LifeLaunchr

This month, a number of the students we worked with at LifeLaunchr are heading to college. It's one of the best parts of this work.

If your family is thinking about starting the college admissions process, now is a good time. Visit https://www.lifelaunchr.com.

The University of California application opens August 1st, and I want to point California families to a piece I wrote about how these applications actually get read.

Nearly 250,000 students applied to the UC system in 2024. Each application gets about 8-12 minutes from two readers. First impression matters more than most families realize.

Read it here before your student starts the PIQs: https://open.substack.com/pub/swamistakeoncollege/p/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-university

A July New York Times piece covered the growing number of students choosing trades over four-year degrees, citing concern about AI making college less valuable.

My take is that the framing is too simple. What AI replaces isn't education — it's work that was always just about moving information. A plumber, a surgeon, a good engineer — none of those are getting replaced by a chatbot. The real question is whether any education, college or otherwise, is building genuine capability. Schedule your free consultation at https://www.lifelaunchr.com.

AP scores are out. What do they mean for your student?

For seniors: admissions is settled. But good scores can mean college credit and skipping intro courses. For juniors: colleges will see them as part of your academic profile.

Either way, they matter — just differently. Schedule your free consultation at https://www.lifelaunchr.com.

I built Soar because of something I kept seeing in my work with students. They'd come in having done hours of research using ChatGPT. Some of it was accurate. A lot wasn't. And the errors were often in the areas that matter most.

I wrote about this on Substack — why general-purpose AI falls short in college planning, and what I was trying to build instead. Read the full post at https://open.substack.com/pub/swamistakeoncollege/p/why-i-build-soar

The activities section of the Common App is one of the most underestimated parts of the application. 150 characters per activity sounds like plenty — until you're trying to convey what something actually meant in that space.

The students who do it well don't summarize. They quantify. Start this section now, before September. Schedule your free consultation at https://www.lifelaunchr.com.

Soar became a HECA business partner in July. HECA is the Higher Education Consultants Association, and its members are some of the most rigorous independent educational consultants in the country.

For us, this matters because Soar is designed to work alongside counselors — not replace them. Students and parents access Soar through their IEC or school counselor. This partnership reflects that model. Learn more at https://www.withsoar.ai.

With the Common App now open, I want to point families to a piece I wrote about what changed for 2026-27 — what resets, what carries over, and the mistakes families make every fall.

The post also includes a replay of a live walkthrough I did, section by section.

Read it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/swamistakeoncollege/p/filling-out-the-new-common-app-w