Lynell Engelmyer

Lynell Engelmyer is a nationally-recognized expert in college planning, admissions and financial aid. She has more than 20 years of experience, working as an admissions officer, financial aid director and also for the College Board. She has been published and quoted in hundreds of books and articles and serves as a professional college counselor for students from around the country.
Here's how to pick the right college for athletes
college search

How Athletes Can Pick the Right College

By Lynell EngelmyerLast updated on June 12, 2020
As if picking the right college isn’t complicated enough, throwing an applicant’s special talent into the mix makes the process that much more challenging. It even requires some special consideration from these athletes. Here are several things you should keep in mind if you are even considering playing a college sport: Find out where you …
A person holding an ice cream cone with two scoops of ice cream.
ACT & SAT

The New SAT Test Dates

By Lynell EngelmyerLast updated on March 11, 2020
There was a surprise on the list of 2017-2018 new SAT test dates released by the College Board. A late summer test date is now offered for both the SAT and SAT Subject Tests. This change follows the popularity of the September ACT test date introduced several years ago. It is expected that the August …
Test optional schools don't require standardized test scores.
ACT & SAT

What You Need to Know About Test-Optional Colleges

By Lynell EngelmyerLast updated on November 4, 2019
Bowdoin College was the first college in the U.S. to make the submission of standardized test scores (SAT/ACT) optional in 1969, but they were hardly trendsetters. It was not until forty some years later that over 800 other colleges and universities followed Bowdoin’s lead and are now either test optional or “test flexible”. Understanding the …
What's work study and why isn't it actually financial aid
financial aid

Why Work Study Isn’t Really “Financial Aid”

By Lynell EngelmyerLast updated on May 14, 2021
In the next few weeks, financial aid packages for college-bound high school seniors will begin to roll through the door. Interpreting and comparing them is one of life’s bigger challenges. In part because financial aid has its own language, in part because each school might do things just a little differently, and in part because …
how to start your college search
college search

The Best Ways to Jump Start a Junior’s College Search

By Lynell EngelmyerLast updated on November 11, 2021
Your junior year in high school is just about half-way over and your thoughts now turn towards selecting senior year courses and the quest to find the right college. Sometimes the hardest part of the college search process is actually the very first step. In a world where you have, literally, thousands of options, how …
top colleges in the world
college admissions

Is Your Student a HYPSter? What It Takes to Get Into an Ivy League College

By Lynell EngelmyerLast updated on November 8, 2019
What the heck is a HYPSter? It’s part acronym, part tongue-in-cheek term, meaning the kind of student who is accepted and attends a highly selective college like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, etc.–in other words, students attending the top colleges in the country. Many students aspire to these colleges, but many aren’t able to attend. What …