Davidson College, located in Davidson, North Carolina, is an extremely small, private, liberal arts school (fewer than 2,000 undergraduates). It’s competitive to get into, with last year’s admit rate falling at just below 17%. Davidson has two essay prompts this year which are relatively straight-forward. Let’s dive in.
USC Legacy Guide
So you went to USC and now your kid wants to go, you might be asking yourself, will your alumni status help get them in? If so, how much will it help? We work with legacy candidates all the time and navigating legacy admissions at top schools can be more complicated than you think. Especially, because a lot of what we know about legacy admissions on USC’s campus today comes from a recent state audit. This might sound odd, but it’s actually a really good thing. We comb through data and talk to insiders every year and legacy admissions data is one of the topics that universities tend to obscure as much as they can. Having a recent official record is kind of a godsend! So today we wanted to break down the ins and outs of legacy admissions at USC and answer some of our most asked questions.
How to Write the Pitzer College Supplement 2022-2023
Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, CA, just outside of L.A. It’s part of the 7 Claremont Colleges – which if you are unfamiliar, is a consortium of schools that all share one giant campus, resources, and even classes. Each school has it’s own distinct personality which will allow you to get specific about why that particular school fits your larger goals. Pitzer is very big into sustainability, and it’s even listed in their prompt as a key core value. Pitzer has around a 15% acceptance rate and a small student population, so making sure your supplemental essays are in tip-top shape are important.
How to Write the Amherst College Supplement 2022-2023
Amherst College is a small, private, liberal arts school in…you guessed it…Amherst, MA. It’s an extremely academically competitive school to gain admittance, with a 7% acceptance rate this past application year. There are about 1,800 undergraduates and it’s a part of a five-college consortium, which includes UMass Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith.
How to Write the Mount Holyoke College Supplement 2022-2023
Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is a historically women’s liberal arts college. It’s a part of the Seven Sisters schools (Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Wellesley College are still women's colleges. Vassar is co-ed and Radcliffe was absorbed by Harvard) and the Five College Consortium ( Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst). Lotta school names, we know. Mount Holyoke has a 38% acceptance rate and a technically optional supplement. Frequent readers of the blog know there is no such thing as optional.
How to Write the Barnard Supplement 2022-2023
Give it up for Barnard, Columbia’s extremely smart, cool, insightful, wise sister. Barnard is not the same as Columbia University, but it is an affiliated college that was created after some very outspoken women said, “please give us our own college if we want to study, live, and learn in female-dominated spaces, but let’s stay close by, let us learn at Columbia in a co-ed environment (*only if we want!*), and share a bunch of resources, OK?” True queens. And so, Barnard was born 133 years ago.
How to Write the Duke Supplement 2022-2023
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina. This part of North Carolina is often referred to as the Research Triangle due it being home to three major research universities, including UNC. Duke is a popular school, and it’s hard to get into. Last cycle, they reported a 7.4% acceptance rate. Duke is a great fit for students who care about academics but also want a robust social college experience.
How to Write the UVA Supplement 2022-2023
The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson (oooh) and has been home to countless Rhodes Scholars, astronauts, governors, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Tina Fey. It’s located in Charlottesville, Virginia and offers over 49 majors and boasts some of the the best undergraduate nursing programs and business programs in the country. For 2022, UVA had a record-low 19% acceptance rate, with over 50,000 students applying. UVA’s known as a public Ivy, and it’s only going to get more competitive over time.
Michigan University Legacy Guide
We work with a wide range of legacy students every year and we always get questions from parents about how their children’s legacy status will affect the admissions process. Because of this, we decided to do a series on our blog breaking down legacy admissions at top schools across the US. We thought it was important to include the University of Michigan, not only because it’s a great school that our students love, but because it has one of the most confusing legacy policies out there. So we wanted to break down some of the ins and outs of legacy status at U Mich.
How to Write the Northwestern Supplement 2022-2023
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois – about 40 minutes away from Chicago. Although, at the time of writing this, Google Maps says you can get there in 35. Northwestern is famous for its journalism program, which boasts a #4 ranking out of all undergraduate journalism programs in the country – and it’s a hard school to get into too, with a 7% acceptance rate. Northwestern has approximately 9,000 undergraduates and one of the largest endowments of any college, 16.1 billion. Famous alumni include Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Pharrell, George R. R. Martin, Seth Meyers, and Megan, Duchess of Sussex. And potentially you!!
How to Write the NYU Supplement 2022-2023
NYU is one of the most popular colleges in the world – so much so that they even call themselves “the top dream school in the country.” A little egotistical, but we digress. A record-breaking 105,000 students applied to NYU’s current freshman class, which dropped their acceptance rate to 12.2%. NYU is getting more and more competitive, and what used to be seen as a safety school for the Ivies is now almost as hard to get into as Cornell.
2022 Top School Retention Rates
If you’re looking at colleges for the fall, whether as a first-year student or a transfer, you should be concerned with a college’s retention rate. The retention rate is the percentage of freshmen who come back for their sophomore year, and it can tell you a lot more than just the amount of freshmen who stick around. It’s an extremely helpful tool in building your college list, no matter how you’re applying.
Brown University Legacy Guide
Most universities like to keep a couple of secrets. One of the most heavily guarded secrets is the truth about legacy admissions. Some top schools, like Brown, barely publish anything about legacies. We love getting to the bottom of tough questions, especially ones important to our clients. We talk to insiders, sift through data, and watch trends closely to get as much information as we can to help our students. We have been doing a series about legacy admission at top schools. We get a lot of questions about Brown (mostly because they don't make a lot of info readily avaible.) With this in mind, we wanted to answer some of the most common questions we get from parents about Brown.
Columbia University Legacy Guide
“Does being a legacy help their chances of getting into Columbia?” It’s a question we get all the time from concerned alumni parents. Legacy admissions can be difficult to get to the bottom of. Many schools do not like to publish a lot of information about legacy admissions and Columbia is one of them. Every year we talk to admissions officers, go through data, and forecast admissions trends, and getting good information can be harder than it looks. So we wanted to break down some of the ins and out of legacy admissions at Columbia and try to answer some of our most asked questions.
Dartmouth Legacy Guide
“I went to Dartmouth, do you think my kid will get in?” It’s a question we get often from parents. Legacy admissions are a hard topic to talk about. They can be controversial and many schools simply do not want to discuss them but still do them behind closed doors. Most alumni parents don’t know much about legacy admissions, so we wanted to help by answering some of our most asked questions. Legacy admissions can be confusing, so we wanted to cover all the ins and outs of navigating legacy status at Dartmouth.
2022 Transfer Acceptance Rates
It might seem early to talk about transferring, but we don’t believe in early. The moment you find yourself unhappy with your current school or catch yourself wondering if the grass is really greener on another campus, we say apply. Why? Because transfer admissions, for lack of a better term, are kind of a crap shoot.
UCLA Legacy Guide
We often work with students who are legacies. Legacy status can help at many top schools but not all of them. And in general, the topic of legacy status isn’t the easiest to navigate. We have been working on a series of guides to help parents navigate legacy status at top schools and today we want to talk about UCLA.
Strategies for Transfer Applicants 2022-2023
If you’re here, this is your sign that you should apply to transfer. If you have even one sliver of doubt at your current school, or you’re unhappy, or you just want a bigger and better challenge, you should think about transferring. But, you need to know more about how transferring works in order to have the most success.
Vanderbilt University Legacy Admissions Guide
Vanderbilt seems like a school where legacy admissions would run rampant. Something about the south, a great baseball program, and a $10.9 billion endowment just makes it feel like Vandy is a place that would care about legacy admissions. We work with legacies all the time and get constantly asked about legacy admissions at Vanderbilt. Unfortunately, Vanderbilt is extremely tight-lipped when it comes to legacy admissions data. Nevertheless, we wanted to break down what they have said about legacy admissions, what we know, and tips for getting in as a legacy.
UC Berkeley Legacy Guide
It isn’t uncommon in Northern California to see a child dressed up head to toe in UC Berkeley merch. These kids often go on to dream of going to Cal just like their parents did. We work with a lot of these kids and we always get questions from their parents about if their legacy status will help them get in. We have been doing a series on the ins and outs of legacy status at top schools and wanted to dive into what UC Berkeley says about legacy status and what that can mean for your applicant.