Princeton eliminated Early applications this year...again. So, what? When Princeton announced it’s switch to test-optional for this upcoming application cycle, we weren’t surprised. They were the last of the Ivies (and a number of other schools) to announce, and we thought it was pretty likely that they’d follow suit. In a less expected twist, though, they also included in their announcement that they were switching to , thus eliminating their Single Choice Early Action option that they’ve had (on and off) for the last couple of decades.
Princeton is Test-Optional for 2020-2021 because of Coronavirus/COVID-19
Welcome, Princeton. Your bros let you sleep in and you missed the bus, but you got an Uber so you’re only a few days late. Princeton announced that they are joining the rest of their “Ivy League, .” friends in going test-optional for this upcoming 2020-2021 application cycle. Plus...TWIST...they’re getting rid of their single-choice early action option and moving to one collective Jan. 1 regular decision deadline/application option.
Tips for Applying to Penn During the Coronavirus/COVID-19
Alert: UPenn is test-optional this year because of Covid-19. If you’ve had your sights set on Penn but you’re not sure how to proceed, keep reading for a few tips on starting your application. **Please do read the blog linked above that breaks down what their announcement means, and be sure to send in your scores if you’ve already taken the test and done well**
Tips for Applying to Columbia During the Coronavirus/COVID-19
Last year, only 6% of students who applied to Columbia were accepted. It should be expected that even more people will be vying for a spot at Columbia this year, because last week, Columbia opted to go test-optional for this year’s round of applications. Columbia’s statement starts off by saying that if you have scores, send them in. The scores are still of value to Columbia, so if you’ve taken a standardized test and done well, you should absolutely submit them. But let’s look at their second part of their statement:
Tips for Applying to Dartmouth during Coronavirus/Covid-19
Last week, we posted this blog post about Dartmouth’s test-optional policy for the class of 2025. If you’re a regular reader of your blog, you should know by now that this doesn’t mean that getting into Dartmouth will be easier this year. In fact, we expect their 8.7% acceptance rate to decrease this application cycle because more students will be applying. Keep reading for three tips on how to proceed:
Dartmouth is Test-Optional for 2020-2021 because of Coronavirus/COVID 19
Columbia University is Test Optional for 2020-2021 because of Coronavirus/COVID-19
Columbia released its for the 2020-2021 application season. They’re joining the ranks of hundreds of other schools, and, as of this writing, three other Ivies (Cornell, Dartmouth, and UPenn) in the removal of their testing requirement. Applicants are no longer required to submit their SAT or ACT score with their application. This is a big deal, sure, but we also want to contextualize the policy for you so that you can assess what it means.
Tips for Applying to Cornell during Coronavirus/COVID 19
More than a month ago, Cornell announced that they were going test-optional for the upcoming round of applicants. We wrote about it here. Cornell is a great school, and because it has the highest acceptance rate of all of the Ivy’s, we often hear people say that they “might as well apply.” This is, of course, absolutely ridiculous.
Tips for Applying to Princeton During the Coronavirus
Applying to an Ivy League School gets tougher and tougher each year. Layering a pandemic onto the application process isn’t going to make things easier. We have some advice for students interested in attending Princeton. Namely, you will need to work extra hard to maintain a structure for yourself. Don’t let this be an excuse to let your Ivy League dreams fall to the wayside.
Colleges Reopening in Fall 2020
A few days ago, the Harvard Crimson published an article titled, . The piece lays out Harvard’s current status on reopening campus, the different options they are considering, and how there is one thing they are definitively not going to do. Harvard will not be delaying the fall semester. “Whether on campus or virtually,” the Provost wrote, “Harvard will resume teaching and research in fall 2020.”
Cornell University is Test-Optional because of Coronavirus/COVID-19
While many schools--including many highly competitive institutions like , , and --have announced that they will be test-optional for the 2020-2021 application season, the Ivies were staying silent on the matter. Until Wednesday, when that they were following suit. This is big news. But what does it all mean?! How do we contextualize this? Here are our thoughts:
Harvard Acceptance Rate for Legacy Students
Students work hard their entire high school careers with their eyes on the Ivy League. But while they might be busting their behinds to break the single-digit entry rate barriers, what they may not realize is the odds might be even less in their favor. According to data published in the Harvard Crimson, legacies are given a significant amount of preferential treatment. While we don’t know how many seats are reserved for legacy students each year, we can tell you that legacy students are typically represented disproportionately in every freshman class.
What Are My Chances at the Ivy’s?
As we’ve stated before, we do our best to answer the emails we receive from our readers. Recently, we wrote a blog post titled “Which Ivy League Should I Go To?” and in that post we kindly requested that our readers stop asking both that question, and variants of it. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you should know that we do not subscribe to the theory that everyone needs to go to an Ivy League school.
What are my Chances of Getting into Cornell?
Our clients and the regular readers of this blog should know by now that we do not subscribe to the insane theory that everyone should go to an Ivy League school. The truth is that most students ˛ą°ů±đ˛Ô’t better off at an Ivy, and one of our goals is to demystify the application process so that kids can apply to schools that they actually have a chance of getting into. That said, there are still a lot of high school students (and parents) out there that think the Ivy League is the only way to go.
Is The Ivy League Worth It?
Which Ivy League School Should I Go To?
Subject: College choice
Message: Hi! I’ve read your website and it seems like you’ve helped a ton of people get direction on their university choice. I was wondering if you could help me out too? I really have no idea where I want to go and I’m in my senior year of high school. I want to get into one of the Ivy’s but I don’t know particularly why or which one.
Ivy League Freshman Class Size
Getting Into an Ivy League School with C’s?
Recently we got this email:
Subject: Getting into ivy league with C's??
Message: Hi, I am currently a junior in high school and I was never really interested in studies and getting into good colleges back when I started 9th grade. But now, I finally found the motivation but I feel like its too late. Is there anything I can do with the time I have to boost myself?
How To Get Into Stanford
Before you decide that you absolutely positively must attend Stanford, you need to get clear on why. “Because it’s Stanford!” is not a reason. While it’s impossible to characterize the entire school, we’ve spent years helping students apply (and get into) Stanford. Generally speaking, students who get into and thrive at Stanford have the following three qualities:
College Acceptance Rates 2019
The headlines can be recycled (again)! This year, like many consecutive years before it, marked a new record low for acceptance rates across the countries. With acceptances sinking down below 5 percent for some Ivies and nearing the single digits for some non-Ivies, there is no sign of competition slowing down in the near future. In this post, we chart out how rates have changed over the last few years.