Tips for the 2025-2026 season

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are odds for very high stats, good ECs, full pay, Hispanic, 1500+?

Start a new post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are being counseled to subtly drop in hints of privilege into essay and supplementals. They are looking for full pay and increasing family/alum support as a strategic initiative since they are preparing for less funding federally:

1. mention expensive hobbies: global travel to practice language, ski trips etc.

2. cite expensive private school or private summer camps/programs

3. talk about volunteer work

This will backfire at ivy/elites which want to keep their current 55% or more receiving need-based aid. It is a bragging point mentioned on every tour we took of the Top10(8 of them).
Need based aid cutoffs are aroubd 250k HHI. Top schools will be bragging about having 60% receiving aid soon. There are far too many full pay kids applying for the 45% of slots that are for full pay, and with TO and affirmative action mostly gone it is much harder for colleges to find qualified need-based aid students to fill the 55-60% with need.
Full pay is only a benefit to need aware schools ie around T30 level and lower.

There are a gazillion smart middle class kids out there. There really isn't a shortage of talented students coming from households earning less then $250,000 per year. But there are only about 20-30 schools that will make it work for them. They tend to be the high endowment, super selective schools. And good for them for prioritizing talent over wealth. That's why they are the best schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

These are not sabotages.

The top two sabotages are:
1. Apply to only three reaches or else your DC will have a mental break down.
2. Test score is not important.

These posters come in in waves. Non-stop sabotaging.

Yes, stop worrying about test scores. Start focusing on targets, rather than reaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are being counseled to subtly drop in hints of privilege into essay and supplementals. They are looking for full pay and increasing family/alum support as a strategic initiative since they are preparing for less funding federally:

1. mention expensive hobbies: global travel to practice language, ski trips etc.

2. cite expensive private school or private summer camps/programs

3. talk about volunteer work

This will backfire at ivy/elites which want to keep their current 55% or more receiving need-based aid. It is a bragging point mentioned on every tour we took of the Top10(8 of them).
Need based aid cutoffs are aroubd 250k HHI. Top schools will be bragging about having 60% receiving aid soon. There are far too many full pay kids applying for the 45% of slots that are for full pay, and with TO and affirmative action mostly gone it is much harder for colleges to find qualified need-based aid students to fill the 55-60% with need.
Full pay is only a benefit to need aware schools ie around T30 level and lower.

They are the biggest hypocrites. Scam. Full aid given to 250HHI? A mere 12 kids.
The other 60% receiving aids? Very little aid (other than FGLI, which could amount to as high as 25% admits).
Apply some critical thinking. Please!

[Anonymous]

There’s a podcast out this week that reads aloud 2 successful Ivy/Yale personal essays from last cycle.

The 1st one is about an environmental conservation (service) trip to Asia…..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a podcast out this week that reads aloud 2 successful Ivy/Yale personal essays from last cycle.

The 1st one is about an environmental conservation (service) trip to Asia…..

LOL

Can you share the link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a podcast out this week that reads aloud 2 successful Ivy/Yale personal essays from last cycle.

The 1st one is about an environmental conservation (service) trip to Asia…..

LOL

Can you share the link?

“All right. So right away, she is absolutely communicating the background. She's here on a conservation mission for this.

I don't know if you didn't know what a dugong was at this point. She gives you some kind of charmingly vivid descriptions, but kind of the big dopey, but like valuable, again, this idea of isoars. But you also see some of her background, right?

Her enthusiasm. She'd been doing this for nine months. So she's on this short trip to the Philippines, but she's been preparing for nearly a year, working back and forth with a biodiversity expert in the area to work up a sustainable plan so that when she got there, she was prepared and could make it work.

So you're contrasting this with what she just said in that short one-line paragraph above, where it's just I had never asked myself this question. So in nine months of preparing her pitch for why to save the dugong, she hadn't really considered this question of why is it valuable to the Filipino people to save the dugong? So two planes and one banca boat ride later, I met with local fisher folks as their t-shirts[…]”

From Inside the Admissions Office: Advice from Former Admissions Officers: 122. Yale Writing Expert Analyze Two Successful College Essays, Aug 22, 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

I like to use Oxford commas but I have always been told they are outdated. And that more modern style guides don't require them. So I can't see this being an issue in writing for college apps. Also semicolon use is more of a choice. It's quite possible to write so you don't need to use that punctuation mark. In fact, I think that would be more common. Is the point that Grammarly rewrites to insert semi-colons? Weird thing to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

I like to use Oxford commas but I have always been told they are outdated. And that more modern style guides don't require them. So I can't see this being an issue in writing for college apps. Also semicolon use is more of a choice. It's quite possible to write so you don't need to use that punctuation mark. In fact, I think that would be more common. Is the point that Grammarly rewrites to insert semi-colons? Weird thing to worry about.

Yes.
Ime, grammarly reorders your words and adds Oxford commas (always) and a lot of semi-colons. It’s a standard feature/marker of Grammarly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think colleges who used to rely on fly-in programs for URM will be looking for signs of diversity in applications. But URM with lower test scores will be dangerous for colleges. Trump admin is tracking this. So if this is your kid, TO is the way to go

Fly-in programs are more popular than ever. Universities are also heavily leaning on college match, questbridge, posse, and other organizations that funnel students into top universities. Many of these students have low SAT’s so they’re definitely going TO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a podcast out this week that reads aloud 2 successful Ivy/Yale personal essays from last cycle.

The 1st one is about an environmental conservation (service) trip to Asia…..

So so pretentious! Saving the World that they have zero idea about, thinking that they are on some mission. Speak of sense of privilege and entitlement.

[Anonymous]

You might want to read this thread.
The goal? Create such a compelling application that your AO remembers you.....

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1n4e9qu/aos_have_you_ever_regretted_not_fighting_hard/

"They remember the students for whom they advocated. Each AO on average would have 20 students who were admitted. If you’ve never had the experience or heard about the experience of an AO remembering details of an application after running into the student on campus, then you wouldn’t know."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might want to read this thread.
The goal? Create such a compelling application that your AO remembers you.....

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1n4e9qu/aos_have_you_ever_regretted_not_fighting_hard/

"They remember the students for whom they advocated. Each AO on average would have 20 students who were admitted. If you’ve never had the experience or heard about the experience of an AO remembering details of an application after running into the student on campus, then you wouldn’t know."

And the secret to creating such an unforgettable application of course needs an admissions consultant...

They are just pointing it out purely for student's benefit. It like asking a barber if you need a haircut.

AO's at top privates know all the admits and they make it a point to put a blurb from your application in the admissions letter or when you meet them during admitted student days. DS had this at all 3 HYPSM's where he attended. Nothing memorable, just one or two facts, to customize their interaction. It is nice, but that is very likely not what got him in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous advice about inserting grammatical errors on purpose 😆

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

I like to use Oxford commas but I have always been told they are outdated. And that more modern style guides don't require them. So I can't see this being an issue in writing for college apps. Also semicolon use is more of a choice. It's quite possible to write so you don't need to use that punctuation mark. In fact, I think that would be more common. Is the point that Grammarly rewrites to insert semi-colons? Weird thing to worry about.

The use of the Oxford comma indicates the writer is a civilised person. There’s no need to rush through a sentence.

And the judicious use of the semicolon is reflective of a person capable of expressing complex thoughts. A kid using semicolons appropriately today is, basically, a literary superstar. Obviously, this kid is a reader..

And that is a win in the college admissions game. There’s a reader here!

But I will grant you that the use of a semicolon is tricky. Not for the meek. If you’re tossing semicolons around, you better know what you’re doing.

It’s basically the Hunger Games out there when it comes to punctuation.