Anonymous
04/20/2026 20:35
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:I don’t think nailing down the school choice is the issue. It’s nailing down a story.
The school choice will come together in its own time (and change a lot over the next year and a half) and is frankly irrelevant this early.
The story is weak.
Please listen to this PP. Your kid's profile is a dime a dozen. It's not compelling for top schools in any way, because nothing stands out. Work on the targets and safeties carefully - the reaches might not pan out.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 20:26
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:Why Elon instead of Alabama?
????
Anonymous
04/20/2026 18:41
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:A bit contrarian here:
Some of the super-reach schools are sub-20% admit rates: Vanderbilt (4.7%); Duke (4.8%); USC (11.2%), and Michigan (18%). She's not getting in without a strategy.
This candidate isn't a strong or viable candidate for the business school at USC-Marshall or Ross-Michigan. At these schools (plus U-Texas), I would be more strategic with major choice. At Vanderbilt and Duke, there is no business major, so what would you list?
I would hire a counselor or spend considerable personal time shaping a different narrative at each school - either based on what she's already doing, or have her add library volunteer time + a job and one other English related EC, and pivot major:
Vanderbilt: Human & Org Development + Culture, Advocacy & Leadership with English minor?
Duke (not happening, but this is all hypothetical) with a Sociology major (concentration in Sociology of Work and Organizations) + innovation/entrepreneurship certificate or minor
Michigan: Organizational Studies major + Entrepreneurship minor.
For this to work, though, you need to be thoughtful about summer plans.
GL.
Thanks. There are 2 totally different strategies: business adjacent/interdisciplinary education at a top school vs. a traditional business school education where they’re direct admit.
BC has a 12% acceptance rate, Tulane is 14%, UMiami is 19%. Indiana-Kelley on their list has a 20% acceptance rate for direct admit, Wake is 21%. And then they have schools with 50-66% acceptance rates. They’re bifurcating hard here and it doesn’t bode well especially for EA/ED.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 18:26
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
A bit contrarian here:
Some of the super-reach schools are sub-20% admit rates: Vanderbilt (4.7%); Duke (4.8%); USC (11.2%), and Michigan (18%). She's not getting in without a strategy.
This candidate isn't a strong or viable candidate for the business school at USC-Marshall or Ross-Michigan. At these schools (plus U-Texas), I would be more strategic with major choice. At Vanderbilt and Duke, there is no business major, so what would you list?
I would hire a counselor or spend considerable personal time shaping a different narrative at each school - either based on what she's already doing, or have her add library volunteer time + a job and one other English related EC, and pivot major:
Vanderbilt: Human & Org Development + Culture, Advocacy & Leadership with English minor?
Duke (not happening, but this is all hypothetical) with a Sociology major (concentration in Sociology of Work and Organizations) + innovation/entrepreneurship certificate or minor
Michigan: Organizational Studies major + Entrepreneurship minor.
For this to work, though, you need to be thoughtful about summer plans.
GL.
Some of the super-reach schools are sub-20% admit rates: Vanderbilt (4.7%); Duke (4.8%); USC (11.2%), and Michigan (18%). She's not getting in without a strategy.
This candidate isn't a strong or viable candidate for the business school at USC-Marshall or Ross-Michigan. At these schools (plus U-Texas), I would be more strategic with major choice. At Vanderbilt and Duke, there is no business major, so what would you list?
I would hire a counselor or spend considerable personal time shaping a different narrative at each school - either based on what she's already doing, or have her add library volunteer time + a job and one other English related EC, and pivot major:
Vanderbilt: Human & Org Development + Culture, Advocacy & Leadership with English minor?
Duke (not happening, but this is all hypothetical) with a Sociology major (concentration in Sociology of Work and Organizations) + innovation/entrepreneurship certificate or minor
Michigan: Organizational Studies major + Entrepreneurship minor.
For this to work, though, you need to be thoughtful about summer plans.
GL.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 18:11
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:Our high school senior didn't think about any of this stuff and was just themselves and basically got a full ride scholarship. Kid has two clubs and two interests. No tutors, no SAT prep, no "counselors" to teach how to apply to college. They just did it on their own and told the colleges who they were. Stop trying to program your kids and let them be themselves.
Where did your DC get in?
Anonymous
04/20/2026 18:07
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:Our high school senior didn't think about any of this stuff and was just themselves and basically got a full ride scholarship. Kid has two clubs and two interests. No tutors, no SAT prep, no "counselors" to teach how to apply to college. They just did it on their own and told the colleges who they were. Stop trying to program your kids and let them be themselves.
I don’t think OP is trying to over program their kid, it’s just that they have a lot of accomplishments and there’s a certain way to package everything so that the through line towards business makes sense. They can be themselves while still putting together an organized app and the sooner they do bits and pieces of it, the better!
Anonymous
04/20/2026 18:06
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Our high school senior didn't think about any of this stuff and was just themselves and basically got a full ride scholarship. Kid has two clubs and two interests. No tutors, no SAT prep, no "counselors" to teach how to apply to college. They just did it on their own and told the colleges who they were. Stop trying to program your kids and let them be themselves.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 18:03
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:I don’t think nailing down the school choice is the issue. It’s nailing down a story.
The school choice will come together in its own time (and change a lot over the next year and a half) and is frankly irrelevant this early.
The story is weak.
Well said. The story right now needs to really hone in on her main goal (is it to be a social impact leader or do entrepreneurship) and highlight the 2-3 activities that have given her a spark towards that main goal + how the school will help her reach that goal — specific clubs, alumni, programs, specializations.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:56
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
I don’t think nailing down the school choice is the issue. It’s nailing down a story.
The school choice will come together in its own time (and change a lot over the next year and a half) and is frankly irrelevant this early.
The story is weak.
The school choice will come together in its own time (and change a lot over the next year and a half) and is frankly irrelevant this early.
The story is weak.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:51
Subject: Re:Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The student here is definitely on the right track.
The school list is too big — pick 2 of the top privates, 2 of the Big Ten business schools, 2 of the Southern schools, and 2 schools that will provide strong aid. Even with the Common App, there shouldn’t be more than 8-10 schools.
Activities are good but I’m not really seeing the depth and leadership.
Also, they can lead off with marketing/entrepreneurship in essays for the business schools and speak to the woman in business angle for the smaller LACs/selective schools, while tying it back to how the school specifically helps them. If they do a selective school, they can major in really anything and go onto business, so that’s a way they can differentiate. Would recommend an actual business school with direct admit if possible to make the career placement, major, networking process easier as it’s all in one roof.
8 to 10 is too few.
2-3 safeties, 4-6 matches, 1-2 reaches. The numbers I gave add up to 7-11 but you get the point.
Anything over 10 is overkill. There are only so many top ranked undergrad business schools and selective privates that meet their criteria around ranking, geography, placement outcomes, student experience, etc.
She could definitely add more reaches. We get excellent results at our private and everyone submits over ten if they don’t get in ED/SCEA.
If the OP would like to add more reaches, they can do so. I personally don’t see the point of over-concentrating the list towards reaches. I’ve given my advice based on being in the room reading apps as a student. We can tell when someone applied to 12-15 schools: it becomes a lot to track and you want to make the process less arduous where you can.
They have Vandy/Duke/Texas/Michigan (selective schools outright and publics with almost single digit admit rates OOS), Indiana/Ohio State/Wisconsin/UMD (strong big ten publics that still wanna see genuine enthusiasm - different from demonstrated interest), Pitt, Elon, Tulane/SMU. They’re all over the place region wise and need to choose: anchor the process around Vandy/Duke/Michigan ED and a couple of the overall business schools, or lean towards Tulane/SMU/Elon/Pitt, pick one of the selective privates or a selective business public.
At some point, many of the schools on the list become the same, especially since they’re only going into junior year now — tastes change a lot between now and then.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:43
Subject: Re:Help with a rising junior's academic profile
I'm confused by the premise of your post.
Marketing is a real major, although it's considered on the softer side of business. There's nothing wrong with that.
I think what you're asking is whether her diverse activities list is positioning her to get accepted at a top college.
I think an ordinary teen job would be great for her to do this summer. Practically any retail or service job would teach her something about running a business.
The writing/literature kind of offers a balanced aspect to her application, but she sounds like a very well-rounded kid in general. (And the well-rounded kids are sometimes the ones who get rejected from Top 20s, but I'm sure you know that.)
Marketing is a real major, although it's considered on the softer side of business. There's nothing wrong with that.
I think what you're asking is whether her diverse activities list is positioning her to get accepted at a top college.
I think an ordinary teen job would be great for her to do this summer. Practically any retail or service job would teach her something about running a business.
The writing/literature kind of offers a balanced aspect to her application, but she sounds like a very well-rounded kid in general. (And the well-rounded kids are sometimes the ones who get rejected from Top 20s, but I'm sure you know that.)
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:43
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Interestingly, our private has also upped the number of recommended schools from 10-12 (a few years ago when my oldest went through) to 15 now for the class of 2027.
It seems strange to be going in that direction, but apparently, RD outcomes are so unpredictable these days that they are recommending more low reaches and super reaches for RD.
It seems strange to be going in that direction, but apparently, RD outcomes are so unpredictable these days that they are recommending more low reaches and super reaches for RD.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:41
Subject: Re:Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The student here is definitely on the right track.
The school list is too big — pick 2 of the top privates, 2 of the Big Ten business schools, 2 of the Southern schools, and 2 schools that will provide strong aid. Even with the Common App, there shouldn’t be more than 8-10 schools.
Activities are good but I’m not really seeing the depth and leadership.
Also, they can lead off with marketing/entrepreneurship in essays for the business schools and speak to the woman in business angle for the smaller LACs/selective schools, while tying it back to how the school specifically helps them. If they do a selective school, they can major in really anything and go onto business, so that’s a way they can differentiate. Would recommend an actual business school with direct admit if possible to make the career placement, major, networking process easier as it’s all in one roof.
8 to 10 is too few.
2-3 safeties, 4-6 matches, 1-2 reaches. The numbers I gave add up to 7-11 but you get the point.
Anything over 10 is overkill. There are only so many top ranked undergrad business schools and selective privates that meet their criteria around ranking, geography, placement outcomes, student experience, etc.
She could definitely add more reaches. We get excellent results at our private and everyone submits over ten if they don’t get in ED/SCEA.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:35
Subject: Re:Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The student here is definitely on the right track.
The school list is too big — pick 2 of the top privates, 2 of the Big Ten business schools, 2 of the Southern schools, and 2 schools that will provide strong aid. Even with the Common App, there shouldn’t be more than 8-10 schools.
Activities are good but I’m not really seeing the depth and leadership.
Also, they can lead off with marketing/entrepreneurship in essays for the business schools and speak to the woman in business angle for the smaller LACs/selective schools, while tying it back to how the school specifically helps them. If they do a selective school, they can major in really anything and go onto business, so that’s a way they can differentiate. Would recommend an actual business school with direct admit if possible to make the career placement, major, networking process easier as it’s all in one roof.
8 to 10 is too few.
2-3 safeties, 4-6 matches, 1-2 reaches. The numbers I gave add up to 7-11 but you get the point.
Anything over 10 is overkill. There are only so many top ranked undergrad business schools and selective privates that meet their criteria around ranking, geography, placement outcomes, student experience, etc.
Anonymous
04/20/2026 17:34
Subject: Help with a rising junior's academic profile
Why Elon instead of Alabama?