For most students, the high school transcript is going to be the most important part of their college application. But what are college admissions officers actually looking for when they review a transcript?  Former Fordham, Barnard, and Montclair State admissions officer, Tova Tolman, explains how she would approach transcript review—what grades were important to her and what grades she ignored—in the latest installment of the our video series, Ask the College Admissions Expert.

Students with no acceptances will want to tune in to this episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, in which we will help you best handle an admissions season gone awry and offer suggestions for moving forward with your college plans.

As we make our way through the admission decision season, there is so much happy news to celebrate. Dreams are fulfilled, goals are achieved, all the hard work has finally paid off! But with this happy news there may also come some tough conversations about costs, debt, and compromise.

Many College Coach admissions advisors are also parents who have made it through the college selection process with their own teens. How did they survive? Through open communication and transparency with their children, not just in senior year, but early on. We hope their advice and insight is helpful to you, whether you’re currently debating financial aid offers for the fall, or just beginning the college conversation with your younger children.

In the world of college admissions, nothing may be more frustrating than the waitlist offer. “Thanks so much for applying. I know you were expecting an answer, but we need you to wait for yours just a little bit longer than everyone else.” On this episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, we’ll offer some perspective by reviewing the waitlist trends we saw last year and offering suggestions for how to approach your own waitlist status.

Devastated about not getting into your dream school? There’s no doubt this is a tough time, but you can’t abandon college just because your top choice didn’t come through. Tune in for tips on choosing the best colleges from those eager to welcome you to campus.

With spring now officially underway, we have to ask: high school juniors, do you know who will be writing letters of recommendation for your college application? If not, let this video serve as your official notice that it’s time to start figuring that out. Teachers—especially the popular ones—get very busy with recommendations once the fall gets underway, and you don’t want to be last on a teacher’s priority list (or, worse, not on her list at all because you waited too long to ask). How then can you decide what teachers to ask for letters of recommendation? Find out in the latest installment of our video series, We Can Explain.

We interrupted our regularly scheduled programming to focus an entire episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation on the scandal rocking the admissions world involving wealthy parents, corrupt coaches and standardized test proctors, and a villain for the ages in the form of Rick Singer.

Previously on Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, we talked about how and when to arrange college financing; on the latest episode, we’re tackling the bigger question of how much is too much to borrow. For those about to start researching and visiting colleges, we have tips on how to start developing a preliminary college list. Finally, if you’re interested in the University of California system, you’ll want to be up-to-date on the system’s A through G course requirements for high school students—we’ve got everything you need to know.

As an international student, you may have heard that American colleges and universities apply a holistic approach to the application process. But, what exactly does that mean? Colleges look at everything you accomplish in your high school years by assessing the rigor of your curriculum, your grades, standardized exams, essays, recommendations, and activities. How do you contribute to your school and your community? How do you balance your education with participation outside of school? How are you active outside of the classroom?

Guest Post By Matt Symonds, Fortuna Admissions

A college friend once confided that her dad – at his emphatic insistence – wrote all of her undergrad admission essays. Given that she was a physics major with near-perfect grades at a top 10 undergrad institution, this parental intervention struck me as irrational (not to mention unethical).  Given the news we’ve all heard this week about parental overstepping to a criminal extent, I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked by my friend’s confession.

From rescuing to over-praising, we’ve been warned of the perils of helicopter parenting and its implications for children. Yet when a child expresses their intent to apply to a top business school, there’s plenty you can do to help without overstepping your bounds.