Vanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee’s historic midtown neighborhood. From Covid research to sports teams, there are many reasons to like Vandy. The university hosts four undergraduate schools: the College of Arts and Science, the School of Engineering, the Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and the Blair School of Music. Vanderbilt is test optional and is committed to need-blind financial aid. However, getting in has become more challenging over the years. For the class of 2027, their acceptance rate was only 4.2% during the regular decision round. The early decision acceptance was higher at 15.7%, but these numbers have been on a slow downward trajectory.
How to Write the Bowdoin College Supplement 2023-2024
Bowdoin is a highly-selective liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. The Bowdoin “Offer,” which you’ll read as part of our supplement breakdown, is part mission statement, part poem, and articulates the college’s expectations, priorities, and vision for their institution and the students who attend — and they are big. Founded in 1794 and home to 1,800 students, Bowdoin’s high expectations have led to it being one of the most highly-respected small colleges in the world. They see out students of “uncommon promise, and uncommon character,” and the acceptance rate, a mere 7.7%, reflects that.
How to Write the Barnard College Supplement 2023-2024
Barnard College is an all-women’s college in New York City that is directly across the street from the main Columbia University campus. We say “main” because Barnard has a complicated relationship with Columbia. The college is part of Columbia, but it’s also sorta not. The application is separate and the schools operate independently. However, nearly all of the courses are mixed and your diploma will say “Columbia University” at the top of it with Barnard identified as your undergraduate college just as students in Columbia College or the engineering college of Columbia have. Over 12,000 students apply to Barnard annually, and the acceptance rate is 9%.
How to Write the USC Supplement 2023-2024
If you are looking for a medium-large school in a major metropolitan area, you are probably already thinking about USC. The University of Southern California might sound like a UC school, but USC is actually the state’s oldest private research institution. USC has an undergraduate population of about 21,000 at its downtown LA campus. While the school may be most famous for its film program, the university hosts over 350-degree options. USC is test-optional for the 2023-2024 application cycle, and the school has recently introduced an Early Action application option (still no word on if they will ever add an ED option). Last year, USC hit a record-low acceptance rate of 9.9%. With rates as low as this, the USC supplement has never been more critical.
How to Write the New York University (NYU) Supplement 2023-2024
New York University, aka NYU, is a large, private research university located smack-dab in the middle of Greenwich Village in New York City. As they love to say, the city is your campus! They’re known mostly for the Tisch School of the Arts, or as the alma mater listed on almost every actor’s Wikipedia page, but also are known for their excellent engineering, business, social science, language, and ‘build-your-own-major’ programs. It’s the largest private university in the country, with over 26,000 undergraduates, but that’s just at the NYC campus. They also have two other degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. It also has one of the most rapidly shrinking acceptance rates we’ve ever seen, plummeting to 8% last cycle. Compare that to 2018’s 19% and 2013’s 35% acceptance rates. They’re test-optional, and this year they’re also supplement optional, although if you want a competitive app, you’re gonna write it!!
How to Write the Brown University Supplement 2023-2024
Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is a member of the vaulted Ivy League and has the most flexible curriculum and creativity-centric program of all of the Ivy League schools. The university challenges students to learn and act collaboratively in a way that is interdisciplinary. At the core of this is the Open Curriculum, which allows students to go deep on topics they are passionate about while exploring broadly without strict core or distribution requirements. The city of Providence nurtures this ethos. With nearly 200,000 people and nestled on the coastline, it is brimming with world-class creative and academic minds — and the seafood is also fantastic. Brown is extremely selective. They recently received 50,649 applications for the undergraduate college and admitted 2,560 for a mere 5% acceptance rate.
How to Write the Columbia University Supplement 2023-2024
Columbia University is one of the best universities in the world located in what is inarguably one of the best cities in the world — New York City. Columbia stands out in the Ivy League as having the tightest and most time-consuming distribution requirements, which they call the CORE Curriculum. The Columbia CORE is rooted in the tradition of a liberal arts education, and demands that students graduate with deep expertise alongside broad knowledge — you even need to take a swim test to graduate! In addition to the normal type of distribution requirements at most colleges where you pick language, science, math, and humanities classes from a long list of options, there are a few courses that every single student needs to take to graduate, such as Music Hum, a music theory course, and Art Hum, an art history course that requires significant flash card skills. This academic structure is ideal for high-performing students committed to the liberal arts methodology, and who want a well-rounded education at a top-tier university. The acceptance rate is just under 4%.
How to Write the Boston University (BU) Supplement 2023-2024
Located in, you guessed it, Boston, BU is a large, private research university known for lots and lots of research, study abroad, internship, etc., opportunities for their students. Some fun facts: did you know the school was originally located in Vermont???? That’s not Boston! Plus, Alexander Graham Bell, a BU professor, invented the telephone in a BU lab. That’s right, you could technically call someone in the same lab the telephone was invented in. BU has gotten a lot more competitive over the last few years. Last cycle saw almost 81k applicants and a 14% acceptance rate. Compare that to 2020, with 65k applicants and a 22% acceptance rate. A plummeting acceptance rate combined with a test-optional policy means you better get ready to write some stellar essays. Let’s go.
How to Write the Yale University Supplement 2023-2024
How to Write the Middlebury Supplement 2023-2024
Nestled between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, Middlebury College enjoys an unbelievably scenic campus in Vermont’s Champlain Valley. With a small student body (~2,800 undergraduates total), and a remote location (seriously — it’s beautiful but hard to get to), Middlebury is a classical liberal arts school that attracts ambitious, outdoorsy types to its world-renowned foreign language, creative writing, environmental science, and teaching programs, among its many other offerings. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2027 was just 13%
How to Write the Carnegie Mellon Supplement 2023-2024
If you are a STEM student, you have probably considered applying to Carnegie Mellon University. CMU is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While CMU might be best known for its STEM majors, the university offers a wide array of programs across several schools. CMU is test-optional this year and has been committed to need-blind financial aid. Carnegie Mellon’s supplement hasn’t changed since last year, and we have written about it before. However, their acceptance rate has been steadily falling. Last year it was around an 11% acceptance rate—it has never been more important to put your best foot forward when it comes to the CMU supplement.
How to Write the Claremont McKenna Supplement 2023-2024
Claremont McKenna College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. While it’s a small school, it is part of a consortium, meaning CMC students can take classes at Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer. CMC is primarily known for its social sciences, but they offer over 30 majors (some in conjunction with other consortium schools). Last year their acceptance rate was about 11%. We have written about their supplement in the past, but they changed the questions a bit this year. The CMC supplement has two essay questions and one “optional” video. We put optional in quotations because, with an acceptance rate of only 11%, you should be using your opportunities wisely. TL;DR: just do the video.
How to Write the Pomona College Supplement 2023-2024
Pomona College, located in Claremont, California, is a small, prestigious liberal arts college known for having one of the lowest acceptance rates among liberal arts schools, at 7%. Pomona is a part of the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of liberal arts schools that share a singular campus, and they’re joined by Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer. They’re also one of the wealthiest schools in the US, with a $2.7 BILLION (with a B) endowment. That’s enough for $1.5 million per student. As with many other schools, they’re continuing to be test-optional for 2024, although they haven’t said whether or not they’ll continue after that.
How to Write the Georgia Tech Supplement 2023-2024
Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a public research university based in Atlanta, Georgia. With 17,000 undergrads and 22,000 postgrads, it is an extremely popular college for STEM-minded students. Don’t be fooled by the Georgia of it all, they’re called the MIT of the South for a reason. Georgia Tech boasts a top ten engineering undergrad program, a 36% in-state acceptance rate, and a 12% out-of-state acceptance rate. It’s important to note that Georgia Tech is not test-optional, and in fact are test-mandatory. This seems to be the case with a number of elite STEM schools, so we’re not surprised.
How to Write the Williams Supplement 2023-2024
Williams is a highly-prestigious small liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts in the Berkshire mountains. The Williams community is tight-knit, passionate, curious, and committed to the process of learning — there are also no fraternities, which makes for a distinct social environment. The academic calendar at the college highlights this, as it’s a twist on the standard. They have two four-course semesters, which is normal, but also a one-course January term where students go deep into a single class. The most popular majors include math, political science, economics, English, and biology, and 43% of the 2,000 students graduate with more than one major. The acceptance rate is 8.5%, and they receive over 15,000 applications annually.
How to Write the University of Wisconsin-Madison Supplement 2023-2024
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a prestigious public state school known equally for its academics and its culture (go Badgers!). Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school is set in a mid-sized city that isn’t completely taken over by the university but is heavily dominated by it. This isn’t surprising, given that that total student body of nearly 50,000 accounts for nearly 20% of the city’s population. The university is ranked as the 10th best public university in the United States out of over 1,600 schools, and, despite its size, it holds community values at its core. Public service is considered central to the identity of the university, and the school is a top source for Peace Corps volunteers. While the published acceptance rate is 60%, we consider that number very misleading as the acceptance rate for in-state applicants is much higher than for those applying from outside of Wisconsin. A few years ago, the university received a whopping 42,627 applicants for 6,800 spots.
How to Write the Pitzer College Supplement 2023-2024
Pitzer College is a tiny (1,000 students total) private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. They’re part of the Claremont Colleges, which is a consortium of five undergrad (and two graduate) schools – Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer – that share a gorgeous campus. This innovative approach allows students to attend classes at any school, participate in cross-college sports teams and clubs, and get a liberal arts education on an Oxford-inspired campus. Each school has its own personality and focus, and Pitzer is famous for social sciences, behavioral sciences, international studies, and media studies, as well as a hearty social justice culture. Last cycle, Pitzer had a 17.3% acceptance rate.
How to Write the Washington University in St. Louis Supplement 2023-2024
Washington University in St. Louis is a leading research university in St. Louis, Missouri. Affectionately referred to as WashU, this medium-sized school has nearly 8000 undergraduate students and 17,000 students overall. Known for their programs in the humanities with a focus on research, engineering, education, business, and one of the few undergraduate architecture degrees in the United States, WashU offers a 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio, and access to a faculty that includes four Pulitzer Prize winners, three Poet Laureates of the United States, and 10 National Medal of Science recipients. The campus is truly global, with students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. And, while the acceptance rate is a mere 12% overall, applying Early Decision offers much higher chances. The regular decision acceptance rate is 9%, but the Early Decision acceptance rate is 26%.
Harvard Extracurricular Guide
“Should I even apply to Harvard?” It’s a question that we often hear from nervous students. These students routinely have over a 4.0 GPA and at least a 34 on the ACT but are still worried about getting in. They understand that with only a 3.2% acceptance rate, it takes more than just excellent grades to get in. Harvard uses a holistic admissions process, meaning they look at all aspects of your application. A large part of that is your extracurriculars. You may ask yourself, “Well, what should my extracurriculars look like?” Let us break it down.
How to Write the Tufts Supplement 2023-2024
Tufts is a private research university in the suburbs of Boston, and it wants to be your quirky aunt. By that we mean it has academics on par with top-tier schools and flaunts an intentionally eccentric school spirit. Case in point: Tuftonians also go by the nickname “Jumbos,” a reference to the school’s mascot (P. T. Barnum’s famous circus elephant). With a class size typical of a New England liberal arts school, Tufts has gotten increasingly selective. The incoming class of 2026 includes 1,695 enrolled students and has an admission rate of 9.7%.