I think reddit has good info here.

This kind of thing is pretty important to get right in all of the supp essays.

Can we get more summaries like this?

What is Duke or Cornell known for?

Yale: collaboration

Penn: leadership

Stanford and Duke: pointy high national ranking/achievement (esp in sports)

Northwestern: melding arts and STEM or editor of school paper

Vanderbilt: class president

Dartmouth: outdoors nature lovers who are kind

Anonymous wrote:Yale values dedication to public service a lot!

Agree with the above.

Vanderbilt values high standardized test scores & Georgetown values wealthy, full-pay students.

DC who is a freshman at VT/Engineering, noted, among many other things, the following to a HS-senior looking to apply there:

"Be sure to include volunteer experience, as community service is highly valued."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you can or should back into a school’s stated or assumed values. It should probably be the other way around. What does the kid value? Find schools that match that. A kid who is a great fit for Rice probably isn’t going to put Vandy or Duke on the same list. Stop trying to rig the system and instead find real fit.

This, above. Find the right college for the student's own, actual values and interests, rather than trying to assemble an application tailored to tell a college admissions office what you think it wants to hear.

Seriously. If your kid doesn’t want to read a stack of books, who would you want them to go to school with a crowd of people who like to read stacks of books? A miserable, lonely student is not getting their best grades, making lots of connections, participating as much in class, working closely with professors.

Find a good fit. Look for a place where they are going to thrive.

“My 30 year old son/daughter is rich/accomplished, miserable, bitter, and depressed” is not a flex. You both need to play the long game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you systematically figure out which colleges value what?

For example, a mom mentioned this weekend that xyz school really values readers, so it's important to show academic curiosity by dropping book titles in the supp essay covering something that piques your interest.

How easy is it to find out what each school values? is there an old post here?

Amherst values athletes, writers, LGBTQ/marginalized and activists.

God damn it.

Yale values dedication to public service a lot!

Some people say all college admission visits are the same. I always wonder why they think that. Because to me, they often reflect the values of the school and give advice about what they are looking for. They are also telling you what makes them special/different. It was very helpful to us in looking for a good fit.

Iykyk

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you can or should back into a school’s stated or assumed values. It should probably be the other way around. What does the kid value? Find schools that match that. A kid who is a great fit for Rice probably isn’t going to put Vandy or Duke on the same list. Stop trying to rig the system and instead find real fit.

This, above. Find the right college for the student's own, actual values and interests, rather than trying to assemble an application tailored to tell a college admissions office what you think it wants to hear.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you systematically figure out which colleges value what?

For example, a mom mentioned this weekend that xyz school really values readers, so it's important to show academic curiosity by dropping book titles in the supp essay covering something that piques your interest.

How easy is it to find out what each school values? is there an old post here?

Amherst values athletes, writers, LGBTQ/marginalized and activists.

This was true at our HS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re overthinking admissions. If your kid is academically strong and has a compelling essay, you’re in.

Not true.

Agree. Each T20 college prefers a “type” of student.

Anonymous wrote:Stanford value humanitarianism....and intellectual vitality - purpose driven life kind of stuff.

hahhahahahhahahjajajajjahjaha