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.
When Should I take my SAT IIs?
A lot of kids think of the 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.
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. 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:
My Dream School Waitlisted Me...What Do I Do Now?
Acceptance letters are rolling out, along with dreaded rejections and often even more stressful waitlist notices. With Ivy Day (March 28th) creeping up, there will be more waitlisted students than ever before. Why? Well, it isn’t only because there are a ton of students applying to college, and that the average student is applying to more colleges than ever. Sure, that’s part of it, but there’s a lot more going on than just millions of kids competing for coveted spots. You see, college admissions is a game — and not just for the applicants.
What to Do During Spring Break If You Are a Sophomore
The spring of sophomore year can be fun. You feel more confident about your place in school. Perhaps your parents are granting you more freedom and depending on where you live, you might even be revving up to get your driver’s license. We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but you’re also hitting that point in which everything starts moving faster and before you know it, you’ll blink and be in college. So, while it may seem a little early, there is no time like your sophomore year of spring break to start preparing. Admit it. We know you’re kind of excited.
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls: How to Choose Your Safety Schools, feat. Wisdom from TLC
It’s time to pick your safety schools. And while you’ve tried different ways to imagine that you’re not going to have to resort to going there, it’s all the same: your test scores are what they are and each school has an average range. The good news is, there are THOUSANDS of schools in this country. There are bound to be three to five you don’t hate.
Quit Playing Games with My Heart: How to Choose Your Target Schools, feat. Wisdom from the Backstreet Boys
To state the obvious, we often think of target schools as being that beautiful sweet spot between so-called “reaches” and “safeties.” While target schools are a crucial component towards achieving matriculation success, they’re a little more semi-sweet than totally milk chocolate. In fact, what you need to know is that target schools are not a guarantee. At all. While the whole college process can, at times, feel like nothing but a heartache, we’ve come up with a strategy to help you develop your target list.
Get Your Act Together You Will Be Just Fine: How to Choose a Reach School, feat. Wisdom from the Spice Girls
Some of you might read the headline of this post and think “Forget spicing up my life! I just want to get in somewhere…anywhere!” Others might think, “Rules are for fools. Harvard’s my fallback.” For the duration of this post, we encourage you to set aside your fears, your ego, and relax your mind. In fact, conventional wisdom would lead us to believe that applications, like harmonies, are nicer when diversified. Au contraire, mon frère. Adding more reach schools to your list ensures nothing. Fun, right? Okay, so what’s the point of even trying if applying to more reach schools doesn’t mean you have a shot at getting into any of them? We’ve come up with a simple guidebook on how to hedge your bets. So, here’s the story from A to Z:
How to Choose Your 12th Grade Science Class
Summer Activities for Juniors Interested in Healthcare
Summer is a great time to get ahead in the college application game. While your competition is busy binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy, we recommend kicking it into high gear and setting yourself to pursue health care in college. There are a number of different ways you can impress the admissions committee, from taking a great internship to spending the summer in a serious college course. Whatever you choose, make sure you challenge yourself and make sure you get specific. There will be hundreds, perhaps even thousands of other applicants who want to pursue careers in healthcare. In order to set yourself apart, you should spend the developing yourself as the best within a niche within healthcare. In other words, market yourself as the kid who is going to be the best nurse in the pediatric ICU, the top doctor in medical bionics, or even a successful healthcare marketing professional.
How to Write the Harvard Transfer Application
So you want to transfer to Harvard. Welcome to a very large number group, with a very low success rate. By very low, we mean minuscule. Harvard accepts less than 1% of transfer applicants on average, and some years they don’t accept anyone. Seriously. That’s a 0-1% acceptance rate. Does that mean you shouldn’t try? Not at all. We’re all about beating slim odds, but first, you have to accept that no matter how hard you work, or how great your grades are, or how many times you’ve walked on the moon, or how many Disney shows you starred in, you’re not getting in. Accept it, embrace it, and then try anyways.
Summer Ideas for Juniors Who Are Interested in Teaching
While most educators get summers off, for those aspiring to become teachers, summer break is, perhaps, the best time to get ahead. We have highlighted a few ways in which you can spend your summer investing in your college admissions process while your competition is taking it easy. Before we get started, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
How to Write a Transfer Common App Essay
Does Going to Camp look bad for College?
Will Taking Harder Classes (honors, AP, advanced, IB) Help me get into Top Schools?
We receive dozens of the same questions during every single application season. They range from questions about testing, grades, time management, and class selection, but we want to make sure that you know we hear you. Every time you email us, we reply to each individualized question. But in order to make this knowledge as accessible as possible, we’ve started to address these questions in the public forum () so that you can understand our stance on the hot topics of college applications. Let’s get started with a question that plagues every single student around this time of year as they’re selecting classes for next year: “Should I take the AP class?”
How Much Do SAT/ACT Scores Matter?
Listen, we agree that humans are not quantifiable, that your potential isn’t dictated by a number, and that standardized testing is sometimes fickle and frustrating. All of that is true. But while we’d love to be able to say that scores don’t matter and that you being a great person and a world-class tap dancer will get you into your dream school, they do matter. A lot.
Summer Ideas for Juniors Who Are Interested in Science
Many kids dream of taking the summer after Junior to go on a Teen Tour, go spend one last summer at camp, or catch up on the last 26 seasons of Doctor Who. While the desire to engage in these activities is totally understandable following the completion of an entire year of , we encourage our students to fight the urge and consider summer the optimal time to secure their eligibility at their first-choice schools.
Summer Ideas for Juniors Who Are Interested in Writing and Journalism
Rory Gilmore from the CW classic, Gilmore Girls was a model student. She was a staff writer for her high school paper, transferred to a prestigious prep school to increase her odds of attending Harvard, and when she wasn’t hanging out with her boyfriend (Dean or Jess, depending on the season), she could often be found beneath her favorite tree, reading “Anna Karenina” for fun.