howell-Williams, the Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Santa Clara University, to talk about current admissions trends, test-optional, and the other unique challenges and trends within higher education in the year ahead.

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College Essay Series: How Should I begin?

Elton Lin

This webinar was presented on June 10, 2021, and a recording is available here. Some details regarding the prompts and deadlines may have changed by the time you are reading this transcript. Please visit the Common Application and University of California website for the most up to date information.

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Is "Test Optional" Really Test Optional?

Elton Lin

It’s been over a year since the University of California veered towards eliminating all test requirements by 2025. Colleges across the nation, and most notably the Ivy League, declared that college applications would be test-optional this year. Some colleges have maintained that their test-optional policies are temporary, while others, such as Scripps, have declared their applications test-optional permanently. They

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Webinar Transcript: Live Q&A with Boston University Senior Assistant Director of Admissions

Elton Lin

We had the privilege of sitting down recently with Elise Fisher, Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Boston University, to talk about current admissions trends and the unique challenges and trends within higher education in the year ahead.

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Webinar Transcript: Live Q&A with Emory University Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admissions

Elton Lin

We had the privilege of sitting down recently with Giles Eady, the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Emory University, to talk about current admissions trends and the unique challenges and trends within higher education in the year ahead.

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Early Decision, Early Action, Early Decision 2...What are they and what happened in 2021?

Elton Lin

ED, EA, REA, ED2—as you’ve been navigating the college application process, you’ve probably seen these acronyms pop up over and over again. They seem pretty fancy: each of these application plans have their own rules, deadlines, and advantages, and some colleges offer some of them but not the others.

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Guide to Common Application Extracurricular Activities: What Do I List On My Resume?

Elton Lin

By now, you've probably picked up all kinds of extracurriculars over the course of your high school career: varsity sports, robotics club, maybe even volunteering at your local beekeeping farm. Now it's time to put those extracurriculars on your Common App, where there's a section devoted solely for college applicants to list them!

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