HeyJaredThe Curmudgeon's Guide to College Admissions
Applying to college is not an emergency and other practical tips for parents of high schoolers from a college admissions veteran and author of The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays.
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- Sep 22, 2026
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- Jul 10, 2026
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Parents of High School Students, Please Watch This Show This Fall (opens the original)
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For reasons I can’t quite explain (inattention? peevishness?), I regularly miss important cultural phenomena. For example: I watched Gilmore Girls for the first time last year, a full quarter century after it burst on the scene, so I completely missed the initial fuss about Stars Hollow and its quirky inhabitants and Lorelei Gilmore’s manic patter and extensive collection of fabulous outerwear. In my defense, when the show first aired, I was busy working at the Stanford admissions office and rai
Who packed your lunch? (opens the original)
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My parents and I came to the United States from Soviet Russia when I was nine years old. We hit the ground running: my father searched for work and my mother tried to learn English while simultaneously taking engineering courses at a nearby college and practicing for her upcoming behind-the-wheel exam. My job was to attend fourth grade by day and, in the evenings, to yell at my parents about how much I hated living in this stupid country and going to my stupid school where I couldn’t understand
Summer is over. A new school year is starting. Now what? (opens the original)
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Hello, Curmudgeon friends!Is it me, or did this summer feel unfairly and disproportionately short? I’ve already spotted several Halloween displays and one Christmas one at major retail outlets, and to the retailers who think this is a good and timely idea I say, “Have you no shame? Please, for the love of flip-flops and Trader Joe’s perfect take on Supergoop’s Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40, let us enjoy what remains of the summer!”Still, with the days getting shorter and the “welcome back!” emails fro
What Does Success Mean to You? (opens the original)
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No offense to guidance counselors and educational reform advocates who routinely ask high school students and their parents to define what success means to them, but “what does success mean to you?” strikes me as a singularly unhelpful question. It’s meant to bring down the temperature around college admissions by eliciting “core values” (another bullshit term), which to say getting students and parents to acknowledge that a degree from a prestigious college is less important than happiness, hea
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