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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.

Webinar Transcript: Last-Minute Summer Programs

Elton Lin

Glad everyone could make it today. We're talking about summer plans, because so many of our students are taking a look at summer plans: taking a look at what options are still out there, since there are so many different types of programs! Some are going to be great for some students, some maybe not. We want to take a moment to present to everyone today what is out there – with about one more month to think about [it] before we really need to start shifting gears towards the summer!

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Webinar Transcript: Timeline for 12th Grade College Admissions

Elton Lin

Good evening, everyone. Really glad that all of you can make it today. We have a really exciting topic for a lot of our juniors right now – to get ready for the admissions process, and start to think about the timeline: what they should be thinking about, researching schools, essays… We'll go through everything today! College tours – I think that's also something on people's minds: thinking about that for spring break, potentially. We'll talk about all of that today.

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Webinar Transcript: How Important is GPA? A Discussion About College Admissions Factors

Elton Lin

Hi everyone – really glad that all of you could make it today. And I'm glad we're continuing  this weekly [webinar series]; we did one last week with Danny. Today we have Dayna joining us – and next week it'll be Kelly. We're doing three in a row for this little chunk of time.

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Five Things To Consider When Researching College Majors

Eric Day

How are your student's college search and list of schools going? We've shared our tips on how to build your college list and start researching schools (complete with questions students can ask themselves to help refine their lists), but it's also important to hone in and research the specifics—specifics like college majors.

Researching majors and choosing the one(s) for you can be a difficult task, especially for students with diverse interests. Here are five of our tips to help your student as they consider their options:

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Webinar Transcript: How Can 9th and 10th Graders Prepare for Admissions?

Elton Lin

Welcome back to our webinar series. It's been a little bit, but I'm glad that we're able to chat again – and hear from all of the folks at home – to give you some thoughts about what's coming up for our younger students: freshmen and sophomores… and a little bit of what's on our minds in regards to how we support younger students. And, hopefully, what should be on students’ and parents’ minds getting ready for this process.

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How To Plan Your College Visits Over Spring Break

Elton Lin

Planning for spring break? Check if college visits are on your itinerary! For all high schoolers, especially 11th graders who are building their college lists and 12th graders who are waiting to hear back from schools before National Decision Day, spring break is the optimal time to visit college campuses.

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How to Build a College List and Research Schools

Elton Lin

Have you started building your college list yet? While spring of junior year is the critical time to research colleges you want to go to, as well as to start actively demonstrating interest in any schools that you may have already been interested in for a while now, it can be wise to start researching schools in your sophomore or even freshman year.

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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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Webinar Transcript: How to Stand Out as a Pre-Med Applicant

Elton Lin

Thanks for coming tonight, making time for our pre-med Q&A. Let's get started. I can introduce myself, and then we'll have Robert introduce himself, and then we'll start with the questions.

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Supplemental Essays Matter!

Elton Lin

“Supplementals” are extra essays that supplement the main application. These are no less important than the main application. However, there’s one big difference between supplementals and main application essays: supplementals are specific to the school!

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