Notre Dame is a mid-sized private Catholic research university located just outside of South Bend, Indiana (Pete Buttigieg, anyone??). It’s probably the country’s most famous Catholic school, but they don’t require you to be religious to attend. Culturally, ND is nuts about football (Rudy, anyone???) and while religion might not be a prerequisite, school spirit might be. Over the last few years, their acceptance rate has gotten even lower, hopping from 19% last year to 14% this year.

Tulane is a private research university in New Orleans. Tulane is a great choice for students who are looking to go to school in the south. They also house a business school and many research programs. Last year their acceptance rate was about 8%. Tulane’s competitive to get into so if you apply, you have to make sure you are handing in a strong application. Part of that is their supplement. It’s only technically 3 questions, (more on that later,) and they are optional. While Tulane says they are optional, with an 8% acceptance rate, we don’t really consider them optional. With such a low acceptance rate, you need to take any opportunity to put your best foot forward and make your case as a student. In that spirit, we want to give you tips and tricks on how to approach the Tulane supplement.

Pomona College is a tiny liberal arts college located in Claremont, California. Even though the school itself is small, it’s a part of the Claremont Colleges, which includes Scripps, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, and Claremont McKenna. Each school has it’s own ~vibe~ and specialty, and students at Pomona often gravitate towards the social and natural sciences. It’s a top tier liberal arts school, consistently ranking in the top 5, churns out as many PhD candidates as the Ivy League, and has a three BILLION dollar endowment. With this comes a 6.6% acceptance rate, down almost 2% from last year.

Syracuse University is a private research university in… well, Syracuse, NY. Syracuse’s acceptance rate data swings from 45% to 69% (nice), so we’re not entirely sure since they don’t publish the data themselves and don’t submit a Common Data Set. Syracuse is medium-sized, with about 15,000 undergrads, and is known for their journalism, communications, education, and architecture programs.

Founded in 1900 by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Mellon first started as Carnegie Technical Schools, then became the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and then merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become the school we know today. A midsized private research university in Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Mellon has an acceptance rate around 15%. Based on their history, you’re correctly assuming its a top school for technical majors, including computer science, data science, robotics, and machine learning. But, they’re also home to the first ever drama school in the US! According to them, “past and present faculty and alumni include 20 Nobel Prize laureates, 13 Turing Award winners, 26 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 39 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 91 members of the National Academies, 142 Emmy Award winners, 52 Tony Award laureates, and 12 Academy Award winners.” Impressive.

Santa Clara University is a private, mid-sized Jesuit university in Santa Clara, CA – which is near big hubs like San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The university has churned out countless big-name political leaders, like Gavin Newsom, Janet Napolitano, and Leon Panetta, as well as tons of business leaders like Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript, and David Drummond, former CLO of Google. SCU has an acceptance rate of around 50%, and is known for their business and engineering programs.

Boston University often called simply BU, is a private research institution in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a lot of colleges, but BU is the largest with about 32k undergrads. BU has an acceptance rate of about 14%. BU’s acceptance rate has been falling pretty dramatically over the last ten years and has become competitive to get into. Their supplement is fairly short, but we wanted to break it down to give you the best chance of getting in.

Scripps is a small private liberal arts women’s college in Claremont, CA, and is part of the 7 Claremont Colleges. Notable alumnae include a variety of artists, Bill Clinton’s house counsel Beth Nolan, and Representative Gabby Giffords. Their most popular majors include biology, social science, psychology, communications, natural resources and conservation, and English.

Claremont McKenna College is a private liberal arts college located in Claremont, California. It’s small, with just 8,500 students and is part of the consortium of Claremont Colleges along with seven other schools. Each one presents a different focus of sorts. McKenna’s is the social sciences. Last year’s acceptance rate was 11.2 percent. The school has two required supplemental essays and one optional video assignment. But as we always say at TKG, nothing is optional when it comes to college applications

Brown is kind of having a moment. It has become a favorite school of the Ivy League for many of the students we work with. Brown is a private university in Providence, Rhode Island. Their acceptance rate has been seeing historic lows and was around 5% for the Class of 2026. They are known for their liberal arts feel, Open Curriculum model, and creative student body. Brown’s supplement is fairly short, at least compared to some of the other Ivy Leagues, but students do have to write 3 additional mini-essays to be considered. We want to break these down and give you some tips about how to approach the Brown supplement.

Occidental College is a small private liberal arts college located in Los Angeles, California. When they were founded in 1887, they wanted to be the Princeton of the West, so naturally they adopted the orange and black and tiger mascot. Subtle. Occidental, or Oxy for those ~in the know~, has a 38% acceptance rate and popular majors include Econ, International Relations, Poli Sci, Biology, and Psychology. They’re also a really diverse school, with 45% domestic students of color, and community service is huuuuge with students.