High school classes may be starting up again, but it’s not too late to make sure you’re taking the right ones. In particular, seniors planning to kick back may want to reconsider: Admissions deans are watching for evidence that you’ve continued to stretch yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

Spending time on campus is not only the best way to learn about school; it’s the only way to know if the place is right for you. High school seniors getting set to fill out applications should consider making an appointment now to visit their top two or three choices in the coming weeks–even if they’ve seen the schools before during summer family vacations. Read the rest of this entry »

Donald Hornig remembers clearly the July night before the first atomic blast. The then 25-year-old was given the unenviable job of guarding the “gadget,” as the device was called, in its final hours. Sitting alone atop a 100-foot-tall steel tower in the middle of a New Mexico desert storm, the young scientist read a book of short stories under a dangling light bulb, hoping to take his mind off the thunder, the lightning, and the experimental nuclear bomb sitting just a few feet away. “It was a deeply philosophical experience to contemplate the monster beside me and what it was about to do to the world if it worked,” he recalls. Read the rest of this entry »