Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best advice: develop a narrative beginning in ninth grade. Not kidding. If your kid likes debate, make sure they attend state or national conferences or write an op ed about a presidential debate.start a debate club at school, find any way you can to get some sort of state or national level recognition over the next four years. It’s all gimmicks but … it’s what admissions committees want to see.

in general, Admissions likes to see your kid pick an activity and focus on it. So let them do what they like and do it more in-depth in HS. Much better to spend 20 hours/week+ on a single activity than to randomly do a few hours here or there where it's obviuosly they are just ticking off the boxes versus genuine interest.

another benefit is your kid will enjoy HS much more and be happier with life. Cannot imagine crafting a kid's entire HS existence in order to gain admission to a T20 school and then "fail". Versus letting them be genuine and seeing what happens. My kid did that, missed out on the T25s, but is attending a T40 and it's the perfect fit for them. Does not regret the choices they made in HS (that might have cost them a T25). They are happier and excelling at life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some admissions staff drop a very specific hints about what to include in essays if you pay enough attention. If you reach out to them directly they might provide more.

UMD CMNS college (the one with CS) dropped a hint at any admissions event about mentioning something in the application. I followed up using an anonymous email account and asked for more details and they gave us pretty much word for word what to say in the Additional Information section to indicate a real interest in CS.

VA Tech emphasized over and over again how important they view service to be and dropped hints to emphasize it in the essay.

This is definitely true for Michigan and Northwestern. Also, possibly Duke.

What is an admissions event? Do you mean college tours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

I agree with this. At the end of the day AOs are human.

My DC is a fantastic writer and his essays were both charming and subtlety funny (and AI is NOT capable of this, no matter how much you want to think so). The topics were nothing special; I think they showed him as a nice person who had a genuine interest in the school. His stats were average for the T20 he applied for ED; I believe it was the essays that got him the acceptance.

[Anonymous]

Do you think ECs matter when applying to big state schools or do they mainly use an algorithm of GPA and SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think ECs matter when applying to big state schools or do they mainly use an algorithm of GPA and SAT?

Matters At Michigan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

I agree with this. At the end of the day AOs are human.

My DC is a fantastic writer and his essays were both charming and subtlety funny (and AI is NOT capable of this, no matter how much you want to think so). The topics were nothing special; I think they showed him as a nice person who had a genuine interest in the school. His stats were average for the T20 he applied for ED; I believe it was the essays that got him the acceptance.

There’s a lot of good advice both on this site and elsewhere on how to create an authentic application narrative.

How to focus on your character and personality and how to convey that in a way that resonates with admissions officers. Rather than focusing on the weird stuff that this site tends to over rotate on, I would absolutely recommend all of you with juniors or younger spend time focusing on this. Research. Make notes. Start brainstorming essays; brag sheets; activities.

[Anonymous]

Have rich and connected parents. Go to a school that regularly accepts kids. Or be poor and apply via questbridge. Middle class need not apply. This is for top 10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

Many of these are exaggerated, crafted, and carefully written to hook readers and sell the applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

+1. This is my kid, he’s a quirky, smart, ND kid. NSMF, high stats but not crazy rigor. All his IB classes were humanities not math or science. Geeky passions, many of which are long term ones.

Funny essay about his love for the Roman Empire and fascination with certain figures.

Already in at several targets and safeties with merit, waiting on reaches now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have rich and connected parents. Go to a school that regularly accepts kids. Or be poor and apply via questbridge. Middle class need not apply. This is for top 10.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

Many of these are exaggerated, crafted, and carefully written to hook readers and sell the applicant.

But of course. You are selling yourself to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT score really matters.

To a certain extent yes. But once you hit at certain level, nope getting higher does not matter.

The touchy-feely admissions officer thinking “I really like this kid” based on their essays, activities and background matters more than everyone thinks. It is a rational decision to a point but more emotion involved than there should be.

Yes but it must feel authentic and not made up.
Like you want to root for this kid. The kid makes you laugh. Has uncommon experiences or take on something. You see something familiar in him/her? Something you haven’t seen in a bunch of other applications.

Good essays, LOR and activities can absolutely do this.

+1. This is my kid, he’s a quirky, smart, ND kid. NSMF, high stats but not crazy rigor. All his IB classes were humanities not math or science. Geeky passions, many of which are long term ones.

Funny essay about his love for the Roman Empire and fascination with certain figures.

Already in at several targets and safeties with merit, waiting on reaches now.

Mine too. Humanities kid with quirky weird academic interests. Long term ECs. Unusual.