I admire students’ efforts to tell engaging stories and explore sophisticated ideas on their college applications. Good writing, which relies on thoughtful revising, is hard work. I only wish some colleges put the same effort into writing their essay prompts. Strong essays — that are clear, engaging, insightful, honest, and…

By Josh Stephens A while back, the late, venerated David Foster Wallace warned his fellow Gen Xers about the indignity of taking a vacation cruise, which he declared “a supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again.” Emphasis on supposedly. Wallace’s original essay, which inspired a book, is memorable because he’s…

Introduction Higher education, much like American democracy, is designed to move slowly. Colleges react cautiously to trends and trust that their venerability will carry them from year to year and generation to generation. This approach usually works. …

Early Decision and Early Action decisions just came in for the 2020 application season. The numbers are like, in the immortal words of Johnny Utah, woah. The short version is: conventional wisdom, among college counselors and many other folks associated with college admissions, speculated that application would drop; instead, they’re…

The following is an excerpt from Josh Stephens’s new book The Urban Mystique: Notes on California, Los Angeles, and Beyond, published by Solimar books. The notion of a childhood origin story remains relevant to anyone who lives in cities because, in many ways, everyone who lives in a city is…

To hear some people tell it, applying to college is like appearing before a parole board. You’ve served your time for the offenses you have committed. You did something terrible, and the board needs to know you’re a better person. …

Every theater production goes through weeks of rehearsal. Football teams practice formations and plays dozens of times before running them in games. Chefs create tasting menus, militaries run drills, surgeons do internships, and pilots fly simulations. No one is expected to get it right — whatever “it” may be —…

Back in the days when high school social scenes were the stuff of John Hughes movies and Beverly Hills 90210, reputations were all but ironclad. Whoever was a nerd, an artist, a jock, a socialite, or a stoner the first day of ninth grade often remained a nerd, an artist…