 Happy 2025!
The 2024-2025 college application season, for the most part, has come to a close. Families are back to normal routines after the holiday season, and students have returned back to school. The start of a new year is always a good time to reset, recalibrate, and think about which long- and short-term goals you intend to accomplish during the year, and make plans to do so. The intention of this month’s blogpost is to provide students in each grade level with some actionable ideas that may help them in the goal-setting process for the new year! FOR FRESHMEN The most important thing freshmen thinking about applying to selective schools a few years from now can do is keep their grades up. Do this by solidifying, improving upon, or developing good study habits. As freshmen progress to higher grade levels and become busier with other activities, having foundational study habits will be key in allowing them to juggle it all. Students in their freshman year should also think about joining school clubs this semester if they have not already done so. School clubs are a great way to meet new people as well as start to develop academic and extracurricular interests. Joining school clubs during freshmen also potentially puts students in the leadership pipeline for that club during a later date in high school if they become and stay active members. It is also important for students to really get to know their teachers during freshman year as well. At times, students at this stage in high school may find their instructors intimidating or don’t know how to form relationships with them. The easiest way to do this is participate in class discussions; get to know your teachers by letting them get to know you. Classroom conversations become gateways of getting to know instructors who, one day, might be the very ones writing stellar recommendations for your college applications! FOR SOPHOMORES The start of second semester sophomore year is all about standardized test prep! At this point, some students may have already taken the PSAT 9 or PSAT 10 (generally offered fall semester, sophomore year), and have their scores. The start of second semester sophomore year is when I recommend students commit the entire year to studying for taking either the SAT or ACT. Particularly if considering selective school, I recommend students achieve their desired standardized test score by the end of the first semester of junior year. So now, sophomores, is the time to get a plan together and start studying! Sophomores should also think about taking a leadership position within a school club or organization. The best way to gain leadership experience is through trial and error, so even if a student doesn’t feel “ready” for a leadership role, pursue it anyway and see what happens! Showing interest in and pursuing leadership positions during sophomore year is also a great way to start differentiating from fellow classmates. School educators and administrators are always looking for the next round of student leaders, so sophomores should not be afraid to raise their hands for leadership positions and be seen! Sophomore year is also a great time to start something new. This is a great time to think about finding a community service project or organization that is aligned with core values. It is also a great time to start a school club or organization if there isn’t one that truly represents a student’s interest. Starting something new also helps students grow beyond their comfort zone and is a useful “muscle” to develop as high school continues and college approaches. FOR JUNIORS Juniors considering applying to selective colleges, at this point, should start seriously thinking about their college lists. Now is the time to check and verify the academic requirements of colleges they are considering and ensuring they are staying on course to meet those requirements. This may mean taking either the SAT or ACT at some point during the calendar year before their senior year begins. It also means making sure to keep their grades up and their GPAs high. This year also marks the last summer these students will have before applying to college. Juniors thinking of applying to selective colleges should start solidifying summer plans now. There are a handful of competitive summer programs worth considering; applications for such programs tend to be due this time of year. A summer job, internship or service project may be viable options as well. Regardless, juniors applying to selective colleges should make maximum use of the coming summer break as some selective colleges will ask students how they made use of their summer breaks as a part of the supplemental questions asked on their college applications. Juniors will also need to make a plan to learn more about the selective colleges on their list. This may mean planning campus visits with family during spring break or during the summer. Students should also start following the social media accounts of the colleges on their lists so they get updates on virtual tours or live Q & A sessions, both now commonly held by selective colleges. But most importantly, students should make sure the colleges on their list are all “right fit” schools. Whether they be reach schools, match schools or safety schools, all of the colleges on a student’s list should be schools where they can see themselves living and learning for four years. FOR SENIORS I often tell my clients that if they are applying to selective schools, they don’t get to have senioritis until May. Even though the application season is over, it is imperative that students keep their grades up for the entirety of their high school career. As a stipulation of admission, some colleges will request a final transcript. If there is a significant drop in a student’s academic performance in the last semester of high school, admitted students run the risk of having their offers of admission rescinded. So, keep those grades up seniors! Several scholarships also have deadlines that occur in the spring semester. If a student is seeking to offset the cost of tuition with scholarships, then now is the time to make researching and applying to scholarships a priority. According for Forbes magazine, close to $100M in scholarship and grant money goes unclaimed every year due to a lack of applicants. Students should work to find scholarship for which they are strong candidates with the same enthusiasm and diligence as they did in determining their college application list. And last, but equally important, students should make the most of their last days in high school. Going off to college is a huge step in a young person’s life, so students should make time to spend it with friends, thank teachers for all of their help, and make lasting memories that they will enjoy for years to come. When admission offers come in the spring, there may be some tough decisions to make, so for now, seniors should cultivate patience and enjoy their final days as high school students as best as possible. I hope these tips are helpful for students and families alike. So students, no matter the grade level, should set some tangible goals for the new year, work hard to achieve them, and enjoy the process along the way. Good luck!
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 Colleges and universities all across the country are releasing the early round admissions decisions over the next two months. Some high school seniors will receive terrific news; others, not the news they were hoping for. And as for the rest? They will have to wait until Spring 2025 to learn their final fate in the college admissions process. For this month’s blogpost, I will discuss the different types of decisions high school seniors that applied to the early round and their families have to make. I will also list the reported drop dates for early round admission decisions for the top colleges in the country. ACCEPTED: EARLY DECISION Congratulations! The college you said “Yes” to has also said “Yes” to you, too! For students that exercised the Early Decision option, being accepted to a college under that policy is binding. Generally, applicants are instructed to withdraw their applications from other schools and formally accept the offer. Applicants also generally apply Early Decision to a college that is his or her top choice. So, if you are one of the lucky students in this application cycle to be accepted Early Decision, your college application season has come to an end; a great gift just in time for the holidays! ACCEPTED: EARLY ACTION Congratulations are also in order for students accepted to college (or colleges) under the Early Action policy. Unlike the Early Decision policy, an acceptance by the college is NOT binding. This gives students a choice: they can either move forward and accept the offer (and subsequently withdraw themselves from consideration by other colleges) or they can wait until the spring and make a decision after learning about Regular Decision application statuses. This news also makes for a good holiday season for students who likely applied to a top choice school during this round. Like Early Decision applicants, they may choose to wrap up their college application process now or continue applying to other schools Regular Decision. DEFERRED A significant portion of early round applicants will receive an admission decision of deferred. This means the admissions committee has postponed making a final decision on the application until the spring. This news can create a lot of mixed emotions, but it can be useful in deciding next steps. At times, a deferral decision in the early round can bring clarity to an applicant: do I wait until the spring or decide to withdraw my application (particularly if there are some early round acceptances in play). Other times, an applicant deferred from an Early Action or Early Decision school (usually a first-choice school) may decide to pursue an Early Decision II option with another program. Early Decision II deadlines are there for this purpose, particularly among the more selective schools. A deferral decision means an applicant is stronger in some respects than an applicant who is denied admission. So, some students--buoyed by this indirect affirmation—will pursue an Early Decision II school that may be their second and third choice in order to increase their odds of being accepted. Remember: choosing an Early Decision option means an applicant is communicating to the school that they will choose them above others if admitted. This may put an applicant in a more favorable light with the admissions committee. Regardless of the choices in front of them, each individual will process what a deferral decision personally means for them. Process whatever emotions and thoughts a deferral decision brings up and move forward in the direction that makes the most sense. DENIAL Also, for a significant number of applicants this cycle, they will receive the unfortunate news that they were not offered a seat at a college to which they applied. As with receiving a notification of a deferral, applicants should be encouraged to process their feelings without judgment, be reminded that a college notification—in either direction—does not define their inherent worthiness, nor does it (in)validate all of the work they put in to be the strongest candidate. There are all kinds of reasons admissions officers select one candidate over another, but it serves no good purpose to focus on the reasons why. Encourage applicants who do not get into the college of their choice at this time to surround themselves with people and things that bring them joy, enjoy the end-of-year and holiday activities, and move forward with the Regular Decision applications as best possible. NOTIFICATION DATES Below are the some of the early round notification dates of the most selective schools in the country. If you know of someone waiting to hear back from one of these schools over the next few weeks, this guide will help you know when might be a good time to reach out to them and see how the process went. Best of luck to all the high school seniors and their families getting notifications from the early round college applications soon!
 Last week, a college friend reached out to me to get some advice on her daughter’s college application. The student was stuck thinking about how to answer a particular supplemental essay. After a few moments of investigation and conversation, I was able to provide both mother and daughter some context and direction about how to approach answering this particular essay. Fingers crossed that my advice works out, and my advice helps this student get admitted to the school where she applied.
That conversation had me thinking that this might be a good topic for this month’s blogpost. In addition to the Common App personal statement, supplemental essays are another written portion of a college application submitted by an applicant. Supplementary essays play a very important function in the overall adjudication of an application. I would even argue that over the past few years, the responses applicants give in the supplemental essays may carry even more weight in an admissions decision than the 650-word personal statement. Supplemental essays serve as the gatekeeper questions in a college application. They help admissions officers determine just how well of a fit an applicant will be at their school. Supplemental essays also serve to give a fuller picture of an applicant; one that grades, test scores, and an activities list cannot provide. Supplemental essays allow admission officers to learn about a student from their own words. They can also reveal just how much research a student has put into understanding a particular college and/or program, as some supplemental essay questions will ask applicants to directly address that so admission officers can know if the applicants themselves have done the work to determine if they themselves are a good fit for the school or not. Most supplemental questions can be grouped into one of five categories: the “why this college” essay; the academic interest essay; the extracurricular interest essay; the short answer essay; and the community/cultural fit essay. Let us review each one of the five categories, understand what each type of question is asking, and discuss the best way to answer it. THE “WHY THIS COLLEGE” ESSAY When it comes to lists of globally top-ranked institutions of higher learning, the US has more than its fair share of colleges and universities that rank near the top of such lists. Because of this, most American schools have the privilege of asking this question of its applicants: why do you want to attend school here? American schools–particularly selective ones–receive applications from all over the world. It is one of many reasons why admit rates at these schools have been on the decline over the past decade. In short, in order to be considered for admission, you must tell these schools exactly why you believe–among all other applicants–-that you will be a great fit for their program. In the responses, admissions officers are looking to see which applicants have done their homework and know what their particular school has to offer. Admissions officers are also seeking to know how much an applicant knows themselves and if their core values, passions, and interests align with the school’s core values, resources, and program offerings. If students are not able to demonstrate that in a “why this college” supplemental essay in a substantive way, chances are high that the applicant will not be offered a spot in the incoming freshman class. Here’s an example of how the “why this college” question may come into play and how admissions officers may think about it. A couple of years ago, I worked with a client who was outstanding in many respects. In fact, she was admitted to Stanford University through its Restricted Early Action round. She went on to apply to a number of other top-tier colleges, Princeton University being one of them. What made this candidate so spectacular was her early commitment to pursuing a STEM-related professional career. In fact, before she graduated high school, she had already published three peer-reviewed articles on STEM-related subject matter–one of which was promoted on the Center for Disease Control website. An amazingly impressive STEM-student if there ever was one. When this student received her Regular Decision responses, she was accepted to every top school on her list…except Princeton. Her mother called me, confused, as to why every school on her daughter’s application list said yes, but Princeton had said no. I explained to the mother that while I wasn’t in the room when the admissions officers at Princeton made their deliberations, I could make a pretty good guess as to why her daughter was declined admission. Princeton University is known for many things, but being the strongest STEM-focused school among the most elite programs in the country is not one of them. I surmised that, more than likely, even with her impressive accomplishments, her daughter was not able to answer the “why Princeton” question to the admissions committee’s satisfaction. It was a question I put to the student myself before assisting her with putting together the application. The response the student submitted to this question was quite compelling, but again, more than likely demonstrated to the admissions committee that her academic interests were not uniquely aligned with Princeton’s academic priorities, programs, and resources. The takeaway from this story is that it does not matter how strong an applicant is in many respects, if the student cannot answer the “why this college” question in a way that demonstrates unique alignment, then the student’s chances of being admitted drop considerably, regardless of grades, test scores, activities or recommendations. THE ACADEMIC INTEREST ESSAY The academic interest supplemental essay question is a fairly standard question selective programs ask their applicants to answer. Admission officers want to know not only more about an applicant’s intended area of study, but why it is of interest to the applicant and how that interest was explored during the high school years. That said, there does not necessarily need to be a correlation between an applicant’s academic interest and the applicant’s choice of major. At times, students may be undecided about the choice of major at the time of applying to college or they may have two or three competing academic interests they wish to explore in college before making a final decision. Regardless, students should approach the academic interest question from a few angles. First, applicants should use the academic interest question to let admission officers know why they are passionate about a particular subject matter. Was it because they found a particular class engaging? Was there a life circumstance that brought the academic interest into sharp focus? Getting clarity on the why will help admission officers understand an applicant’s academic interests from a more personal context. Next, the academic interest question should be answered with respect to how the school’s resources will help advance the applicant’s interest in developing an academic passion. Is there a lab or department that has produced research aligned with the applicant’s academic interests? Does the school have a notable faculty member that specializes in what an applicant wishes to study? And lastly, applicants should be able to describe how pursuing a particular academic interest will help them achieve their professional goals. THE EXTRACURRICULAR INTEREST ESSAY The extracurricular supplemental essay question allows applicants to elaborate on one or more extracurricular activities in depth. This may include elaborating on an activity listed on the application or another activity that is not mentioned elsewhere in the application. Again, what admission officers want to know about is why an applicant chose to pursue a particular activity, among other things. With the extracurricular activities supplemental essay, it is an opportunity for an applicant to share how a particular activity has shaped them and/or their worldview. For example, how did playing on the football team help an applicant better understand conflict and collaboration? How did playing the piano for twelve years develop an applicant’s creative instincts and discipline? How did participating in a science fair boost an applicant’s confidence and strengthen their understanding of how the scientific method works? The extracurricular activities supplemental essay is also an opportunity for an applicant to share if they plan to pursue the same or similar extracurricular activities in college. However, this can be a bit tricky. Applicants should make sure they do their homework to know if an extracurricular activity they are passionate about is even offered at the college of their choice. It will be a red flag to an admissions committee if an applicant expresses their intent to pursue a particular activity in college and the college doesn’t offer it. It may seem pretty obvious, but it would be surprising to know the number of times I have had to ask my clients to double-check this on their applications. Remember: admission officers are looking for an applicant’s alignment with the school’s offerings. When answering the extracurricular activity question–as with the other supplemental essays–applicants should make sure their responses demonstrate such alignment. THE SHORT ANSWER ESSAY With the short answer supplemental essays–if one can even call the responses “essays”–admissions officers are seeking both brevity and brilliance. These prompts usually ask students to respond to a supplemental question in as few as 25 words or as much as 100 words. What possibly can an admissions committee glean about an applicant from such short responses. Plenty, I would argue. Short answer essays allow applicants to demonstrate a few things. Applicants can demonstrate their efficiency with language: how can one get across a complex idea in as few words as possible. Short answer essays also serve to challenge applicants to demonstrate how creative they can be in their responses. Short answer essays are also an opportunity to get a quick-hit sense of an applicant’s personality. Is the short answer more serious in tone? Humorous? Sarcastic? Using short answers to highlight personal qualities comes down to the word choice and the word order. This is where understanding syntax and diction will help an applicant’s responses stand out from the rest. Regardless of how an applicant chooses to approach tackling a short answer supplemental essay, the response must be given as much care and thought as a 400- or 500-word essay. THE COMMUNITY/CULTURAL FIT ESSAY Admission officers want to know how well applicants are going to play in the campus sandbox. The community essay question gives applicants an opportunity to share with the admissions committee their experiences in community: how they see themselves in relation to a particular community and how particular communities have shaped their thinking and world view. There are a few ways applicants may be asked to approach this question. They may be asked explicitly how they personally define community and what communities have profoundly shaped their life experience. They may be asked about what it means to belong to a particular community and share that story. Applicants may also be asked to think about their future college community and what role they intend to play in that community once on campus, be it the college community as a whole or a specific subset. Oftentimes, applicants will see the word “diversity” present within a community essay question. Since the SCOTUS decision that repealed the use of race as a factor in adjudicating a college applicant, this has been a more common occurrence. In the majority opinion of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina, college applicants were given some wiggle room; applicants could discuss their race–among other things–in college essay questions in the context of community. Many colleges used this “loophole” in the opinion to revise their supplemental essays and, based on the wording, invited applicants to highlight their racial backgrounds in their responses to the community essay question. This paradigm shift in supplemental essay questions has allowed colleges, for the most part, to maintain the levels of diversity on campus they enjoyed before SFFA. Community essay questions also served to help determine if applicants will be a cultural fit for the institution. As with any organization, college communities operate on a set of shared values. Those shared values are the basis by which the culture of a college rests. Through the community essay, applicants may be asked to address how they believe they will fit into a college’s particular campus culture. For example, some programs operate on an honor code; applicants would need to demonstrate how honor has been a core value they have expressed during their high school years. Other programs value opposition of thought, justice, or service to others. Applicants’ responses should demonstrate they are not only aligned with these values, but how they intend to express these values once on campus. SUMMARY The most important thing for college applicants to do when responding to the supplemental essay questions is to prepare for them as much as they did for the Common App personal statement. Applicants should not let shorter word count limits hinder them from telling complete and compelling stories with their responses. Also, be sure to answer the specific question being asked and do not swerve off on tangents. Be bold, be brief, and be brilliant. Compelling and effective supplemental essay responses may mean the difference between being accepted to a college or denied an offer of admission. Good luck!  The holiday season is around the corner. While most people are thinking about travel plans, time off work, holiday festivities, and spending moments with family and friends, this is not so for high school seniors. For them, the holiday season means college application deadlines are approaching. For seniors, the holiday season means finalizing college lists, writing drafts for supplemental responses, securing teacher recommendations, preparing for interviews, and nervously waiting for early round decisions.
November 1st is right around the corner, and is traditionally the day the first round of college applications are due. The focus of this month’s blog post is to discuss the six types of college application deadlines–Restricted Early Action, Early Action, Early Decision, Early Decision II, Regular Decision, and Rolling Admissions–and review the benefits of each. I will discuss the recent trends in college admissions with respect to application deadlines and help students and families think about which application deadline may be most appropriate for their situation. RESTRICTED EARLY ACTION Like Early Decision II, the Restricted Early Action (REA) deadline is a fairly recent phenomenon in the college application process, particularly to highly selective schools. Historically, only Stanford University employed the Restricted Early Action policy for its early applicants. There are now a handful of schools that have joined Stanford in this endeavor. They are: the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Georgetown University, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Notre Dame, and Yale University. The Restricted Early Action deadline is similar to the Early Action deadline. It is a non-binding decision, meaning that if students are admitted under this policy, they do not have to commit to the schools at the time of acceptance; they are free to delay their decision until College Decision Day, historically held on May 1st of a student’s senior year. Why have schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford moved towards the Restricted Early Action policy? The reason is that these top-tier schools are usually competing for the same set of students every year. So rather than wait until May to learn where these top students will land–typically known as “the gets”–these schools have selected to play a little tricky game. As its title implies, students applying to these schools REA must follow a certain set of rules. Generally, they are not free to apply to other private universities that have an Early Action and/or Early Decision policy, but they may apply to state-sponsored universities instead. In other words, a student applying to Stanford REA may apply to UC-Berkeley or UCLA Early Action, but may not apply to the University of Southern California. How does this benefit the schools and how may it benefit students? The Restricted Early Action deadline benefits the schools because it forces the most sought-after students in each application cycle to choose which top-tier school is their first choice. If a student is a strong candidate for admission to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford (and there are a handful of students each year that are), then those students must decide to which of those three schools they will apply to REA. Most students, if accepted to one of these top programs during the REA cycle, will not continue applying to additional schools and accept that school’s offer. So, the schools are fairly certain that they will get a fair share of the top students in the country to attend their program the following year. The Restricted Early Action deadline also benefits students as well. Top students must think critically about which top program best fits their needs and interests. By applying to a school with a Restricted Early Action policy, students can be assured they will receive an admissions decision in mid-December from some of the most competitive schools in the country. If admitted, students are free to either accept the offer or apply to other highly selective schools and wait to see what offers they receive–if any–from those programs. Students also know that the odds of being accepted to a top program are higher during the early round as opposed to the Regular Decision round as they are competing against a smaller number of applicants. So, applying to one of the six schools listed above REA may be a wise choice that benefits both students and schools alike. EARLY ACTION The Early Action deadline is one of the most popular deadlines selected by students. Early Action policies allow students to apply to schools during the early round, but does not bind them to accept the decision if admitted. Many selective programs have Early Action policies, in particular the more prestigious state schools. Some state schools, such as the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have Early Action deadlines that come before November 1st, typically on October 15th. State universities are eager to have their top students–top students who may be looking at out-of-state private schools–stay in state to attend college after graduating high school. Some of these state schools also have prestigious (and generous) scholarships for their citizen students. This further incentivizes them to have an application deadline that is ahead of November 1st, allows them to compete with top schools that have Restricted Early Action policies, and not scare away applicants by locking them into the binding decision that comes along with an Early Decision policy. The option of an Early Action deadline benefits students as well. It gives students the freedom to not have to make a decision until the spring and apply to other schools during the Regular Decision round. The cost of tuition is a concern for many students and families, and the Early Action choice allows students and families to see what type of aid (and how much) they may receive from schools where the student has been accepted, and then make a decision that is best for their budget. The Early Action option also allows students to have an admission decision before the end of the calendar year, as students choosing the Early Action option are notified of a school’s decision by mid-December. EARLY DECISION The Early Decision option is a binding decision meaning that if a student is accepted under this policy, then they must accept the college’s offer and suspend from applying to any other colleges. It is another highly popular choice for college applicants. In fact, applying in the early round has become a trend in the past few years, making the early round the “new” Regular Decision. Early round college applications have increased by 41% since the 2019 - 2020–or pre-COVID–college application season. Also, since before COVID, there has been a 38% increase in the first round of early applicants and a 90% increase in the second round of early applicants (which will be covered in discussing the Early Decision II option). Due in large part to last year’s SCOTUS decision re: the removal of considering race when colleges adjudicate applicants, the application cycle for the college Class of 2028 saw a 67% increase in early round applicants from minority students. There was also a 52% increase in early round applicants from students from low-income zip codes, and only a 32% increase from students from wealthy zip codes. Like all application policies, the Early Decision choice provides benefits for students and families alike. In the college application process, sometimes there is a little magic. Sometimes, students find a college to be a perfect fit for them (academically, culturally, socially, professionally, etc.), and in turn, their grade point average, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities are aligned with the college’s admissions standards and priorities. When such a fit is discovered, students may be ready to commit to said college if accepted, and forgo all other offers or just stop applying to any other colleges altogether. When this is the case, the Early Decision option makes the most sense. Why drag out the application process if the college that feels like home says “yes” to you? Also, families that are less concerned with considering the cost of a tuition bill may support their students applying Early Decision as well. If the student gets accepted, then the entire process is wrapped up by the end-of-year holiday season, and students and families are able to enjoy the season with fewer worries. EARLY DECISION II Like the Restricted Early Action policy, Early Decision II is a fairly new phenomenon in the college application process. Typically, Early Decision II deadlines are the same date as Regular Decision deadlines, but students who apply under this policy receive their decision from the colleges much earlier than Regular Decision applicants. So, let’s take a look at how Early Decision II benefits both schools and applicants. There are a group of selective schools that are competing for the same set of students as the most selective programs. Generally, these schools are smaller liberal arts colleges around the country and have high admission standards. These schools know that they are not the first-choice school for a fair number of their applicants. Such applicants may first try their luck by applying to their first choice highly selective school either Early Action or Restricted Early Action. Those students will learn if they have been admitted to those schools, rejected, or deferred to the spring for an admission decision by mid-December. Such a student may have one or two Early Decision II schools as a second choice or third choice. If a student is deferred or rejected from their first-choice top-tier college in December, the Early Decision II policy allows them to “lock in” an admission decision by mid-February, be done with the process, and not have to wait until spring to find out where they may or may not be attending college. An Early Decision II policy also benefits the schools in a few ways. First, it allows the admissions office to lock in more committed students for the upcoming class. These schools tend to have an Early Action or Early Decision deadline on November 1st; they will secure a portion of the upcoming class by mid-December. The Early Decision II policy opens the door for students who may have been deferred or rejected in the Early Action/Early Decision round to give their school a second look. A portion of those students will not want to wait until spring to hear a final decision from a top program (or, if rejected, may just want to move forward with a more realistic option). The Early Decision II policy allows such schools to improve their yield rate, admit another group of qualified students, and make more offers to the remaining applicant pool in the Regular Decision round. A couple of years ago, I had a client faced with this choice. He was deferred to Brown University in the Early Action round, but decided to apply to Middlebury College under its Early Decision II policy, and was admitted by mid-February. Since he had strong, positive feelings about both Brown and Middlebury, it made sense to him and his family for him to apply first to Brown, see what happened, and if it was a deferral (which it ended up being), apply to Middlebury Early Decision II. Many strong applicants may find themselves in similar situations, and Early Decision II gives them an alternative to wrap up their college application process sooner rather than later. REGULAR DECISION A majority of college applications will be submitted under Regular Decision policies. There are lots of benefits for students who select to apply to colleges during the Regular Decision round. For starters, most of these students will have their answers to the early round applications. Students tend to be more relaxed about their Regular Decision applications because by this point, they are familiar with the process. Also, students have more time to complete their Regular Decision applications because the deadlines tend to fall at or around the beginning of the calendar year. Students also tend to apply to their match or safety schools during this round. This means that students are now applying to schools where either they fall safely within a school’s academic admission standards or fall slightly above them. Students also now have the option of including their fall semester grades with their application and may also include higher standardized test scores if they have achieved such scores during the fall semester of their senior year. Students have more time to secure teacher recommendations, and can plan campus visits during the spring semester during break if they have not done so already. Also, if financing the cost of college is a consideration, applying Regular Decision will allow both students and families to wait until early spring when admissions decisions for the Regular round (and deferrals for the early round) are released. Students and families may want to weigh all the financial options in front of them from schools where students have been accepted before making a final decision by May 1st. ROLLING ADMISSIONS Of the six application deadline types, Rolling Admissions is possibly the least stressful option. Moderately selective colleges tend to have Rolling Admission policies. Rolling Admissions policies allow students to find out an admission decision much sooner than the other admission deadlines. Students tend to learn if they have been admitted four to six weeks after submitting their application. Students also have much more flexibility when applying to schools with Rolling Admissions policies. Colleges list on their website the dates when the Rolling Admissions period opens and closes. So, a student may select to apply to school with a Rolling Admissions policy early during the application season or later after they have received their admission decisions from schools that have stricter policies. Schools with Rolling Admissions policies also tend to close much later in the application cycle, sometimes as late as June or July after a student’s senior year. The admission standards also tend to be less strict for schools with Rolling Admissions policies and are less competitive. That said, the possible pitfall of Rolling Admissions policies is that colleges will admit students until they fill up their incoming freshman class. Students have no idea when that will be (and frankly, neither do the admissions officers). So, students who wait until later in the season to apply to a school with a Rolling Admissions policy run the risk of applying after all the slots are taken. If a student has a school on their list that has a Rolling Admissions policy, it is best if they apply sooner rather than later, particularly if they are not applying to any schools Early Decision or Early Decision II, where a binding agreement of accepting the school’s offer would be in place. SUMMARY When it comes to applying to college, students have many options for them in terms of when they apply. The most important things for students to do is their homework: research the admissions policies for each school on their application list, plan the best application strategy that works best for them, follow all guidelines for applying set forth by the colleges, and get the applications in on time. But most of all, students should remember not to let all of these deadlines and options stress them out. Put your best foot forward with every application submitted, and have fun in the process!  August is Back to School Month!
Now is the time of year summer vacations are winding down. Ads for school supplies and new clothes are everywhere. And families with school-age children are shifting out of a more carefree routine and readying themselves for the more formal scheduling the academic year brings. Back-to-school time is particularly important for families with high school students. Extracurricular activities such as sports or school clubs tend to start before the new year. Students look forward to seeing friends they haven’t connected with in months. And there is a sense that their time of youth is winding down. High school is the last time most of these students will be together on a daily basis. After graduation, they will go their separate ways. Some will enter the workforce, some will enlist in the military, and some will be off to college. It is an exciting time of year for students. It is an anxious time of year for students. The focus of this month’s blogpost will be on what students in each high school class should think about for the start of school. The Class of 2024 is now in the history books, and now is time to focus on the classes of 2025 - 2028. Each grade provides a different set of needs and goals to be met. I will discuss these needs and goals in the context of students who are planning to attend college, particularly if they are interested in attending a selective college or university. Let’s begin by thinking through the freshman year. THE FRESHMAN YEAR The freshman year of high school (or Upper School, for those attending private schools) is the foundation year for success in the selective college admissions process. I would argue that students enter freshman year with the highest mix of anxiety and excitement. With respect to college admissions, this is when grades start to matter; admissions officers review transcripts only from freshman to senior year. So while applying to college may be a few years away, freshman year is the time students can start putting fundamentals in place to create strong study habits that will serve them throughout their high school career. If a student has had a successful academic experience in middle school, freshman year is when they should build upon this success and start taking the most challenging classes possible. Students should also start to integrate into the high school culture by participating in one or two extracurricular activities that are aligned with their interests, and will help them build community. This is a critical step as it is best for students to “jump” into the high school experience rather than take a “wait-and-see” approach. Enterprising students may also want to use their freshman year to think long term about their academic success. For instance, if a student is strong in STEM and plans to pursue a STEM field in college, they may want to know what will be the prerequisite courses they need to take in order to qualify for more academically rigorous courses during their later years in high school. The same holds true for students planning to pursue the arts or social sciences. Students may even want to think about taking one or two Advanced Placement courses during the freshman year if they are available and are eligible. Also, during freshman year, students should work to establish positive relationships with their teachers and the administration. High school staff members are always seeking to identify the next group of student leaders. It is a worthwhile endeavor for freshman year students to set up meetings with their academic advisor or guidance counselor to find out how high school works, what summer programs might be available to them, and receive advice about the best academic course of action. Lastly, students should seek to make new friends and strengthen their bonds with existing friends. Healthy, positive friendships make the high school experience more engaging and joyful. Students may also decide to reinvent themselves in high school and try new activities in order to meet new people. Freshman year is almost like a clean slate where students can take control of their high school careers and start preparing themselves to be competitive candidates for selective colleges in a few years. THE SOPHOMORE YEAR Conventional wisdom says that the junior year is the most important year in high school when preparing to apply to college. I have a different point of view. I believe that students cannot have a successful junior year if they do not build a strong foundation for it in the sophomore year. During the sophomore year, students interested in attending selective colleges and universities will have more opportunities to enroll in advanced or honors classes, such as Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or College Prep (CP) courses. Students should take full advantage of these opportunities. Students may also wish to engage in online learning opportunities if their high school curriculums will not provide them with the rigorous coursework needed to be competitive in the selective college admissions process. This is also the year students should start to think critically about how their coursework aligns with what they plan to study in college. Students should also seek leadership positions during the sophomore year as well, and increase their involvement in club and/or extracurricular activities. Students may also want to think about starting leadership initiatives outside of school by focusing on community service or independent research projects. Now that students have one year of high school behind them, they are more comfortable with the experience. This comfort should lead to an increased sense of confidence, which will allow them to take more risks in launching and defining their leadership endeavors. Sophomore year is also the time when students seeking to apply to selective colleges should start to distinguish themselves from their classmates. This is a critical part of the Ivy Edge Method, cultivating something I like to call distinguished excellence. During the adolescent years, teens have a development inclination to participate in the same activities as their peers. Students desiring to attend selective institutions must behave counterintuitive to this inclination and think about how they intend to follow their own unique, individual path–wherever it may lead them. Students should define one of two areas in which they decide to fully invest their time and resources, and work to cultivate a sense of excellence in those areas. Lastly, students should invest in their relationships with teachers and administrators during the sophomore year. These are the people who will eventually submit letters of recommendation on the student’s behalf when it is time to apply to college. Teachers and administrators are able to craft stronger and more compelling letters of recommendation if they have known a student well for a few years as opposed to not. Students should also identify peers that share similar collegiate goals. They should build and strengthen relationships with them in order to create a sense of community within the larger framework of high school. These relationships may evolve into future partners or collaborators on ideas and leadership initiatives. As the old saying goes, birds of a feather do indeed flock together! THE JUNIOR YEAR The junior year receives the most scrutiny from admissions officers, particularly those admissions officers at selective colleges and universities. This is the year students should plan on taking the most rigorous academic coursework possible. Junior year is also the last full year students have to develop and demonstrate their leadership abilities, so they should maximize this by choosing to hold a higher office in a club or organization. If a student is involved in athletics, the performing arts or other extracurricular activities, junior year is not the year to quit. Junior year is the year to remain consistent and build upon what has been done in the previous two years. Seeking consistency and growth in an applicant is a key part of the adjudication process of college applications. So even if challenges arise while participating in these activities, students should lean into the challenges and learn how to grow from them. Such challenges may later become valuable experiences that are shared with admissions officers through either the Common App personal statement or supplemental response questions. Junior year is also the year when students should develop and execute a standardized test prep strategy. For a couple of years during and after COVID, most colleges adopted a “test optional” policy with respect to standardized tests. Starting this past spring, selective colleges have started to revert back to pre-COVID admissions policies and require the submission of standardized tests. I predict this trend will continue for the upcoming application season and beyond. Students should plan to take either the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) during the junior year and not wait until senior year to try and achieve the desired score. Students should also start to generate a preliminary college application list during the junior year as well. Students should start researching different college programs and familiarize themselves with the admission requirements for those programs. If they learn they are falling short of the admission requirements of a particular set of programs, junior year is the time to course correct and ensure all admission requirements of desired programs are being met. This is also the year students and families may wish to plan college visits. If that is not affordable or feasible, then students should follow programs on the college lists on social media outlets, such as Instagram. Colleges and universities–particularly the selective ones–regularly host Instagram live chats to answer questions about the admissions process to their schools. THE SENIOR YEAR Senior year is go time! Students planning on applying to selective colleges should begin preparing for it as early as the end of junior year. It takes about four to six months to truly craft a compelling Common App personal statement, so students should start working on it as soon as possible. The goal is to submit an application package that best reflects who they are and who they will be on a college campus, so by this point, students should have a very clear idea on where they intend to apply to college and have their college application list set. They should also make sure they have completed all of the admission requirements of the programs they intend to apply to, and work to fulfill those requirements if there are any gaps. Students should also be very aware of application deadlines and make sure they are managing the application process accordingly. Good time management skills are critical to the process and students should invest in developing them if they have not done so by this time. Students should also decide which colleges they intend to apply to in the early round. It is a little kept secret, but most selective colleges are starting to accept the bulk of their applicants during the Early Action/Early Decision round. The acceptance rates for the early round tend to be higher than the Regular Decision round, so students should apply early to their top choice schools. Some of the most selective programs have now placed restrictions on where students can apply during this round, so students must be sure of their choices and have honest conversations with their families–and themselves–about their chances of admission to these programs and plan accordingly. Senior year is also the last opportunity students have to take standardized tests. If a student has not yet achieved their desired score on either the SAT or ACT, then they should register to take the test in late summer and/or early fall. They should prioritize preparing and studying for these tests and make adjustments to their schedules as necessary in order to maximize their probability of achieving their desired score. In addition to the Common App personal statement, students should also review the supplemental questions for all of the schools on their application list. They should start to make choices about what will be the most appropriate responses to these questions, how those responses will augment the Common App personal statement, and work on crafting those responses as soon as possible. October is the month students should be working on final revisions of their personal statements and supplemental essays as November 1st is generally the first application deadline for the early round. Students should also identify the teachers they wish to write their letters of recommendations at the beginning of the year and ask them if they would like to do so. The more students give teachers and administrators time to write the recommendation, the more likely it is that teachers and administrators will write compelling recommendations; they will have been given the time to do so. Before students submit their applications, they should take the time to re-read and proofread their applications. They may want to enlist the help of a trusted advisor to review their application (the Activities section as well as the written portions) and incorporate any positive comments. Again, in the fall of senior year, applying to college is the priority, so students should manage and make adjustments in the schedules accordingly to ensure final reads and proofs are completed to their satisfaction. After the application is submit-ready, students may start to focus on scholarship applications and–if applicable–working with their families to fill out financial aid forms, such as the FAFSA or CSS/PROFILE. Students will also need to keep their academics strong throughout the year as it is very possible that poor grades in the senior year may result in an admission offer being rescinded. SUMMARY Back-to-school time is both exciting and anxiety-inducing. But if students use the remaining days of summer to think about what their top-level goals need to be before school starts, it can be an enjoyable time as well. I hope the tips and thoughts I have shared in this blog post have been valuable to both students and families alike. I wish all the students starting school in a few weeks a happy and successful school year!  So, what is the Ivy Edge Method, anyway?
It is a method I designed to help measure the progress of my clients as they pursue their goal of being accepted to a selective college or university. But that doesn’t really tell you the full story, does it? How did I develop this method? Where did I get the training and tools to develop such a methodology? How did I know it would work? And why does it work? I think of my blogposts as a means to share information about the selective college admissions process. Now, more than ever, students and families are having a hard time keeping up with all of the rapid changes in college admissions, as there seem to be new changes happening all the time. I think of my blog as a resource to keep my audience up-to-date on all of these fast and furious changes in the industry. But I also think of my blogposts as a way for readers (and potential clients) to get to know me. And the best way to get a sense of another human being is to listen to the stories they share about themselves. So, you will often find my blogposts are equal parts information sharing and storytelling. My goal of publishing these posts is to allow readers an opportunity to get to know more about the industry, more about my work, and more about me. I have the benefit (and challenge) of being a solopreneur. This means my work is deeply personal in nature; I can’t just up and quit this job. That means it is up to me—not a pre-designed system of a business or a company—to build trust, establish rapport with my clients, and maintain that trust. And trust is built by a willingness for me to be open, honest, and vulnerable with my clients, and hopefully, encourage the same from them. Routinely, families tell me that they hire me specifically because I am a solopreneur. Specifically because they know they are are putting their children’s future in my hands and my hands alone, and not into the hands of a business system designed for maximum client intake or into the hands of an employee that can up and quit in the middle of an engagement. Specifically because I don’t have to split my energy between their children, managing a staff, and overseeing the operation processes of a business. So, while families hire me, yes, for my expertise and experience, they also hire me for their peace of mind. They know I am with them until the very end. They know that I will (and can) dedicate myself 100% to the process of working on behalf of their children to reach the goals we set to the best of everyone’s ability. And this is why I intend to keep my business as a solopreneurship. And why it was even more important for me to develop a methodology that makes sense and works. It is a repeatable process that not only helps my students reach their goals, but helps their parents—my real clients—have faith that that there is a process in place. The truth is, never in a million years did I imagine I would end up as a solopreneur, much less own and operate a successful college admissions consulting firm. I worked for many years as an executive coach for Fortune 100 companies prior to launching The Ivy Edge, and was quite content with my career path…until fate intervened. I started my path as an executive coach in 2007 by obtaining a professional coach certification through a program approved by the International Coach Federation (ICF). I was fortunate enough to be living in New York City at the time where there was an abundance of opportunities to work as an executive coach. Shortly after I completed my certification program, I was hired to work at a leadership development and communications consulting firm. It was there I learned about curriculum design, and the importance of developing a method—a repeatable process with built-in metrics—to help my corporate clients measure their progress towards achieving their goals. I also learned how important it was to not create a one-size-fits-all pedagogy and ensure that any and all teaching methods were flexible enough to meet the needs of individual clients. I have a passion for coaching. I have a passion for helping others. And, at the time, I considered myself to be very fortunate to be able to find work in an industry that was not only aligned with my passions, but contained enough variety from day-to-day to hold my interests. Also, at that same time, I had the opportunity to engage in another one of my passions: helping bright young students with their college applications to selective schools. Since graduating college, I have volunteered my time in one capacity or another to help students with the application process, whether it was by being a personal statement reader or serving as an alumni interviewer for my alma mater. Also, in 2007, I was invited to join a small group of Yale alumni to develop a volunteer initiative in concert with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale to help academically qualified students from underrepresented populations successfully apply to top colleges and universities. This volunteer initiative quickly took off, and I had the benefit of working very closely for many years with the then-Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale to develop the program. I learned first-hand what comprises a successful applicant to the Ivy League and other top-tier programs, very much in the way current independent education consultants who were former admissions officers learned. That volunteer initiative was very successful and eventually became a nonprofit. And that nonprofit eventually helped hundreds of students across the country get accepted to the some of the best schools in the nation. So, for a while, I was working as executive coach while running a nonprofit on the side. And it was working very well for me…until it wasn’t. In 2015, I became very sick and had to leave New York City, and along with it, the life and career I had built over many years. I returned back to my home state of North Carolina to heal and start figuring out next steps. While I was still able to run the nonprofit—albeit in a diminished capacity—the amount of executive coaching opportunities I was accustomed to was no longer available to me. I was able to find work and still produce the programs of the nonprofit until a chance encounter changed my life forever. On a trip to Washington, DC to run one of the workshops for the nonprofit during a holiday season, a young man approached me in Reagan National, asking if I had gone to Yale (I was wearing a Yale baseball cap and carrying a Yale tote bag, so it was a fair question). I told him that I had. It turns out he was a freshman at a local college here in North Carolina and was planning to apply to Yale, among other schools, as a sophomore transfer. I told him that I happened to be an expert in college admissions to selective schools, and would be more than happy to meet with him to discuss his plans. I gave him my info, and asked him to contact me. By the time my Uber arrived to take me to my hotel, this young man had already emailed me and asked if we could meet up some time in the new year. Later that evening, I had dinner with my fellow workshop facilitators. I shared with them about my struggles to figure out my next career steps as well as the story of this impressive young man I had met at the airport. Then, my dinner companions got quiet, because they could see I wasn’t putting together what the Universe was obviously trying to show me. Quite calmly and lovingly, they asked me why I hadn’t started my own admissions consulting firm. I told them the thought had never crossed my mind. They then told me to think about…because obviously Life had just delivered me my first client. That night, the idea for The Ivy Edge was born. Not only did I meet up with the young man in the new year to discuss his transfer application, I started to put together the idea for the business. I knew that it would be important for me to differentiate myself in the independent education consulting space, and that I wanted the business to reflect and engage all of my passions. So, in developing and launching The Ivy Edge, I knew that I had to pull from both of my passions: my experience in selective college admissions as well as my expertise from the executive coaching industry. I decided then to create a repeatable methodology for my practice (the executive coaching experience), and apply it to the subject matter of the business (selective college admissions). This is how The Ivy Edge Method came to be. I have since been using this method to help students and families from all over the world successfully apply to selective colleges and universities. I established five key areas—or checkpoints—by which I base each engagement. Ensuring that my students excel in all five areas during the course of the engagements develops them into highly competitive candidates when it comes time for them to apply to college. It also provides a framework by which I can discuss with parents how the work with their child is coming along, and collaborate with them to support their child in reaching their goals. While this method has undergone some tweaks in the past seven years, the success of my past clients in gaining admission to selective programs (seen in the Results page of my page of my website) demonstrate its efficacy. I would now like to introduce to you the five areas of focus of the Ivy Edge Method: academic planning, leadership development, personal growth, service opportunities, and distinguished excellence. Below is an in-depth description for you to read of each area of focus with the language taken directly from my newly-revamped website. Enjoy! P.S – The young man in this story did end up successfully transferring to NYU as a sophomore. And last spring, he graduated from the Wharton School of Business with his MBA. ACADEMIC PLANNING Academic planning is the foundation work that helps students be competitive in the admissions process to selective colleges and universities. Admissions officers at selective institutions seek to admit applicants who take the most rigorous courses at their secondary institutions. Often, regional admissions directors of selective schools are familiar with the academic rigor of the courses offered at schools in their area. Therefore, it does not work in a student’s favor to play it safe by taking classes that are not academically rigorous, but will yield a higher GPA. Also, transcripts tell a story. High school transcripts are the one of the most important predictors of how well as student will perform academically in college. Transcripts also reveal the level of consistency in a student’s academic performance, also important information for admissions officers when reviewing an application. Transcripts let admissions officers know at a quick glance if a student has chosen classes that meet their school’s entry requirements as well as prepared them for any possible majors declared on the application. The work of The Ivy Edge is to help students examine all of the academic opportunities available to them--even online options-- and make recommendations about what courses a student should take. Students should always choose courses that challenge them academically as well as those that play to their particular academic strengths. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT High school offers students the opportunity to develop leadership skills, explore their interests, and learn how to design and execute project-based initiatives. In particular, selective colleges and universities expect that its applicants have demonstrated some leadership experience during their high school career. Seeking or creating leadership opportunities helps students differentiate themselves from their classmates as well as develop useful skills that will be beneficial in college as well as their professional lives. Helping students pursue and engage in leadership roles helps them to grow beyond their comfort zone. Students tend to have more success in leadership roles when they are excited about what they are leading, whether it be a school club, volunteer initiative, or sports team. Students should seek leadership roles in activities that truly engage their interests, and not to pad their resumés. The quality of the leadership experience matters more to admission officers of selective institutions than the quantity. The Ivy Edge helps students seek leadership opportunities within their schools and communities as well as provides guidance and advice to students as they learn how to lead. The Ivy Edge also helps students determine if selected leadership opportunities and extracurricular activities are consistent with the larger goal of developing a competitive application to a selective college or university. PERSONAL GROWTH Deeply investing in the personal growth of clients is one aspect that makes The Ivy Edge distinctly different from independent education consulting firms. The work of The Ivy Edge leverages the founder’s background as a certified professional coach. Successful coaches invest deeply in the personal growth of their clients. They do this by creating trust in the relationship through direct and honest conversations, while encouraging clients to find their own unique answers, and holding them accountable to the goals clients set for themselves. Creating a safe environment that allows students to bring their full selves to the engagement is also an important aspect of the work of The Ivy Edge. Also central to the work is to closely monitor the emotional and mental health of students during the course of the engagement with "check-in" sessions. If any signs of declining mental and/or emotional health in a student are detected, parents are alerted and discussions are held to plan next steps for the short- and long-term health of the engagement. Focusing on the personal growth of Ivy Edge clients is also crucial to the college application process itself. Many of the essay questions to selective institutions are highly personal in nature. They require students to look at themselves on a deep level in order to craft compelling responses. The personal nature of the work of The Ivy Edge—and the focus on personal growth--lays the groundwork for students to be able to engage the application process with confidence, knowing that they will have full support all along the way. SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Strong applicants to selective colleges and universities are expected to have a sense of themselves as global citizens with an interest in finding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Applicants who engage in service opportunities--even at a local level--demonstrate a sense of empathy, compassion, and connectedness to others. Empathy and compassion are some of the most highly sought-after personality traits members of selective admissions committees seek in successful applicants and expect them to possess. Service opportunities can come in many forms. Some applicants volunteer their time to existing service organizations. Some start their own service initiatives, such as launching food drives or founding a nonprofit. And still others find service opportunities by engaging in the political process. Regardless of what avenue taken, service opportunities should be enjoyable for students as well as aligned with their values and interests. More and more, applications to selective colleges and universities are specifically asking for students to discuss volunteer and/or community service experience separately from other parts of the application. The lack of service opportunities on an application to a selective college may even create a negative impact on an admissions committee. The work of The Ivy Edge is to help students define and pursue service opportunities, and support and advise them during the process of engaging such opportunities. DISTINGUISHED EXCELLENCE Historically, selective institutions admitted students that were well-rounded candidates and excelled in a variety of interests. Today, the opposite is true. Admissions officers to selective colleges and universities now prefer students who have distinguished themselves from other applicants in one or two areas. More than in previous generations, students now decide their intended career paths in high school rather than in college, so it is important that they seek or create opportunities that are aligned with their professional as well as collegiate goals. By pursuing excellence in one or two areas, students can better determine which college programs will be a best fit for them and steer their high school careers in the direction of being strong candidates for those programs. Also, by developing themselves in only a few areas, students increase their chances to obtain leadership opportunities in those areas, create real-world impact in their communities, and invest more deeply in developing a more nuanced understanding of their chosen career path. Students excel best in distinguishing themselves from their classmates when they pursue opportunities that are aligned with their innate abilities, passions, and values. The work of The Ivy Edge is to help students discover what academic subjects intersect with their abilities, passions and values, and then advise them on how to best pursue opportunities in those areas. This approach ultimately helps students stand out in competitive applicant pools as singularly unique candidates.  Recently, the dean of admissions at a top-ranked university held a conference call for alumni volunteers who conduct application interviews. He told the call participants that, after accounting for grades–the most important factor when considering an applicant’s viability for admission—the second most important aspect of a candidate's application is what the student says about themselves in the personal statement.
Not standardized test scores. Not extracurricular or in-school activities. But the applicant’s own words. Now is the start of the college application season for the high school Class of 2025. And the focus of this month’s blogpost is the college admissions essay, also known as the personal statement. In this post, I will discuss what makes college admissions essays a compelling read, and why I still do not believe that AI is yet the way to go in helping students craft their personal statements. Why Compelling compel - transitive verb com·pel (kəm-ˈpel): to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly The college application personal statement is a uniquely American phenomenon. In other countries–such as Germany or the UK–some institutions may require a personal statement be submitted with an application, but the focus of those essays is mostly on what a student intends to study at the university and why they feel qualified to do so. It may be an interesting intellectual and historical exercise to understand why the requirements to enter American institutions of higher learning evolved as they did (that’s a blogpost for another day), but for now, rising seniors all across the country are starting to think about what they are going to say in their college application essays that will help them stand out in a field of possibly tens of thousands of applicants. Students applying to college–particularly those applying to selective institutions–are concerning themselves with the seven prompts on the Common Application (more commonly known as the Common App). These prompts change every few years or so, but the rules are pretty straightforward: students using the Common App portal to apply to multiple colleges may answer one of seven essay prompts with a maximum limit of 650 words. Applicants must figure out how to answer one of the seven prompts in a way that best reflects who they are as candidates. Applicants should also understand that the response to these prompts must accomplish a very specific job. College application essays must compel another human being (or a group of human beings) to act favorably on behalf of the applicant, particularly when an applicant cannot advocate on their own behalf in-person. Let me restate this another way to drive home the point. The Common App personal statement should be seen as a stand-in for a student when that student is not able to present themselves to an admissions committee in-person, and convince them as to why they should be admitted. The Common App personal statement is, in part, a piece of persuasive writing. I believe it must be understood as such, and carefully crafted with this understanding. It has been said that while people may not remember what you say to them, they will always remember how you make them feel. I ask my clients to keep this in mind when drafting their personal statements: how will admissions officers feel about you once they have completed reading your essay, your supplemental responses, your application overall? The title of this blogpost is very intentional; a top-level goal of writing a college application essay, among other things, should also be to intentionally craft a compelling read. In addition to being a piece of persuasive writing, crafting college application essays is also an exercise in storytelling. Stories move us, stories inspire us. Stories have the power to compel us into action. So, when thinking about crafting the Common App Personal Statement in this way; it becomes not only an exercise in essay writing, but in creating compelling storycraft. Tell a Great Story One of the first things I do when helping my clients craft their Common App personal statements is helping them understand what constitutes a great story. I also help them understand who exactly the audience is for their essays: members of the admissions committees of the schools on their application list. This is a very important distinction to make because oftentimes, students seek their parents’ approval of their essays when writing them, even if it is in their mind’s eye. That makes emotional sense, as parents are often the most powerful and influential relationship in a teen’s life. But… Parents are NOT experts in adjudicating college applications. So, while a parent may think an admissions essay is not up to snuff or does not reflect their child in the best light, it might be a vein of gold for an admissions reader. Parents and admissions officers often read application essays through very different lenses, lenses that are often incompatible. Also, understanding who members of a college admissions committee are is NOT about telling them in the personal statement what you think they want to hear. Instead, it is about constructing a compelling story to make them feel what you want them to feel. And what you want them to feel is positive about you as an applicant to their college or university. So in that respect, writing a personal statement is just as much of an emotional enterprise as it is an intellectual one. Great stories are memorable because they take readers on emotional journeys. They also serve as mnemonic devices that stay with us long after the story ends. Think about the last great book you read or the last great movie you’ve seen. You can recall them easily because you remember the emotional journey of the story and how it made you feel. I encourage my clients to use the same framework to think about and, eventually, write their application essays. Not only should the essays highlight aspects of self not overly abundant in other parts of the application, but they should be crafted in such a way that you are telling the admissions readers a great story about yourself. Also, by our very natures, humans are story-making machines; we make up stories all the time to help us understand the world, ourselves, and others. Stories provide us with an accessibility to each other that other forms of writing simply do not. I encourage my clients to use this information to their advantage. I help them to remember that it is another human being that will be reading their essays, not some faceless, formless machine. I remind them that really well-written stories–great stories–are not only memorable, but have the power to connect us across time and space, and emotionally move us in a particular direction. Get to Know Yourself “I don’t know what to write about.” This is the most common concern students have when they begin writing their application essay. Not many applicants have had the opportunity to learn how to properly construct a personal narrative, hence why they are so perplexed when asked to do so in order to gain admission to college. Unfortunately, most high school curriculums do not offer a course in learning how to write personal narratives, nor is learning how to do so well often a section of a course curriculum. Not even AP English Language and Composition hosts a unit on crafting personal narratives. It’s a bit of a disconnect, really, that learning how to write a personal narrative is a required part of the college application process in the United States, but rarely is it taught as an essential part of a high school’s curriculum. No wonder even the brightest students are challenged when it comes to figuring out what they want to write about. The operative word in the phrase “Common App Personal Statement” is “personal”. The most compelling application essays I have ever read are deeply, deeply personal. Those essays go beyond simply sharing an aspect of one’s self that an admissions committee will not learn about an applicant from a transcript or list of extracurricular activities; those essays allow readers to get a glimpse into the author’s soul. I would argue that if a student truly wants their application to stand out among a crowded field of applicants, then their college application essays must be written from a soul level. And it is for this reason I encourage my clients to use the college application process as a way to begin knowing themselves. From an admissions officer’s perspective, it is okay if an applicant is not completely sure what they wish to study in college; that is to be expected. But what is unexpected is the high level of self-awareness that some students exhibit through their college applications. The applicants that leverage the application process as a means of getting to know themselves are the one who submit the most compelling reads. I recommend that students think very deeply about what they wish to share with an admissions committee, and how they wish to express it. This is another reason I recommend that parents DO NOT read the application essays of their children. As I stated above, parents are the most influential relationships in a student’s life, and the college application process is a place where that influence may be more harmful to the process than helpful. In addition to parents not possessing the expertise and skill set of an admissions officer to understand what comprises a compelling college admissions essay, it is also very possible that students have life experiences they desperately want or need to share with an admissions committee that they are not yet ready to share with their parents. The college application process, particularly the crafting of the college application personal statement, is part of a student’s emergence into adulthood. At its core, college applicants are young people who are making an effort to start their adulthood in a place where they believe they will find communities that are aligned with their core values. Their applications should reflect that, admissions committee members need to know that, and parents might not yet be ready to know that. Why Not AI It is because of the deeply personal nature of successful and compelling college application essays that I believe AI technology is not yet sufficiently equipped to help students draft them. Since most students have had little to no exposure on how to write a compelling personal narrative, I assume most students will struggle with exactly what are the proper prompts they should put into a tool like ChatGPT or Google Gemini in order to produce an edit-worthy first draft of an admissions essay. Also, with the exception of the 7th prompt, all students using the Common App portal will choose to respond to one of the same six prompts; I am not exactly clear if AI technology is advanced enough to provide an infinite number of compelling and unique responses to the same set of questions. And lastly (and maybe the most important point), AI cannot replicate writing that comes from an honest and truthful emotional–human–place; it cannot create a narrative from a soul level. Forbes Magazine published an article on getting ChatGPT to write two college application essays in a matter of minutes. I have included an excerpt from one of those essays below: "In my sophomore year, I suffered a major setback when I broke my shoulder in a swimming accident. Despite this injury, I was determined to return to the pool and continue competing. After months of grueling physical therapy and hard work, I was finally able to return to the water. I was not as fast as I used to be, but I was still a valuable member of the team and I continued to improve throughout the season." Compare this to an excerpt of an essay written by a human: "Drowning in a coat to protect me from the January chill, I let the mic echo my words about the power of youth voice and emphasized the necessity of discourse. My eyes reflexively searched the audience, landing on my friends, grasping onto banners declaring, 'RESIST.' Yet, the gutting hypocrisy of my words overtook me. Even amid a like-minded crowd, I felt alone without my parents' support. And it hurt to be alone." The excerpts from both essays describe a pivotal moment in the lives of both students. I would argue that the excerpt from the Forbes article achieves the objective of describing the comeback from a major life setback, but it does not take us through the emotional journey of what was going with the internal life of the “author” while he/she/they were going through the process of recuperating from the injury. In the excerpt written by the human, we get a LOT of information in approximately the same number of words. We get a sense of time and place (time = winter, place = youth rally). We also get a sense of who the speaker is (one of the designated speakers at the rally) and what is important to them (youth empowerment). We also get a sense of the speaker’s emotional journey (the parents are not at the rally/do not support the participation in the rally…and it hurts) as well as the speaker’s soul level conflict (feeling like a hypocrite during the rally). Which comes across as the more compelling read? Summary There is an art to crafting a compelling college admissions essay. It is a unique piece of writing that most students will never have to do again in their adult lives. And yet it is a piece of writing that may very well be an important factor in determining one’s life trajectory. So, it is important to not take the endeavor lightly and get it right. For students reading this blogpost, start working on your Common App personal statement NOW. Ivy Edge clients who were accepted to some of the most prestigious and selective colleges in the country spend an average of four months working on their personal statements; it is never too soon to start. And for parents reading this blogpost, I highly recommend it is worth the investment to enlist the help of a professional to assist your student with this process. As I mentioned above, as well meaning as parents are when wanting to help your child craft a strong and compelling essay, the nature of a parent-child relationship may unintentionally be a hindering factor in helping a student produce the best essay possible. Good luck to the members of the Class of 2025 who are starting to work on their personal statements. Just remember to dig deep, share your truth, and tell the admissions committee an amazing and compelling story as to why you belong at their university. Happy crafting!  According to the National Institute of Mental Health, adolescence is a very important time in the life of brain development. In fact, the prefrontal cortex–-the center of the brain responsible for planning, reasoning, prioritizing, judgment, impulse control, and making good decisions–-is the last part of the brain to develop, reaching its final maturation stages during the mid- to late-20s. From mid-adolescence to early adulthood, the brain undergoes a “rewiring” process that is not complete until about 25 years of age. What happens to a person during this time in life is critical as it sets the stage for how an adult will think about and process the world, themselves, and others for the rest of life.
This is why I believe the work that I do as an independent education consultant is so important. The college application process falls squarely in the range of this very important time of brain development. It is also why I consider my work to be mission-critical in helping bright young minds navigate this process and end up at the colleges and universities that are the right, best fit for them. My focus and area of expertise is in the admissions process to selective colleges and universities, and it is from this perspective-–along with understanding the science underlying this process as a foundational jumping off point–-that I wish to utilize this month’s blogpost to address a question that has been swirling around in mainstream media as of late: are elite colleges still worth it? Before I begin my investigation into the question of whether elite colleges are still worth it, I need to establish some important parameters for this read. First, I need to be fully transparent in that I am a graduate of what most would consider an elite institution. I graduated from Yale University in the spring of 1996, and was the first person from my home county in North Carolina to ever be accepted to the institution (read more about my college application success story here). I know firsthand how attending an elite institution changed the trajectory of my life for the better, but everyone’s story is unique. So while yes, there may be an implicit bias in my exploration of the question of whether elite colleges are still worth it, what I hope to do in this post is address some of the current media narratives around the value of attending an elite institution (and whether or not it is still worth it), and offer a perspective that comes from both my genuine lived experience as well as my expert opinion as an independent education consultant focused exclusively on helping students successfully apply to selective colleges and universities. The current protests against the conflict in the Middle East occurring on college campuses across the nation has brought this question into sharp focus as of late. These protests are just the latest episode of the scrutiny selective-–or elite–-colleges have been under in recent years. The practice of legacy admissions at elite universities, the SCOTUS decision last summer repealing the consideration of race in the application process, the reversal of test-optional policies adopted after COVID, the skyrocketing costs of tuition, the debacle with this year’s FAFSA application, the rise of generative AI, not to mention the general confusion that comes along with trying to understand an already-opaque process (just what does it take to be admitted to these schools, anyway?) have led students and families to question if all the hassle is worth it. The fears and concerns are understandable and real. This is one of the primary reasons my industry exists. Students that meet the basic criteria of being quality applicants to selective schools (strong grade point average, good extracurriculars, etc.) need help to navigate these larger questions as well as guidance on how to best navigate their high school careers to make sure they are competitive candidates in selective college applicant pools. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of media narratives and think pieces as of late that serve to feed on these fears. Personally, I do not find these stories to be very helpful. For example, Forbes Magazine recently published an article christening some colleges and universities as “the new Ivies”. Bloomberg also recently published an article stating that, after the Ivies, public institutions are the better investment for families. Both of the articles, and others like them, base their hypotheses on what I will fairly assume to be rigorous data analysis. But I fear articles like this do less to assuage families’ fears and more to amplify them, and I do not find that helpful. But most importantly, from my perspective, it is disingenuous for the authors of these articles to reduce the college experience down to data points that do not account for the quality of a student’s experience on campus. Should the value of a college be judged on the prevailing (and mercurial) political landscape? Should return of investment only be measured by what a student’s potential earnings will be after graduating from an elite institution? Or, can return on investment also be measured by the quality of self-fulfillment and actualization a student experiences on a college campus, the life-long relationships formed, and the opportunity to thrive in an environment that is the right best fit for them. If the authors of the articles listed above (and others like them) had bothered to conduct qualitative as well as quantitative analysis to support their hypotheses, then perhaps I would not be giving the results the side-eye. But they don’t. Therefore, I question not only their approach, but the intentions behind them as well. All of this leads to my answer to the question if elite colleges are still worth it. And my answer is this: yes, if the elite college is the right, best fit for the student. Before I discuss why I think elite colleges are still worth it from my perspective as an expert in the admissions process to selective schools, I need to start with my own lived experience and the lived experience of others I know. I chose to attend Yale University because Yale was the right, best fit for me at the time. Back in the early 90s, I did very well in the college application process. I applied to seven schools, and was accepted to all seven: Yale, Harvard, Duke, Stanford, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, and Davidson College. I had the good fortune to have an abundance of quality choices, so I was able to carefully weigh and measure which school would be the right best fit for me. I was a young, gay Black man that grew up in a conversative, rural, predominantly white community. I wanted, needed, to go to college in an environment where not only would I thrive and be challenged academically, but where I could be my full self without navigating the same fears I had to contend with in my hometown. At the time (and still now), Yale had a very open and supportive queer community, in addition to having the top programs in my intended majors, English literature and theater studies. Also, the performing arts community at Yale-–particularly the theater community-–was unparalleled. It was a no-brainer. As a strong student, I would like to imagine that I would have done well academically, no matter where I ended up attending college. But I cannot divorce the academic success I achieved at Yale from the fact that I was able to explore my academic interests and passions in an environment where I felt safe and supported. I was a high achiever in high school in spite of my environment; I was a high achiever in college because of it. Years ago, I founded a nonprofit organization centered on helping students from underrepresented communities with financial aid and applying to selective colleges. The central program of the nonprofit delivered workshops across the country to students from these communities whose academics were strong enough to make them competitive candidates in selective college applicant pools. As a part of the program, the facilitators would share their personal experiences of attending college at a selective institution (as all those affiliated with the nonprofit were graduates of such institutions). One of the facilitators–-who also served as an officer of the nonprofit–-would routinely tell program participants of his experience at Harvard…which was not a right, fit for him. It was so much not a right fit for him that it had a negative impact on his mental health. He had to take a year off from Harvard in order to heal and then return to complete his senior year. It is part of why he chose to be a part of the program and serve as an officer of the nonprofit: he wanted program participants to know that right fit matters, and their decisions about where to attend college should not be based on quantitative data alone, that all aspects of a student’s human experience should be considered in making such an important decision. To this day, he remains one of the most intelligent and kindest people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. And yet, his blazing intellect could not save him from having a negative experience at a college that was not a right fit for him. This is why I opened this blog by introducing the underlying science behind why where a student attends college matters. My positive experience in college and my colleague’s negative experience happened during a critical time during our brains’ development. Those experiences shaped how we entered adulthood, and probably, the fundamental ways we both think to this day. This is also why I think boiling down the choice of where to attend college–-be it an elite school or no–-solely on quantitative data points or the current political climate is so dangerous. And, quite frankly, irresponsible. There are a few reasons why attending an elite institution might be the right, best fit for a student. The first–-and what I believe is the primary reason–-is that not all academic programs are the same. For older generations, college was the place for students to “find” themselves, to take the time and figure out what they wanted to pursue professionally. This is not the case with Gen Z; they are digital natives and have access to information (generally in their pockets on their smartphones) in ways that previous generations did not. Enterprising students use their high school careers to plan and prepare for what they intend to study in college. Because of the ease and access to information they have through various social media channels such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, they already know if they wish to study electrical engineering with a focus on fusion energy, epidemiology to improve health outcomes for impoverished communities, nanotechnology to cure neurological diseases, international public policy through a quantitative lens, and the like. Not all colleges have such specialized academic programs, and you will find most such programs at selective–or elite–institutions. These students deserve the opportunity to study at institutions that will provide them with the best academic foundation to pursue their professional interests. If that happens to be at what is known at an elite institution, then so be it. If it is the best fit for them academically, and they have the ability to be competitive candidates to attend schools aligned with their professional interests, then any such institutions should not be discarded during the application process. Remember, their brains are still growing during this time of intense learning, so their prefrontal cortexes are being “hardwired” to pursue solving the problems they are passionate about, thereby increasing their probability of success in their chosen fields for the rest of their working lives. I truly believe this should happen in academic environments that have the best resources available to support such growth. Another reason that attending an elite institution might be a right, best fit for some students is the education these institutions provide outside of the classroom. Even after the SCOTUS ruling, selective institutions have remained committed to admitting the most talented and diverse student body possible. During these critical years of brain development, students that attend such schools have the opportunity to learn from other students that have life experiences wildly different from their own. They have the opportunity to learn how to relate to others that have different belief systems and hold core values different from theirs, have their own assumptions about their internal and external worlds challenged, and become forever curious about people, ideas, and things they have never had to consider before. They get to change the way they think that will better prepare them to be competitive in the global marketplace. Another benefit of studying alongside students from different backgrounds is the opportunity to develop empathy for others. There is something about the collegiate experience that bonds people together in a way that does not happen in high school. Living, working, playing, and loving in close quarters creates a unique life experience. If students are able to do this in an environment where they are forced to interact with other people different from them, in order to have it be a positive experience, they must learn to step out of their comfort zone and into the shoes of another. This is how positive personality traits such as empathy, kindness, and compassion develop. And again, because it is happening during this crucial period of brain development, these personality traits get “hard-wired” into the way these students think and approach the problems and challenges in their lives. There is a stronger likelihood that they will carry and develop these positive personality traits into their adulthood, and the life-long friendship bonds students form with those different from them will continue to support the activation of these traits when challenges and problems–-big or small, personally or professionally–-arise. So, in closing, do I think that elite colleges and universities are still worth it? Yes, if an elite college is indeed the right, best fit for a particular student. In addition to the professional benefits an education from elite institutions offer, there are personal benefits that create the capacity for students to evolve into leaders of the future that hold such values as empathy, kindness, and compassion at their core. In fact, admission offers at elite institutions now say these character traits–-empathy, kindness, and compassion–-are what they seek in their applicants. Whereas in the past, admissions officers used to only use achievements to assess the strength of a student’s application, they now consider character plus achievement in deciding which students they admit to their institutions. So, I would encourage students and families to take prevailing media narratives about the declining value of an education from elite institutions with a grain of salt, focus on finding out what schools will be the right, best fit, and steer the high school career in the direction of being the most competitive applicant possible.  Last month, admissions decisions were released by the most selective schools in the country. Of the ones that reported data, the top 25 schools in the nation–as ranked by Niche.com for the 2023-2024 academic year–had an average acceptance rate of 5.84%. The average number of applicants at these schools was 50,106. What this means is that there were many, many more students who were denied admission than there were who were accepted.
There were also a fair amount of students who landed in the gray area of “waitlisted”. The focus of this month’s blog is going to be on those students and how they can increase their chances of moving off of the waitlist by drafting a Letter of Continued Interest, otherwise known as a LOCI. I will talk about why applicants are waitlisted, what are the elements of a strong and effective LOCI, and why it is always a good idea to submit one. First, let’s discuss why colleges have waitlists in the first place. On its face, it is just that: a school is waiting to make a decision on your application while other things happen. Most schools–particularly selective institutions–make more offers to applicants than seats they have available in each first-year class. They know that not every applicant is going to accept their offer, so making more offers than seats is a sound strategy for them to pursue. This is of particular importance when it comes to selective programs because they know, every year, there will be a small group of applicants known as “the gets”. The “gets” are your academic powerhouses; students who have performed exceptionally well academically, have won highly competitive scholarships or competitions, and/or some prestigious national or international award or honor. These students receive multiple offers from selective universities and will spend the month of April deciding which offer is the best fit for them. After the “gets”, there is another tier of highly sought-after students. These are students who have performed exceptionally well in one or two particular areas. Think here about your athletic recruits, your strong STEM students who may have published independent research, your strong writers who may have published award-winning essays, your visual or performing artists who may have excelled in regional or national artistic competitions, your social justice warriors or savvy content creators and influencers. These applicants also receive multiple offers because they have performed something I like to call “distinguished excellence” (one of the five areas of focus for the Ivy Edge Method); they have found a way to significantly distinguish themselves in competitive applicant pools by pursuing their passions to the Nth degree. They also tend to have strong academics and competitive standardized test scores as well. So, after making offers to the “gets” and to those who have distinguished themselves in one or two areas, admissions officers must now fill an entire class with students that will collectively make the most use of the school’s academic resources. They must have enough potential history majors, economics majors, English literature majors, etc. to keep those departments populated with students. One of the goals of selective admissions committees is to select a well-rounded class that will make the most of the school's resources by selecting very particular–or, “pointy”--applicants from very competitive applicant pools. So, taking in all of these factors, they make their offers–and wait. And here is where the waitlist comes in. Waitlists are populated by students who are not the school’s top choice in any particular area the admissions committee is seeking to fill. Students may be a not-top choice for a host of reasons. Sometimes, an applicant is so strong that an admissions committee may assume the applicant has already been “taken off the market” during the Early Action/Early Decision phase of the application process by a similarly-tiered school. Other times, there may be an overabundance of applicants interested in a similar field in an applicant pool. And other times, it just may be that someone on the admission committee fell in love with a particular applicant for whatever reason, but couldn’t get enough other members of the committee on board to a full “yes”, but they were able to make the case for a “waitlist” decision instead of a full-on denial. The point is there are many reasons why students are waitlisted; those reasons are varied and unique to each selective admissions committee for each application cycle. The most important point I impress on some of my clients each year is this: they didn’t say no. Selective admissions committees say “no” to thousands upon thousands of applicants each year. They say “yes” to a few, and “waitlist” to an even fewer group. So, if an applicant gets a “waitlist” response, there is absolutely hope! One of the most important things impressing this distinction does is reframe my clients’ thinking around the waitlist decision. Sometimes, a waitlist decision comes from a dream school or a dream program, and anything other than that all-hoped-for “yes” can feel like a defeat. So, it is important to reframe the thinking around this response as soon as possible because there is very little time to be sad about it because the sooner a letter of continued interest is submitted, the better. Selective admissions committees are frantically sorting things out during the month of April just as much as students and families are; it is a frenetic time for everyone. Helping my clients understand this helps them not to process the decision on a deeply personal level and, hopefully, shifts them to a more positive mindset in order to draft a compelling and impactful letter of continued interest. Now, let’s break down what are the elements of a strong letter of continued interest. But before the work on a letter of continued interest begins, it is important to know the method by which the schools will accept them. Some schools have portals by which waitlisted students may submit their LOCI and/or other additional information. Often, there is a word count limit to what students can write on these portals. Very much like the Common App personal statement, once a word count limit is known, a student can make an informed decision about what information will need to be included in the LOCI and what may need to be omitted. There are also institutions that will ask a student to submit their LOCI to an email address. If this is the case, I advise students to draft a LOCI between 450-500 words. If a student is really serious about seizing the opportunity to move themselves off of the waitlist, then the LOCI needs to be substantive. If not a lot of new information is shared with the committee, it is highly unlikely that admissions committee members will be compelled to act favorably on the student’s behalf and move them off of the waitlist to the “admitted” column. The most ideal scenario, however, is for a student to submit their letter of continued interest to the regional director in the admissions office that has a student’s geographic location as a part of their portfolio. Most selective college admissions committees have members that are assigned specific geographic areas, or regions, and are known as regional directors. It is the job of regional directors to know the high schools in a particular region as well as who are the strongest potential applicants from that region. It is likely the regional director was the first reader of a student’s application. While it may take some internet sleuthing, the email addresses of regional directors are pretty readily available, if not outright listed on the school’s website itself. This is the person students should wish to contact when submitting their LOCIs. Why? The regional director is probably already familiar with the applicant on some level, so contacting them and submitting a LOCI won’t be so much of a fresh read on an application as it will be a reminder of who the student is; the LOCI is to remind them why the student believes s/he is a great candidate for admissions to the school. Also, it is easier on a student’s imagination to think or believe they are crafting a letter to another human being rather than to a faceless institution. This can really help LOCIs have emotional impact as well as providing additional information. A letter of continued interest that has strong emotional impact as well as shares relevant information will contain a few key elements. The first of those elements is to thank the admissions committee for taking the time to review the application. Expressing gratitude is always an important thing to do in life, but I always recommend my clients open their LOCIs with sincere statements of gratitude. It helps the reader to be open to reading the remaining contents of the letter. Remember: the admissions committee could have denied the application outright, so a sincere opening of thanks acknowledges that someone on the admissions committee cared enough about the application and its contents not to do so. So thanking the committee for another opportunity to demonstrate interest is something waitlisted applicants should think about doing, feel, and genuinely express. Next, students should let the admissions committees know what has happened in their lives since submitting the application. Talk about academic achievements, even if it is as simple as letting the committee know that a grade point average hasn’t fallen or has improved. Students should also reify activities listed on the original application and discuss if anything significant has changed in those activities. Sometimes, students will experience a significant life event that dramatically impacts who they are and/or their view of the world. I believe this information is equally as important to share as significant movement with academics and extracurriculars. This helps to make the LOCI personal and reminds admissions committee members about the internal life of an applicant, which is just as important as an applicant’s external life. Significant life events may also shift how a student plans to engage the campus culture if admitted in a way that is very different from what was expressed in the original application. The third element effective letters of continued interest should include is what makes the school special to the student. It is here students must remind admissions committee members that their institution offers the students something that he or she cannot get elsewhere. Students may wish to talk more in-depth about an intended major, the research produced by a particular professor or department that aligns with the student’s professional goals, or a series of classes or specific program offered at no other institution that a student strongly feels is essential to meeting their needs for going to college. The next element is what I like to call the “love letter” aspect of a letter of continued interest. Here, students need to remind the admissions committee why they applied, or “fell in love” with the school in the first place. It could be something specific about the campus culture, a particularly warm and endearing experience a student had on a campus visit, the sports programs or the performing arts programs, a school’s geographic location, an affinity for particular student-run groups that are aligned with a student’s extracurricular interests, or any broad range of things one school uniquely offers over another. Sometimes, students are able to express their fondness for a school via the supplemental questions in an application. The LOCI is an opportunity to expand on the answers to those questions or, if such questions were not a part of the application’s supplemental questions, to share with the admissions committee in full why the student is drawn to the school, why it was included on the application list, and why a letter of continued interest is being submitted. The last element of an effective letter of continued interest is a summary of the intellectual and emotional reasons a student believes a school is a right fit for them. The summary is yet another opportunity to thank the admissions committee for reviewing your application as well as reading the LOCI. The bulk of the word count should be spent in the other sections of the letter, so make sure to make the close brief, but brilliant. Once the draft of a LOCI is completed, students should ask a trusted advisor to review the letter and provide feedback on grammar, punctuation, form, and content. As with the original application, also be sure to follow all of the directions given (if any) of how to submit a letter of continued interest. There is no way to ever really know why a student was put on a college’s waitlist while another one was admitted. Keep in mind that a waitlist response is not a response of denied; it is exactly what it is…a request to wait. If a student is willing to put in a little more extra work, a well-crafted letter of continued interest just may be the last piece of information needed to move an applicant from the waitlist to a “YES!” |
Aaron A. Shipp, PCCFounder & CEO, The Ivy Edge; Selective College Admissions Expert Archives
January 2025
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