--- title: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly | TIME description: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly canonical: https://time.com/video/5Zz72aU1/ og:title: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly og:description: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly og:url: https://time.com/video/5Zz72aU1/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5Zz72aU1/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly twitter:description: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5Zz72aU1/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly [Watch (HLS stream): Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5Zz72aU1.m3u8) (1:59)  _Published 2014-11-14. Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly_ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:31 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The College Admission Process Is Already Rigged to Favor the Rich. Here's How](/video/PWTQf6Tr/) ### The College Admission Process Is Already Rigged to Favor the Rich. Here's How [Advice for College Students and Recent Grads](/video/a00Q5kvi/) ### Advice for College Students and Recent Grads [Advice for Would-Be College Athletes](/video/gCL2ulwx/) ### Advice for Would-Be College Athletes --- ## Transcript In the context of things, college is not a destination, it's a vehicle. It's gonna get us somewhere we want them to go. Hi, I'm Pamela Donnelly. I am a college admissions expert. I specialize in getting kids into, the colleges of their dreams, but also, just to the right college for them. Post 2008 with the economic crisis. What I've seen is a tremendous teeter totter of disaster, and this is the tuition rates rising because of the economic, you know, problems that the country has been having. While the admissions rates right now are about 18 % more difficult to get into most schools than it would have been even five or ten years ago. The way to keep a student [ INAUDIBLE ] is to help them remember that is a blip on the chart of a much larger movie called life. So, we don't want them to be so focused on an SAT score or a [ MUSIC ] A particular grade in a particular class, that it can feel really disproportionate to the realities. The reality is we want them to begin with the end in mind. We want them to begin knowing that our goal is to get you a happy, joyous, life where you have purpose, right? Our goal is not to have this thing called a 4. 0, and where's that 2400 on that SAT? So many students come in with a fear of letting the parents down. But, I'll remind them that they're one or two years, usually, away from being legally an adult, able to vote, able to, you know, do all kinds of grownup things. Coming of age is a process. So, teaching them that it's okay to do that. You know that song from Frozen? Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Right? Once you put it in those applications, I want you to remember that scene where Anna takes her scarf and throws it to the wind because at some point you do have to let it go. I love that she steps into her power in that moment, and these young men and women are stepping into their power and who they are about to become. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly","description":"Advice on the College Admissions Process From Author Pamela Donnelly","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5Zz72aU1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-14T16:34:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5Zz72aU1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/5Zz72aU1/","duration":"PT1M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/5Zz72aU1/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```