Destination YOUniversity

Best Selling Author . TEDx Speaker. College Admission Expert. Football Enthusiast. Dr. Cynthia Colón is the Amazon Best Selling author of Be Committed! Get Admitted. , and the Spanish version, Con Determinación. ¡Logra la admisión ! She is the national host of Destination YOUniversity podcast and founder of College Essay Bootcamp and Dream College Academy . “Cyndie” grew up with 14 Tíos and Tías w...

Hey you! Yeah, you - the one who's been crushing it all week long. Give yourself a round of applause, because it's FRIDAY! 🎉 Now, I know the grind can get tough sometimes, but hear me out. Those moments of discomfort, the ones that make you want to hide under the covers? That's where the magic happens, my friend. It's easy to seek comfort in the familiar, but true growth comes whe...

Admissions Essay Pitfalls! OMG! Of all the lessons we teach in Essay Camp, this may be among THE MOST IMPORTANT! The six common themes that would land you in a pitfall are: ⚠️ Sports ⚠️ Travel ⚠️ Community service ⚠️ People ⚠️ Competition ⚠️ Life challenges. When writing about any of the six topics, it is much harder to make yourself the star of the essay! Students will often write about how many...

Over 500 people signed up for our Ivy League Admission Secrets Challenge in June. Bonus: We're letting you in on all the golden nuggets Best Selling Author . TEDx Speaker. College Admission Expert. Football Enthusiast. Dr. Cynthia Colón is the Amazon Best Selling author of Be Committed! Get Admitted. , and the Spanish version, Con Determinación. ¡Logra la admisión ! She is the national host of...

Meet 6 REAL students, REAL applications, see REAL essays that helped them get admitted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, USC, UCLA, and Notre Dame among others Learn why essays are so important and the 4 types of essays every student needs If you are looking to see for yourself the winning applications to top colleges, this webinar is for you. If you are in need of the best tips on what...

Best Selling Author . TEDx Speaker. College Admission Expert. Football Enthusiast. Dr. Cynthia Colón is the Amazon Best Selling author of Be Committed! Get Admitted. , and the Spanish version, Con Determinación. ¡Logra la admisión ! She is the national host of Destination YOUniversity podcast and founder of College Essay Bootcamp and Dream College Academy . “Cyndie” grew up with 14 Tíos and Tías w...

If you want the best for your child’s future AND want to also maintain a strong relationship along the way without being the nag, you’re not alone. Monica is a high performing, very savvy parent from Northern California. She is the epitome of the over achiever and super organized mom!!  Monica was looking for a partner, someone to meet her where she is, value the knowledge she has in college admis...

It happens every year in late fall. Invariably a parent calls in a panic, “Can you please read my child’s drafted personal statement?”  In this scenario, it was October and Jin was applying Early to his dream college, Northwestern. The application was due in less than 3 weeks.  I read it. I was no bueno. I shared what was working and not working.  Jin and Dad agreed and we set out to get the best...

God didn’t bless me with children, but I love working with boys!! They are straight forward and often I find, they don’t overthink a topic.  The weight room. A simple topic, but when written from a place of vulnerability, it is pure gold!!  The mirror he stares into at the opening of the essay is the reflection he does not want to be. The ending reflection captures it all.  Coach Dina and I break...

I’m going to give you an actual peek inside College Essay Bootcamp.  On Day 1 students write what we call “Test Drives.” They write for 7 minutes on 6 different topics so they can just put words on the page. That evening, their coach offers feedback as to which ones are working and suggestions as to where to go from there. After day 1 of Rueben’s draft, I was moved. I could see where he was going,...

Let me give it to you straight: research shows that a single gender environment helps girls and women thrive. But what does that mean? What does that look like? And why should girl Moms and girl Dad care?  Well, hello! That is what we are talking about today!!  We are here with Executive Director of College Match, Erica Rosales. Erica is an alumna of Wellesley College, one of the oldest colleges i...

I was teaching College Essay Bootcamp at St. John Bosco back in 2018 or 2019 when a young man, Cole, introduced me to spearfishing. By day two, he was stuck and wasn’t sure how to improve the essay.  His first sentence read like a typical English paper topic sentence.  Wrong.  But, what it revealed were the three lessons he learned from spearfishing.  Aha. Now we're onto something.  In my quic...

I know ONE math cheer. ONE.  I was the best student in Geometry, but it was my Algebra II  teacher, Mr. Modlin, who brought in the newspaper and asked if anyone wanted to come up and lead the class in a math cheer.  Um. Hello. My hand raised up faster than you could say, “Go!” Mr. Modlin gave me the floor: D to the X E to the X Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine 3.14159 Square Root Cube Root Log of Pi...

If you and/or your child has ever…   … wondered what Admission Officers look for on the transcript? "Is it better to get a B in an honors/AP course or A in a regular course?" … wished you could learn the best strategies for choosing a major or colleges to apply to straight from a former college admission officer. … wanted to know exactly which activities and leadership roles to add in or...

If you’ve never been to Dayton, OH, promise me you will go there and visit. You could spend at least three days alone in the National Museum of the Air Force. I’ve been to that museum and I also went to Dayton University to watch the First Four (the official beginning of March Madness).   Dayton is one of my favorite cities in Ohio and today, I’ve got my great friend, Tom Rock, who is an alum of D...

Full Disclosure Friday is about one thing only: BE HONEST. Today I share the exact 3 questions I ask every parent I work with. I’ll give you the three questions, answer them as they relate to my goddaughter, and how they relate to parenting.  If you are a parent of a teenager, this episode is for you. If you are a parent of a college-bound teen who is in high school right now, this episode is defi...

IF YOUR CHILD IS CLASS OF 2025, s/he is SEVEN months away from applying to college. KEEP reading for my invitation. Did you know that the University of California system once required only two essays, with a 1000 word limit? In College Essay Bootcamp 1.0 (Senior Fast Track) students completed TWO essays. In 2016, the UC application offered 8 choices and students had to choose 4 essays (aka PIQs: P...

Today you are going to hear from my #1 Go-To for all things Financial Aid and helping parents get the MOST $$ for college. Our guest today, Stephanie Hancock, President and Founder of CollegeAid Works.  If you are a parent of a college bound teenager currently in high school, this episode is for you.  If you want a huge head start in making sure YOUR family gets ALL the $$ you deserve, this episod...

I’ve been divorced now for nearly 9 years, but I still remember one of the highlights of my marriage and a trip we took one spring. The truth is - my ex-husband, maybe more than anyone knows I was once a snob about private colleges versus public. I had no reason to be, but I was. Today is about a trip we took to his alma mater BEFORE we were married. #fulldisclosurefriday #myreallife #entrepreneur...

Ok, so this is me attempting to record in my new “studio” space. Don’t tell Courtney that I took over her living room with all equipment, ring light and all. This was my attempt to record with higher quality (i.e. NOT zoom) and see if I felt comfortable enough to NOT have a loose script in front of me. This was tricky for sure.  Anyway, cheers to Daryl for editing this video in a quick turnaround...

Today you are going to hear from my #1 Go-To for all things Financial Aid and helping parents get the MOST $$ for college. Our guest today, Stephanie Hancock, President and Founder of CollegeAid Works.  If you are a parent of a college bound teenager currently in high school, this episode is for you.  If you want a huge head start in making sure YOUR family gets ALL the $$ you deserve, this episod...

I didn’t always believe I am smart. I didn’t always have goals and strive for more. But thank goodness I met a friend in freshman year at USC. She doesn’t know it, but she changed my life.  In this episode I shared openly and honestly about our relationship. What it meant to me and what you and your child can learn for this.  Enjoy!  #fulldisclosurefriday #myreallife #entrepreneurs #edupreneurs #e...

Today’s episode is about one of my favorite students of all time. Emily is tale #25 in my book, this girl had BIG dreams and she made them known BEFORE entering freshman year. I loved her then and love her now! Spoiler alert: she didn’t quite get her #1 choice college, but wait until you hear her story.  If you’ve ever dreamed big and fallen just short, this episode is for you. If as a parent you’...