After the Common App essay, supplements are the second-most creative part of the college application process. Actually, they’re really the only other creative part. Grades and test scores are quantitative, and recommendations are out of your control once you’ve requested them. The essay and the supplements are the places you get to speak in your voice and to be yourself. But where the main essay needs to work for every school you apply to; your supplements need to be tailored. Reuse a story, sure. Copy and paste a supplement, though, and you’re setting yourself up for failure. (We’ve all heard horror stories of when a supplement about Hamilton is accidentally sent to Middlebury, and it happens more often than you’d even imagine.)
The Best Transfer Essay of 2018: Hurricanes
The transfer process is a lot like applying to college the first time. You need transcripts and teacher recommendations; there are far more supplements than you’d like, and the all-important college essay is still mandatory. So, in many ways, it’s the same. However, transfer essays are pulling double duty. In addition to showing schools that you are a great student, a community member worth coveting, and an overall stellar human being, you need to answer one more question: Why? Why are you looking to transfer? Why is where you are now not good enough?
One of the Best Essays of 2018: Oma’s Sayings
We talk a lot about topics to avoid. Avoid writing about death, avoid writing about grandparents, avoid writing about volunteer experiences, and avoid things that could be read as you trying to ‘impress’ the reader — we want to engage the reader, not to show off. And then, sometimes, there is a way of bringing together a handful of those “don’ts” to create a piece that is engaging, beautiful, and that does one of our favorite things: it proves that even our rules aren’t really rules at all, they’re guidelines.
Social Media and Undergraduate College Admissions
Dear Student: Don’t Get Mad at Your Parents.
If you’re reading this we bet that someone in your family just had a tough conversation that made you mad: they talked to you about your social media presence. More likely than not, someone told you that you needed to either edit or take down your account completely. We get it—it’s annoying being told what to do. And it’s even more annoying being asked to take down something that you've worked hard on.
Social Media and Applying to College: What to Know
We live in 2018—it’s a pretty interesting time to be alive for a number of reasons, but it’s a particularly interesting time to be applying to college because of technology. Namely, social media. We get a lot of questions from (mostly) parents asking us what our best social media practices are. The answer is pretty simple: the best social media presence is no social media presence.
How Important is Class Rank?
What Makes the Best College Essays Amazing?
This year was a year of outstanding essays from our students. We’re a little biased, but we truly were deeply impressed. While the college application process can be far less than inspiring, our kids were willing to push themselves, dedicate the time needed to develop not just this one piece, but as writers overall, and produce essays that showed their hard work.
The 5 Worst Things to do in Your Common App Essay
Common App essays are the wild card of the college application process. You can write about anything, but it needs to appeal to every school you’re applying to. Good luck. The number of options can be overwhelming, and the stakes can be anxiety-inducing, which together can result in some pretty terrible essays.
What's the Best College Essay You've Ever Read?
Here’s a question we get a lot: “So, what’s the absolute best essay you’ve ever read?”
The real answer is very long and it's never just one essay. We’ve read and helped write a ton of “best essays,” and that’s what we always say when people ask us that. Also, every person’s “best essay” looks different. The reason they ask us that question is because they want the secret to success. Unfortunately, we can’t give them that because the secret to success is a lot more than just the essay, but we will say that the essay is far and away the part of your application to pay the most attention to (you know, after you’ve aced your classes and tests) because it’s your chance to show your personality. The worst mistake that any top student can make is relying on their grades and scores to set them apart. They won’t. But, your essay will.
The 4 Best Ideas for a Gap Year
So, you want to take a gap year. We wish more students would take gap years. For one reason or another, they’ve gotten a bad reputation but in reality, they can be incredibly valuable. Whatever lead you here—whether you want to re-apply to schools next year in an effort to get in somewhere great, or you just need a one-year break before enrolling in college—we support you and we want to help you create the best possible gap year.
Tips for Admission at an Undergraduate Business School
We think it’s awesome if you are 17 and have a more specific idea of what you want to do with your life, be it pre-med, history, or business school. There’s no time like the present, so why not just dive on in? The top undergraduate business schools have tricky admissions processes. If you're interested in business in a macro-sense, we suggest trying to start a business.
Colleges that Offer On-Campus Interviews 2018-2019
Although we’ve written in the past to give you a run-down about on-campus interviews and if you should schedule them, we thought…hey, it’s spring. You might need a refresher as well as a guidebook on where they’re even an option and if you should start thinking about these elusive on-campus interviews. Here we go:
A Guide for Juniors Who Don’t Have Summer Plans Yet
While all of the kids we work with have summer plans by now, we understand that there are some high schoolers out there who haven’t firmed anything up just yet. We know the year has been really busy, but planning something productive for your free time is crucial to the college acceptance process. This process is not new, so while this may sound a little harsh, we’re wondering what you’ve been doing for the past several months. In this post, we’ll talk to you about how you should think about planning your summer. Ultimately, however, it’s all about planning ahead and being ambitious. So, it’s time to kick it into high gear.
When Should I take my SAT IIs?
A lot of kids think of the SAT IIs as the ‘chill’ test, the one they can put off until senior year when they’re over the hump with everything else. We’re sorry to say, but we advise against putting off the SAT IIs. Or putting off anything. It was Ben Franklin who said, “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” and I walked by that quotation etched in stone too many times at Penn to not take his advice. So now we're passing his wisdom to you: get the SAT IIs out of the way.
Actionable Items for Rising Seniors/Current Juniors
It’s April of your junior year. The sun has come out. Your classmates are planning the next all-school walkout, and you are probably using all of your strength to focus in history class for just a few more weeks so you don’t totally bomb the question about the Teapot Dome Scandal on your final exam. April also means that if you haven’t started thinking about the college process, you’re late to the game.
How to Pick Your Sophomore Year Extracurriculars
Hey, all you rising sophomores, welcome to limbo! Sophomore year is a weird time. You don’t feel like you’re allowed to be doe-eyed and lost anymore because Junior year is within arms reach, but you still kind of are that confused freshman who wants to be able to check out of class sometimes because everyone’s been telling you that your grades don’t really matter...yet. (For the record, we completely reject that idea and grades don’t always matter, but so goes cultural programming.)
How Do I Start the College Application Process?
If you’re reading this, you’re going to apply to college (or your kid is going to apply, and you’re going to tell them about this at the dinner table, so it’s basically like they’re reading it anyway). Just knowing that you’re going to apply to college, though, isn’t enough to actually kick-start the college process, and figuring out how to start can feel crippling.
The Best Common App Essay Prompt To Write
The Common App essay prompts for the 2018-2019 college application season are out!!! If you’re not as excited as we are, we understand. While college application season is something we look forward to every year, it’s something most students will only deal with once. The plus side of this is that college applications can be very stressful (but we can help with that). The downside is that it means that every little decision can feel like something absolutely enormous. You only have one chance (unless you transfer), so it’s easy to become crippled by indecision.
2018 Acceptance Analysis
2018 acceptances for the Class of 2022 are out and what we predicted has come to pass: it is harder to get into college than ever. HOT TAKE. Acceptance rates are plummeting, and the rates at top schools have yet again hit record lows. At the same time, the number of applicants who were waitlisted is off of the charts. Colleges are becoming more conservative in their admissions decisions. Unfortunately, students are bearing the brunt of it.
Top 8 Reasons You May Have Been Rejected
The 2017-2018 college admissions season is officially over. Yes, waitlists are pending, but the vast majority of high schools seniors know where they are going to end up come fall. All of our kids got into one of their top choices, but our results are always outlines. For many students, the last few weeks have been a wakeup call. Wanting to go to a particular school doesn’t mean you get in. With acceptance percentages continuing to plummet, that was truer this year than ever. The question remains, though: Why? Why didn’t you get into that school you thought you were a perfect fit for on paper? Why didn’t being a legacy give you the boost you needed? Or why wasn’t your full-slate of extracurriculars what got you over the lip? Here are eight reasons you may have been rejected: