Generally speaking, no one is going to purposely hurt your college application and write a negative recommendation (that'd be an oxymoron). If for some reason someone feels like they can't honestly recommend you, they likely would decline or suggest someone else.

That being said, there can still be bad recommendations from writers with good intentions. And admissions officers can spot them from a mile away. These letters certainly don't help your application, and they could even hurt your chances of getting accepted. Let's take a closer look at what features make for a "bad" recommendation.

Are you applying to Harvard, or writing a letter of recommendation for someone who is? To get into Harvard or another Ivy League school, your letter of recommendation, like with all the other parts of your application, must be outstanding. Even if your grades, test scores, and other achievements are stellar, you don't want to downplay the importance of recommendation letters in the admissions decision.

Read on to find out just how important rec letters are to the Harvard admissions committee, along with how exactly they can provide powerful support for an applicant.

If you're thinking about going to college, you probably know by now that an education is, well, expensive. It's not just tuition you're worried about—there are so many other costs associated with forging out on your own, especially if you'll be living away from home for the first time. The best way to tackle these expenses? First, you have to educate yourself about the reality of college costs.

In this comprehensive guide, I'll walk you through all the expenses you'll need to consider when you go to college, both obvious and not-so-obvious. Then, I'll discuss factors that affect how much money you and your family actually pay out-of-pocket—it's not as hard as you think to get a first-rate education for a bargain.

Looking to gain a little more independence and real-world experience? Hoping to develop some useful professional skills? Getting a job as a teenager is a great way to work towards these goals. In this post, I'll talk a little bit about why you should (or shouldn't) get a job, before telling you what you should be looking for in your first part-time position. Read to the end for tips & strategies on finding the best job for you!

If you're brainstorming different methods of funding your college education, you've likely considered working your way through school. The federally-funded Work Study program exists to make this option a little more viable. You don't receive a loan or a grant - instead, you get a job that exists partly because this program subsidizes your wages.

Work-study awards are unique components of many students' financial aid packages. Because these awards are so different from your typical loan, grant, or scholarship, you might have questions about how they work, exactly. In this post, I'll go over everything you need to know about Work Study.

There are a lot of great federal aid options out there, for every type of student. The Perkins loan may just be one of many types of federal loans, but it comes with a lot of perks that make it worth an in-depth look. I'll go through all the information you need about this loan program, before telling you how to get your own Perkins loan. 

Location is one of the most important factors to consider when choosing a college. So how do you decide whether to go to school close to home or far away? It’s not an easy choice, and a lot of it depends on your personality and what you want to do in college. In this article I’ll go through the positives and negatives of attending college close to home and how you can decide whether it’s the right choice for you.

One of the main factors to consider when choosing a college is the size of its enrollment. This is one of the first things college search websites ask you to specify because it’s an easy way to eliminate a bunch of schools. But what if you aren't sure whether you’re interested in big or small colleges or what the benefits and drawbacks are for each? In this article, I’ll provide a rundown of the characteristics of large and small colleges and the ways they differ from one another.

Size is a really important factor to take into consideration when deciding where to apply to college. Both large and small colleges have their advantages, but it all really depends on what type of school will provide the best learning experience for you on a personal level. In this article, I’ll give you details about the types of experiences you can expect from small colleges and whether you should consider putting them first in your college search.

The ACT English section can be intimidating. You have to know grammar rules that may seem obscure to you, and the ACT folks even expect you to know how to properly use commas. Not only do you have to know your grammar, but also you have to to know how to analyze ACT English passages, and you have to know how to organize them. You're tested on a wide range of skills and you don’t have much time to answer each question. If you’re wondering how to possibly go about studying for ACT English and improving your score, then this is the post for you.

In this article, I’ll give you my top 9 strategies to help you ace the ACT English section. These are meant to be study tips that will require time and diligence. The most important advice I can give you is to keep practicing. Focus your studying on areas that need improvement. However, that's advice that anyone can give. If you can successfully execute the following specific strategies, I guarantee your ACT English success:

Preparing for the ACT English section can feel overwhelming. This section covers a lot of material that is often not taught in school, and the format is probably different from that of any other test you’ve taken.

Even more confusing, there are a ton of different sources for ACT English prep. How do you decide which ones to use? How do you make the most efficient use of your study time? What should you do to prepare for ACT English to reach your target score?

I’ve spent the past decade teaching SAT prep classes and helping hundreds of students prepare for the SAT Writing section. After taking my class, many of my former students were able to improve their SAT Writing scores by more than 200 points. My experience has taught me that having a disciplined, focused approach to your SAT prep will allow you to maximize your score.

In this article, I have given you the best advice I have for preparing for SAT Writing. Using these methods will enable you to use your study time wisely and master the skills you need to be an SAT Writing superstar.

A series of numbers that follows a particular pattern is called a sequence. Sometimes, each new term is found by adding or subtracting a certain constant, sometimes by multiplying or dividing. So long as the pattern is the same for every new term, the numbers are said to lie in a sequence.

Sequence questions will have multiple moving parts and pieces, and you will always have several different options to choose from in order to solve the problem. We’ll walk through all the methods for solving sequence questions, as well as the pros and cons for each. You will likely see two sequence questions on any given SAT, so keep this in mind as you find your perfect balance between time strategies and memorization.

This will be your complete guide to SAT sequence problems--the types of sequences you’ll see, the typical sequence questions that appear on the SAT, and the best ways to solve these types of problems for your particular SAT test taking strategies.

Statistics questions on the ACT are often simpler than the statistics questions you have seen in class. Most all of the statistics questions on the ACT boil down to finding or manipulating means, medians, and modes of a set of numbers.

If you are already familiar with these terms, you will have a good head-start on these types of problems. But even if you aren't familiar with these terms, most of ACT stats questions require that you understand and apply just a few key concepts (all of which we will go through in this guide).

This will be your complete guide to ACT means, medians, and modes—what they mean, how you'll see them on the test, and how to solve even the most complicated of ACT statistics questions.