Ivy Admissions
Prepare for Early Decision
For most colleges, November 1 marks the early decision/early action deadline. Early applicants have a big advantage at top colleges—some, like U Penn, fill close to 40-50% of the freshman class from the early group. Narrow your search and prepare your apps in time for this deadline!
This week we are going to go over a few reminders for students who are in the process of finishing up early applications. If you aren’t applying this year, note these tips so when your turn rolls around you are prepared. These thoughts are based on some of the most common errors we see.
U.S. News Rankings
When prospective applicants talk about colleges’ “rankings,” they’re usually not referring to any official criteria but rather to the wildly popular – and controversial – annual survey by US News & World Report, which hit the newsstands in August. US News ranks universities and liberal arts colleges as separate categories according to measures such as acceptance rate, student-faculty ratio, and alumni donations. The magazine plugs that data into a formula and then produces its famous lists of the top 50 schools.
College Consulting
Make use of your college counseling office early on in your high school years. Go through materials in the office such as college catalogs, books with test prep info, etc.
Take time to get to know your college counselor. Remember, your college counselor will be writing your college recommendation letter and if he/she doesn’t know who you are it will show. He/she provides an important piece of the puzzle for college admissions officers. They are the “voice” of your school, summarizing how you stack up next to your classmates in the academic competition. They are also your official advocates throughout the college admissions process, even if you use an outside counselor. It’s never too early to set up an appointment to introduce yourself and to keep him or her updated on your latest accomplishments. Prepare a short summary of all your extracurricular and academic accomplishments, especially if they took place outside of school. How else will your counselor find out the necessary information to support you? They are your strongest ally besides teachers, so USE them to your advantage throughout your four years of high school!
RISE ABOVE THE REST: CREATE WINNING COLLEGE APPLICATIONS
From one of the country’s leading experts in college admissions and a nationally recognized parenting guru—Learn specific tips for giving colleges more than they ask for and creating an application that stands out.
2009 will be the most difficult year ever in terms of college admissions! Don’t get lost in the pile of 30,000 applications at some Ivy League schools.
Join this teleseminar and learn insider information from someone who worked inside an Ivy League admissions office. Top college consultant Michele Hernandez and her coauthor of DON’T WORRY, YOU’LL GET IN (Avalon) Mimi Doe, are once again offering to move you through the process with ease and less stress. This teleseminar will allow you to:
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Conquer the common application with our proven tips and techniques
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Create an Activity Sheet summing up high school awards, activities, and achievements
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Learn how to prepare multiple essays (including all required essays along with extra essays) that can be used for specific colleges using the Application Boot Camp™ strategy
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Develop an application strategy to increase college acceptance possibilities
All of this and more provided by America’s premier college consultant, Michele Hernandez, author of A is For Admission and former Assistant Director of Admissions at Dartmouth College and Mimi Doe, called a “parenting guru” by Ladies Home Journal and author of Busy but Balanced and Nurturing Your Teenager’s Soul who holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard.
The teleseminar includes an in-depth, 90-minute training session on Thursday, September 25th, 7:30pm – 9:00pm (EDT) with Mimi & Michelle on how to give colleges more than they ask for and prepare applications that leverage your experience and strengths. Click here for more information.
Standardized Test Scores and Applications
Now that most students are finishing up both their early and regular applications, we have some more general points to keep in mind. One of our students just complained that you can’t send official AP scores online — you have to call! Isn’t that odd since both AP’s and SAT I/Subject Tests are brought to you by the same company, the College Board. In any case, that means that when you send your official scores (which you HAVE to do — they will NOT take your word for it!), you have to send your SAT I’s and Subject Tests online, but then use the phone to send your AP scores. They must just want to hit you up twice for $! Thanks, College Board. The CollegeBoard.com site says: To request that your score reports be sent to colleges, call (888) 308-0013 or (609) 771-7366 (outside the United States, U.S. territories, or Canada) on or after July 4.
ACT Testing
After the transcript, colleges give most weight to test scores. At schools like Dartmouth and Columbia, the average verbal SAT score is about 730, and the average math is 735. That’s typical at all the top schools although, Cornell and Brown can be a bit lower, Harvard, Yale, Princeton a bit higher. Clearly in order to get into this top category of schools, you MUST have strong test scores. Typically on SAT Subject Tests, most students aiming for top colleges earn over 740 on three SAT II tests. All the unhooked students we have worked with who have gotten into Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale have tended to have 740 and up critical reading, 730 and up in math and 730 and up in writing.
Some schools, however, will accept the ACT in lieu of SAT Subject Tests.
Tell The Truth!
In this competitive admissions climate many students are tempted to “fudge the facts” just a little bit on their applications. DON’T DO IT. Colleges are beginning to check applicant’s credentials. It leaked a few years ago that MIT had hired a private investigator to do random checks on applicants, and other schools have joined this practice. Some admissions officers will simply call a high school for verification if an activity, award, or claim looks suspicious. Remember, major awards are listed online in most cases so admissions folks will check that out. Same goes for rankings in sports.
Do Your Research!
When researching colleges, find out which majors at each school are undersubscribed. We were working with a young woman who gained admission to Brown, not because her scores were stellar — because they weren’t — but because she had a proven track record as a scholar of African culture and history. Brown had recently poured money into its Africana Studies department, but there were few students majoring in the subject. This student’s interest in African studies made her an ideal candidate — not just because she was quirky, but because she filled a slot that was empty.
How to Crack the Ivy Code
For high school seniors and their parents all around the country, spring is a time to fret, watch the mail nervously, and wonder endlessly about the future. Waiting to see if the mail will bring a thick envelope or a thin one from their desired college is an all-consuming pastime for these hopefuls.
Ivy League Admissions Statistics
Our exclusive data on the Class of 2014 Ivy League Admissions statistics, now updated for Early Action and Early Admissions for the class entering 2010. See exactly how many students applied and how many were accepted to different schools.
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