Updated Information on All Things College Admissions

If you are the parent of a teenager, it may feel like the rules keep changing. For years, families worried about choosing the "right" major. Then came test-optional admissions. Then record application numbers. Now artificial intelligence has entered the conversation, bringing a new round of questions. Should my student avoid computer science? Is healthcare a safer bet? Will AI eliminate jobs before my teenager even graduates from college?

Parents are about to see something that feels completely backward. Schools like the University of Georgia, Tulane University, and Texas Christian University are removing supplemental essays and short-answer questions from their applications. On the surface, this sounds like good news for stressed teenagers. Less writing. Less pressure. Faster applications. But these changes may actually make admissions even more competitive at these schools. "Easier" applications mean more students apply, which creates larger applicant pools filled with academically qualified teenagers who often look very similar on paper. In that environment, transcripts and SAT or ACT scores may matter more than ever because they remain two of the clearest signals colleges use to measure academic preparation and rigor. Students should focus less on collecting random resume lines and more on building real depth in the classes, activities, and interests that connect to who they are and what they may want to study.

For many LGBTQ teenagers, the college journey is about more than academics. It’s about finding a place where they can live authentically, safely, and fully—where their identity is affirmed, their rights are protected, and their community is celebrated. Choosing the right college can shape not only their academic path but also their mental health, sense of belonging, and personal development. This guide is designed to help LGBTQ teenagers and their families identify colleges where students can find safety, support, and community. It spotlights 20 campuses that have consistently shown up for queer and trans students—in policy, programming, and culture.

A summer job can be one of the most valuable experiences a teenager has in high school. It offers a real-world setting to practice responsibility, solve problems, and work with people of all ages. Teenagers who show up with curiosity and purpose often build skills that shape their confidence, character, and future plans. The right mindset can turn even a simple job into a powerful story of growth.

The University of Miami asks this year's applicants: “Reflect on a community that has influenced you… What significance did that community hold for you, and in what ways did you contribute to it? How will you bring those experiences, values, and insights to enrich our campus community at the University of Miami?”  AI might answer this prompt with polished generalities about teamwork, culture, or perspective. But real admissions readers are looking for depth, clarity, and humanity.

Purdue asks this year's applicants: “How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests, both in and out of the classroom?” This is one of those prompts where it’s easy to play it safe. List a few programs, name a major, mention a club or two, and call it done. But that’s exactly the kind of answer a chatbot could write in under a minute. Purdue is looking for students who have done the research, connected the dots, and can clearly picture themselves in the community.  The key to standing out? Go beyond the brochure.

This year's University of Wisconsin–Madison supplemental prompt asks: “Tell us why you would like to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided, please describe your areas of possible academic interest.” You’ve got 650 words. And a big opportunity.

This year’s college list is about more than where a student can get in. It is about where they will be understood, supported, and prepared for what comes next. Politics, belonging, and technology are all shaping the process, but the most important voice is still the student’s own. Choose colleges that reflect who you are and where you want to grow. That is how you build a list that truly fits. 

If your student is planning to take the August SAT or September ACT, weekly summer practice tests can be one of the most effective tools in their test prep strategy. But the goal is not just to take test after test. It is to use each one as a step toward building the skills, stamina, and confidence needed for real results this fall. Here is how your student can move from weekly practice to peak performance in eight to ten weeks.

When it comes to SAT and ACT prep, summer often gets overlooked. Families assume students need a break or believe fall is the better time to start. But the truth? Summer is one of the most strategic seasons to build momentum. Let’s bust five common myths about summer test prep—and explore the realities that can help your student walk into the August SAT or September ACT confident, calm, and prepared. 

If your student is planning to take the SAT or ACT in August or September, there’s no better time to start preparing than this summer. With school out of session and schedules a little more flexible, summer offers a unique opportunity to build a testing plan that’s both focused and low-stress.  Here are five reasons why summer test prep can make all the difference—and why starting now puts your student in the best position to succeed.

For many rising juniors and seniors, this month is the perfect window to prepare for the August or September standardized test dates. With fewer school commitments and a more flexible schedule, students can focus their energy on building skills and confidence for the upcoming test season. But the key is not just to do more, it’s to prepare strategically. 

If you’re the parent of a high school student, chances are you’ve heard some version of the question, “Will AI take over everything?” You’ve probably read about disappearing jobs, shifting skills, and the pressure to future-proof your child’s education. But the real question is not which jobs are safe. It’s this:  What makes a student irreplaceable in the age of AI?

As final transcripts arrive this summer, many students are celebrating GPA milestones and strong report cards. That hard work matters. GPA reflects effort, growth, and academic consistency. But here’s what most families don’t realize. The GPA printed on a transcript is not always the same GPA colleges use in admissions.  In fact, most colleges use their own internal formulas to recalculate GPA. And those formulas vary widely.

One in four students applying to college this year will use AI to help write their applications. The students who stand out will usually be the ones willing to look inward instead of online. That does not mean staring at a blank document and waiting for inspiration. It means paying attention to the evidence of a life already being lived. A teenager’s best essay ideas are often hiding in plain sight. Their bedroom walls, phone camera, playlists, text messages, favorite objects, saved screenshots, calendar, and closest friendships all contain clues about identity. These details reveal what students notice, what they return to, what they value, and what they may not yet know how to explain about themselves.

Fewer students want to become teachers right now. At the exact moment schools across the country desperately need educators, students are walking away from Education majors at some of the fastest rates in higher education. The numbers are striking. New Burning Glass Institute data shows the projected labor supply for elementary and middle school teachers fell more than 20% over the past decade. Roughly 411,000 teaching positions nationwide are currently vacant or filled by underqualified instructors. Even students who major in Education today are less likely than they were ten years ago to actually stay in classrooms long term.  The pipeline itself is shrinking.

For years, ambitious students flooded into Computer Science because it felt like the safest path into the future. Now many of those same students are quietly pivoting toward Engineering. Not because Engineering suddenly became easier. Quite the opposite. Because the labor market is changing fast enough that students are starting to rethink what “future proof” actually means. Engineering enrollment grew 7.3% in Fall 2025 while Computer Science enrollment dropped 8.1%. That is not a small fluctuation. It is one of the clearest signals yet that students are reacting to the same reality employers are reacting to: AI is reshaping entry level tech work faster than many families expected.  The jobs changing first are often the exact jobs recent Computer Science graduates once relied on to get started.

For years, Computer Science felt like the safest major in America. Families heard the same message everywhere: learn to code, enter tech, secure your future. But the labor market many families imagined when their student first became interested in Computer Science may no longer exist in the same way by the time today’s seniors graduate college.  That is the part families need to understand now.

One in four students applying to college this year will use AI to help write their essays. Many of those essays will sound polished, ambitious, and technically impressive. Increasingly, the essays admissions officers remember most often sound much quieter than that. This admissions cycle reinforced an important truth: big accomplishments do not automatically create memorable essays. Emotional specificity does. Families often assume the strongest essay topics involve major awards, prestigious internships, nonprofit organizations, or dramatic life events. Sometimes those topics work. More often, students struggle because they spend the entire essay trying to prove they are impressive instead of revealing who they are. Admissions officers already have the résumé. The essay exists to provide something different.

Most families assume that means students need more impressive stories to stand out. This admissions cycle suggested something very different. The essays readers remembered most were often built around highly specific moments no chatbot could ever invent. Students usually struggle with essay topics for one reason: they are looking for something that sounds important. That instinct often pushes teenagers toward generic essays about championships, leadership positions, mission trips, or accomplishments they think admissions officers want to hear. The result is often polished writing that reveals very little about who the student actually is. The strongest essays usually begin somewhere much smaller. A strange family ritual. A repetitive job. A random obsession. An ordinary moment that unexpectedly changed how the student sees the world.

Admissions officers are not reading essays like English teachers grading grammar. They are trying to understand who a student actually is. That means they are paying attention to personality, perspective, emotional insight, self-awareness, humor, vulnerability, curiosity, and specificity. They want essays that feel lived-in. Increasingly, AI-assisted essays struggle because they often sound technically strong while revealing very little about the human being behind the application. Parents can usually spot this too once they know what to look for.

One in four students applying to college this year will use AI to help write their essays and resumes. That does not mean every AI-assisted essay will fail. It does mean the admissions landscape is changing. In a pool filled with polished language, the essays that feel genuinely human begin to carry more weight. This is the quiet advantage many families are missing. A human-written essay is not powerful because it rejects technology. It is powerful because it offers something technology cannot supply: a student’s lived perspective, emotional memory, and distinctive voice.  The best college essays have never been about sounding like a professional writer. They are about giving admissions officers a window into who the student is. That window becomes even more important when more applications begin to sound similar. A student who writes with specificity and honesty can create real contrast.

One in four high school students applying to college this year will use AI to help write their college application essays and resumes. Most families hear that and assume the admissions process has become even more unfair, more confusing, and more impossible to navigate. But this admissions cycle revealed something more useful for parents to understand. The rise of AI may actually make authentic students easier to recognize.

One in four high school students applying to college this year will use AI to help write their essays and resumes. That statistic sounds intimidating until families understand one important truth. There are several things students consistently do better than any chatbot. Students have lived experience. AI does not. That difference matters far more in college admissions than many families realize. Admissions officers are not simply evaluating writing quality. They are trying to understand who a student actually is. They want insight into how students think, what they notice, what matters to them emotionally, and how they make sense of their experiences. AI can generate competent writing quickly. What it struggles to create is genuine humanity.

Highly selective colleges are no longer struggling to find academically qualified applicants. Tens of thousands of students now apply with strong grades, rigorous coursework, impressive activities, and polished applications. The essay exists because colleges are searching for distinction beyond the résumé.  AI struggles there. Most AI-assisted essays sound polished because they are built from existing language patterns. The result is often technically strong writing that feels emotionally familiar. Admissions officers begin encountering the same reflections, the same sentence rhythms, and the same tidy observations repeated across thousands of applications.

Experienced admissions readers spend years reading applications from teenagers. Over time, they develop instincts for what human writing feels like. They recognize emotional texture. They recognize awkwardness, humor, contradiction, uncertainty, and specificity. They also recognize when an essay sounds polished without sounding alive. That is increasingly the issue with AI-assisted essays. The grammar is usually strong. The structure is clean. The reflections sound thoughtful at first glance. But many essays begin sounding strangely interchangeable after a few paragraphs. The student sounds mature, balanced, insightful, and emotionally composed in exactly the same way hundreds of other students sound.

If you've been following UT Austin admissions results this year, you already know the numbers are sobering. The Class of 2030 brought more than 100,000 applications to a university that continues to tighten its standards at the major level. Families watching their students get denied from McCombs or Cockrell with 4.0+ GPAs aren't imagining things. The rules changed, and most of them changed quietly. Here's what actually happened.

Every spring, we talk to families whose students did everything right, academically speaking, and still didn't get into their target program at UT Austin. High GPAs. Rigorous course loads. Strong test scores. And a first-choice major that their transcript simply doesn't support. This is the transcript trap, and it catches more students than any other single factor in UT admissions. Here's how it works. 

Most families misunderstand what The University of Texas at Austin is actually looking for. UT does not reward activity lists nearly as much as it rewards evidence of fit to major, depth, initiative, and sustained interest over time. One of the students we worked with was not overloaded with leadership titles, but years of running a small resale business, tracking profits, competing in DECA, and interning at an accounting firm made her application to McCombs School of Business feel clear, coherent, and believable. At College MatchPoint, we call this the 3 to 4 Rule: a few meaningful areas pursued deeply almost always outperform a scattered résumé built to “look impressive.”