san francisco

Advising 101: What Are Admissions Officers Looking for in College Essays?

One rumor that stubbornly reappears concerning the college application process is that the essays don’t really matter. The truth is that they do, especially when considering highly competitive applicant pools or students with borderline GPAs or test scores—in these cases, high-quality, compelling essays can tip things in an applicant’s favor. Moreover, essays are a crucial … Read more

Advising 101: How to Start Generating Ideas for Your College Essays

Depending on the time of year, it might seem too early to start writing your college application essays, but the present moment is always a great time to start generating ideas for those essays by, for example, jotting down experiences that have resonated with you or that you found meaningful. At Green Ivy, we’ve seen … Read more

Debunking Five Common Myths Surrounding College Admissions

Green Ivy has worked with students on their college applications for about two decades, so we have heard our share of myths, rumors, and misconceptions about the college admissions process. To help you keep things in perspective, we wanted to write about the five myths we hear most often, and explain why they don’t hold … Read more

Academic Advising 101: Tips on Proactively Managing the College Application Process

A 2018 Wall Street Journal article reported that, at some elite colleges, admissions officers spend approximately eight minutes (sometimes less) on each application. This phenomenon is partially due to the ever-rising numbers of applications colleges receive each year and is partially the result of applications at some schools being evaluated by several different people according to … Read more

Wellness 101: Helping Your Child Build Intrinsic Motivation

We have all struggled with motivation at some point in our lives—from accessing it to maintaining its momentum over time. As a result, one of the most challenging aspects of being a parent is knowing how to constructively motivate your child, academically or otherwise. Many parents use external motivation to get the desired results, whether negative … Read more

Wellness 101: Establishing Good “Sleep Hygiene”

When we ask students at Green Ivy what they’d like more time for in their daily routines, their number one answer is more sleep. Many students are accustomed to a sleep-deprived existence and will quickly point out that the bulk of their friends are getting even less sleep than they are. This situation has become … Read more