“Will being a legacy help them get into Stanford?” It’s a question we hear all the time from parents. It feels like it should be an easy “yes or no” answer, but it’s actually a little more complicated than that, especially for top schools like Stanford. Since it's a complex question, we wanted to break down the ins and outs of Stanford legacy admissions and what your legacy needs to get in.
Guide for Humanities Student in High School
The humanities are a big bucket of subjects that aren’t easy to put numbers on. In there you’ve got your languages, including English, your histories, your electives at some high schools like political science and ethics. In college, these categories will have lots of little sub-categories, but for now, in high school, they are still pretty big buckets. One thing that is the same as it will be in college is that grading is super subjective. There are lots of questions that you can either get right or wrong, but there are many, many more that are in the realm of “ehhhhhh.” A teacher gets to decide if you are right, wrong, more right than wrong, or more wrong than right. You could get a point, or no point, or part of a point, on a test. If your teachers love you, this will work out in your favor. If they don’t, you may feel it on your report card. That essay for English you worked super hard on could be a B+ or an A- based solely on how your teacher’s migraines are doing today.
Explaining a Low Grade on Your Transcript
We all want to live in a world where there are no low grades, but that’s not the universe most of us live in. For the vast majority of students, low grades happen here and there. Whether it’s an awkward transition to high school freshman year that took a toll on your science grade, or a teacher you simply didn’t meld with for junior year English, there are lots of reasons why you might have a dip on your transcript that isn’t representative of what you’re capable of. Ideally, these situations are anomalies — not the norm.
Brown Legacy Strategy
Brown is kind of always having a moment. It's gotten even more popular than some of the other Ivies recently. In turn, this has driven down its already competitive acceptance rate. Right now, its acceptance rate sits at about 5%. It's harder than ever to get into Brown, but many alumni parents talk like their students will 100% get in because they are “legacies.” This always makes us a bit, to use an SAT word, ~trepidacious~. Legacy admissions are complex, secretive by design, and not the lock that many parents believe they are. So today we want to talk about what legacy admissions actually look like at Brown and what legacies can do as candidates to help stack their decks.
UPenn Legacy Guide
We work with legacy students all the time and the most common question we hear is from parents: “Will my legacy kid get in?” The answer can be slightly more complicated than you might think. At top schools like Penn, not every legacy gets in. Actually, most legacies do not get in. It’s just too competitive. So we wanted to break down all the ins and outs of legacy admission at Penn and answer some of the most common questions we get from alumni parents.
Harvard Legacy Strategy
We hear it all the time, “My kid is a legacy so of course, they are going to get in.” We, however, hate hearing this. Mostly because it's simply not true. And it's especially not true at a school like Harvard. Harvard has one of the lowest if not the lowest acceptance rate in America… really take that in. Of course, something as simple as legacy status is not going to make a student a lock.
Does Freshman Year of High School Matter?
How to Make a Resume for College Application
Writing your college application resume may be one of the last things on your to-do list, and we wouldn’t blame you if it is. When you’re applying to college, the resume is one of the last things students, parents, and teachers talk about — and often they don’t talk about it at all. The silence around the college application resume is probably because the Common App doesn’t make much of a fuss about it either. The resume is practically hidden in the application, and it is typically noted as optional. Why spend much time on something if it’s hidden and optional, after all?
How to Write a Good Resume for a College Application
When it comes to college applications, there are a few pieces everyone remembers without having to think too hard: the supplements, the activities section, the endless biographical information, and the all-important essay. There’s one part of the application, though, that tends to be forgotten. Hidden deep into the application process, and most often optional, the resume is consistently overlooked, ignored, or forgotten about.
Transferring to Yale 2023
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.
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.
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.
Top Tips for Alumni Interviews
If you’re preparing for an alumni interview for a school you’ve applied to, we’ve got the scoop. We find that while interviews may seem difficult, they’re actually a great way for you to get to know the school, and show the school just who you are. Dazzle them with your personality–just be yourself and you’ll be fine.
Demonstrated Interest at New York University
Everyone’s favorite dream school has gotten more competitive. Gone are the days of being a Violet (or a Bobcat or whatever their mascot is) as second-choice to Ivy League dreams. NYU’s acceptance rates have more than halved in the last ten years. HALVED!! In 2013, NYU had a 35% acceptance rate, which went down to 28% in 2017, down again to 19% in 2018, and finally for this last admissions cycle they’re down to 12.2%. And if we follow this math, it’s only going to get harder and harder to stand out amongst the piles of applicants.
How to Write Unique and Creative College Essay Conclusions
Early Decision 2021 Statistics
We are kind of numbers nerds. Seriously, we love pouring over data, especially the type of data that helps us prepare for next year’s college application season. By now, colleges have chosen their early decision admissions and many have shared that data online. We love to track this data and look for trends that might help our students make decisions in the future. This year was a bit of a mixed bag. So let’s look at the number for this year’s ED admissions.
UC Berkeley Enrollment Freeze
Top 10 Least Popular Majors at Cornell
Getting into college can be tough. Getting into one of the nation’s top colleges, like Cornell or the other Ivies, can be near impossible. Students often ask us what they can do to get ahead. After all, they’re vying for a spot against countless other candidates with perfect grades, flawless essays, and extracurriculars that impress. Every little bit helps and we think landing on the right major is a solid strategy for getting ahead if the rest of your application is already perfect.
Junior Year: Preparing for College
College applications are stressful for everyone, but thankfully, with a bit of preparation in your junior year, you can make the process much easier. But the thing that is hard is that there are no ‘hard’ deadlines in Junior year. It is the time to leverage your self-determination and organizational skills to pursue leadership, excel academically, and build relationships.