What Top Universities Want

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many want to know how the applicant will be an asset to the campus community. Not - I really want to go here - more of a here’s how I will be additive. What I will bring, not what I will take. IMO

So true.
Biggest differential in outcomes is how well kid articulates this.

My kid just finished his four Ivy applications and this was part of every supplement.

A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia's diverse and collaborative community.

How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn.

Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?

Princeton values community and encourages students, faculty, staff and leadership to engage in respectful conversations that can expand their perspectives and challenge their ideas and beliefs. As a prospective member of this community, reflect on how your lived experiences will impact the conversations you will have in the classroom, the dining hall or other campus spaces. What lessons have you learned in life thus far? What will your classmates learn from you? In short, how has your lived experience shaped you?

every T20 school has a similar supplement. Why do you think these 4 are unique?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authenticity is a big factor as well. AOs can se through bullshit wording and embellishments

It’s better to pursue a few passions deeply rather than join a ton of clubs.

Same with essays and planned major - are you demonstrating actual, sustained interest or are you just chasing the big shiny ones?

I’ll also add cohesive narrative. Does the application highlight the student in a well-rounded way and does the story tie together strongly the characteristics and traits that make the student unique and attractive?

I find this saddening. Adolescence is the time to explore varied interests, not being pigeonholed into pursuing narrow and sometimes esoteric so-called “passions” in the name of getting into Twhatever colleges.

That’s not what I meant. My kid has a passion for crocheting (example) - has crocheted for years, joined a crochet club in community, established a crochet club in HS, served as an Officer for the school crochet club and donated crochet blankets and hats to the local hospital.

Plus kid also joined 2 other clubs but the primary focus in application is the crochet club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many want to know how the applicant will be an asset to the campus community. Not - I really want to go here - more of a here’s how I will be additive. What I will bring, not what I will take. IMO

So true.
Biggest differential in outcomes is how well kid articulates this.

My kid just finished his four Ivy applications and this was part of every supplement.

A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia's diverse and collaborative community.

How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn.

Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?

Princeton values community and encourages students, faculty, staff and leadership to engage in respectful conversations that can expand their perspectives and challenge their ideas and beliefs. As a prospective member of this community, reflect on how your lived experiences will impact the conversations you will have in the classroom, the dining hall or other campus spaces. What lessons have you learned in life thus far? What will your classmates learn from you? In short, how has your lived experience shaped you?

every T20 school has a similar supplement. Why do you think these 4 are unique?

Didn’t say they were unique - the topic was schools are looking for kids who demonstrate additive value. It needs to come through essays - it’s not just grades and test scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authenticity is a big factor as well. AOs can se through bullshit wording and embellishments

It’s better to pursue a few passions deeply rather than join a ton of clubs.

Same with essays and planned major - are you demonstrating actual, sustained interest or are you just chasing the big shiny ones?

I’ll also add cohesive narrative. Does the application highlight the student in a well-rounded way and does the story tie together strongly the characteristics and traits that make the student unique and attractive?

I find this saddening. Adolescence is the time to explore varied interests, not being pigeonholed into pursuing narrow and sometimes esoteric so-called “passions” in the name of getting into Twhatever colleges.

That’s not what I meant. My kid has a passion for crocheting (example) - has crocheted for years, joined a crochet club in community, established a crochet club in HS, served as an Officer for the school crochet club and donated crochet blankets and hats to the local hospital.

Plus kid also joined 2 other clubs but the primary focus in application is the crochet club.

So cringe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authenticity is a big factor as well. AOs can se through bullshit wording and embellishments

It’s better to pursue a few passions deeply rather than join a ton of clubs.

Same with essays and planned major - are you demonstrating actual, sustained interest or are you just chasing the big shiny ones?

I’ll also add cohesive narrative. Does the application highlight the student in a well-rounded way and does the story tie together strongly the characteristics and traits that make the student unique and attractive?

I find this saddening. Adolescence is the time to explore varied interests, not being pigeonholed into pursuing narrow and sometimes esoteric so-called “passions” in the name of getting into Twhatever colleges.

That’s not what I meant. My kid has a passion for crocheting (example) - has crocheted for years, joined a crochet club in community, established a crochet club in HS, served as an Officer for the school crochet club and donated crochet blankets and hats to the local hospital.

Plus kid also joined 2 other clubs but the primary focus in application is the crochet club.

So cringe!

Maybe to you but that’s the guidance out there now.

https://www.ivycoach.com/the-ivy-coach-blog/college-admissions/what-are-the-best-extracurriculars-for-college/

Instead, America’s elite universities want to admit students who excel in one specific area of interest to admissions officers. And what interests them are pursuits that will translate on their college campuses as they seek a well-rounded student body comprised of singularly talented students.

It could be a student with a passion for astrophysics or biomedical engineering. It could be a passion for a socks business. It could be a passion for promoting water safety. Whatever it is, it needs to be interesting (or weird, as we like to say at Ivy Coach) and serve the college.

A big part of Ivy Coach’s secret sauce is figuring out — and executing — how to make our students singularly talented in wonderfully weird ways.

[Anonymous]

A relative sent their children outside the country for high school. They own a business in that country and are quite wealthy. The essays were about the incredible struggle the kids have to endure growing up in poverty! Both kids ended up in T5.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure I’d want to attend a college surrounded by classmates whose interests and profiles were carefully curated by their parents and companies like Ivy Coach. I attended an SLAC that’s popular on this forum, I’m grateful for that opportunity. However I’m glad I applied 30 years ago and didn’t have to jump through all these hoops to get in.

[Anonymous]

They want celebrities kids like Apple Martin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went down the Reddit rabbit hole. There's a lot out there if you are interested in this topic, like I am, better sources than here. Below from a private college counselor (u/AppHelper) which i personally found helpful:

Harvard, for instance, cares a lot about you showing what you've achieved, UChicago cares a quite bit more about showing how you can think.

UPenn tends to prefer students who are seriously pre-professional in some capacity or another, whereas the Dartmouth Dean of Admissions on his podcast (Admission Beat) talked a little about picking students who demonstrated "kindness".

Generally, public universities put less emphasis on essays and extracurriculars, but there are huge exceptions to that, of course. The University of California schools are notorious for being particularly random, but they clearly do value diverse experiences, maybe more than a strict intellectual background. I've heard the Georgia Tech Dean of Admissions emphasizes "service", and that's something I've noticed in some of my students who were surprised to admitted to and surprised to be rejected from GTech. At these public universities, there can be differences even within the colleges selective programs. In my experience, Michigan Ross for business seems to want a particular profile from their applicants (which I don't feel like I've solved), whereas Michigan Engineering seems to favor academic excellence more generally.

A few years ago, another counselor who gotten a lot of students into Stanford but no one into UChicago. I'd only gotten one students into Stanford, but had had a couple get into Chicago. As we compared notes, it was just sort of clear that our students had similar grades and scores and "chance me" profiles, but presented pretty different vibes through their essays and activities that matched differently with the two universities' preferences (in a word, UChicago more curious and intellectually engaged; Stanford more driven and entrepreneurial).

For the poster looking for schools for her private school entrepreneurial son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What Top Universities Want:

Your money!

100%

[Anonymous]

The tippy top colleges have institutional priorities such as FG, LI, URM.

24% of Columbia students receive Pell grants. That’s 1/4.

20% of Columbia students are international. That’s 1/5.

Then there are athletes, URM, FG but not LI, legacy. Most of them are test optional.

These are what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authenticity is a big factor as well. AOs can se through bullshit wording and embellishments

This is a common line, but there’s no evidence this is true.

It is very easy for admissions officers to tell which kids with high level achievements in an area are authentically pursuing their "passions" and which ones are just padding their resume. The non-asian kids are passionate and the asian kids are padding their resume.

They can't tell who is asian anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authenticity is a big factor as well. AOs can se through bullshit wording and embellishments

This is a common line, but there’s no evidence this is true.

It is very easy for admissions officers to tell which kids with high level achievements in an area are authentically pursuing their "passions" and which ones are just padding their resume. The non-asian kids are passionate and the asian kids are padding their resume.

They can't tell who is asian anymore.

So true. When AO's come across the name of the student and their parents as they eyes pass over the last names, they close their eyes and open when they are past the first name.

They do speed drills on not looking at the last and first names, so that they are 100% not aware of the child's ethnicity.

[Anonymous]

And they come across Glimpse videos, the software turns the student into a cartoon character so the ethnicity is hidden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authenticity is a big factor as well. AOs can se through bullshit wording and embellishments

It’s better to pursue a few passions deeply rather than join a ton of clubs.

Same with essays and planned major - are you demonstrating actual, sustained interest or are you just chasing the big shiny ones?

I’ll also add cohesive narrative. Does the application highlight the student in a well-rounded way and does the story tie together strongly the characteristics and traits that make the student unique and attractive?

I agree with this post about authenticity. Colleges what to know who you are, what are you passionate about, and how you will make their institution a better place.

I interview students to be Jefferson Scholars at UVa. When I interviewed one high school student, he almost made me cry with his accomplishments. He overcame his initial autistic disabilities to be valedictorian and class president all the while taking care of one parent who was having her own personal issues. You have to let your own personal story shine.

BTW, that student later became a Marshall Scholar who student in England after UVa.

So it looks like you need

A student who has some sort of disability or health issue + A parent who is messed up = Authenticity

Overcoming adversity is attractive to any american even admissions officers. It's shocking how much the residents of the most powerful country in the history of the world all see themselves as underdogs in some way. Everyone relates the story of how they grew up poor or how their father grew up poor or their grandfather and sometimes they have to go all the way back to Plymouth Rock and that first cold winter where their ancestors had to live on the Mayflower because there weren't enough houses. That's right, their ancestors were homeless, but look how far their family has come. They own about half a county in Maine... BOOTSTRAPS!!! Americans identify with adversity.

Authenticity is common. Go anywhere the farmland acreage exceeds the parking lots and everyone is authentic. What you might mean is originality. Almost nobody is original. It is so rare that most kids that get into T5 does not meet that description.