What Top Universities Want

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I went to HYPSM 40 years ago and frankly all I needed was a GPA and SAT score. Back then a 1500+ was very rare, these day 10% of some ethnic groups get a 1500+

I think these schools or ay least my school was pumping out much more competent and consequential people There is too much filler in the graduating class these days. There's still a lot of impressive students but so many of them are shells with thin veneers of excellence. Like faberge eggs, extremely fragile and will crack the first time they fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am not an admissions counselor and i knew this about Stanford. I thought it was common knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I went to HYPSM 40 years ago and frankly all I needed was a GPA and SAT score. Back then a 1500+ was very rare, these day 10% of some ethnic groups get a 1500+

I think these schools or ay least my school was pumping out much more competent and consequential people There is too much filler in the graduating class these days. There's still a lot of impressive students but so many of them are shells with thin veneers of excellence. Like faberge eggs, extremely fragile and will crack the first time they fall.

The connection between impressive scores and your ability to handle criticism is...well, there isn't any. This is a comment displaying incessant amounts of fragility, itself.

[Anonymous]

They want you to actually contribute to the community around you rather than trying to game every little aspect of admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They want you to actually contribute to the community around you rather than trying to game every little aspect of admissions.

Yet, they end up admitting a lot of students who game every little aspect of admissions!