College admissions counselor Nikki Bruno helps high schoolers get in — without losing themselves in the process. Expect straight talk on applications, executive function, and the stuff no one else is saying out loud.
What does 'Good School' actually mean?
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Hi! Lately I’ve been having the same conversation with a lot of families. Junior year is ramping up, list-building season is here, and the question I keep hearing is some version of: “Is this school good enough?” Good enough by whose measure? A study published in Harvard Business Review tracked 28,000 students from 294 universities across 79 countries and measured their actual job performance. The finding: university rank is a poor predictor of how well someone performs at work. Employers get a better return on investment by hiring the “right” student from a lower-ranked school than just “anyone” from a prestigious one. Who’s the “right” student? One with technical skills, yes. But also cooperation, leadership, emotional intelligence, creativity. Motivation and work ethic - which showed no difference at all between students from top-ranked and lower-ranked schools - are traits that students from any educational background can develop and will ensure their success. So what should we actually be optimizing for when putting the right list together? College-level learning matters enormously. But what shapes your kid’s future most is what they did while they were there, and who they did it with. The peer environment - the culture of the place - is the variable a lot of families skip right over. By attending a college where they can easily develop close bonds of support with others who are both alike and different from them, your kid can truly level up on the skills that matter most to employers. It's just how two sailors can train in the same waters with the same boat and come out completely different sailors depending on who’s in the fleet with them or who coaches them. Some sailors respond well to being pushed competitively. Some respond better to the social bonds and benefits of being on a team. College works exactly the same way. “Selective” isn’t a monolith either. MIT and Dartmouth are both highly selective. MIT is labs-at-midnight intensity, deeply technical, collaborative in a build-things way. Dartmouth is outdoorsy, relationship-driven, has a tight alumni network and strong sense of school identity. Same "tier". Entirely different four years. Choosing the wrong culture for your kid is its own kind of mistake - one that doesn’t show up in any ranking. The question worth asking isn’t “what’s the best school?” It’s “what environment is going to push my kid to become who they’re capable of being?” If you want more on this - I did a free webinar on college admissions and sailing last week with coaches from the top high school and college programs in the US. It's live on SteveHuntSailing.com and you can use the code FIRSTMONTHFREE when you sign up and access it for no charge. Over 500 others found it a helpful watch, so go check it out! Until next time... Nikki |
Nikki Bruno // Student Coaching Services
College admissions counselor Nikki Bruno helps high schoolers get in — without losing themselves in the process. Expect straight talk on applications, executive function, and the stuff no one else is saying out loud.
Hi! We are still out here in the Atlantic - it feels like it's been forever! But we are closing in on our destination and will arrive in just a couple of days. Thank you to everyone who has checked in to see how it's going! Quick correction first. Last issue I told you Columbia was test-optional. Well, four days later they announced they’re going back to requiring the SAT or ACT, the last Ivy to drop the pandemic-era policy. It kicks in for the 2027-28 cycle, so this fall’s seniors are still...
Hi! Tonight’s the night. S/V Sonas sets sail for the Azores as soon as the weather clears. If you want to follow along: sdsatracking.com/azores2026 We’ve been sitting in Bermuda for a few days waiting for the right window – and in the meantime, exploring old forts, wandering through museums, doing what sailors do when the wind isn’t ready yet. Lifelong learners, all of us. And by the way, if your kiddo is an explorer too, that is something they can keep a log of to qualify for the...
Hi! I'm back on land. For now. I know many of my students are just coming up for air after AP exams, or still swimming in the thick of finals preparation. I've been super busy too. The IECA conference just wrapped up, which means I spent three days talking to college admissions officers from schools across the country - public, private, big, tiny, selective, very much not. Dozens of conversations. And if I had to distill every single one into one word, it would be: authenticity. I know....