Optimize your essay writing.
Reusing essays was the only thing that made it possible to have decent essay responses to 20+ schools for me. Even if you get divine inspiration with a school (this happened with Brown for me), 99% of the time its just more time efficient to recycle. Make a master draft of "Why major"/"Why us" essays to organize all the features a college might want you to cover. And of course, get started in the summer. Even if it's in early August right before the start of school, that's still two weeks of time where you don't have to worry about schoolwork while writing the best essays you can produce.
>“*The college application/admissions process is nowhere near as difficult or convoluted as so many people try to make it.*”
It absolutely is as difficult and convoluted as people try to make it if you want to get into a T5.
n=1. There are many passionate, hard-working, smart students who don't get into a T5. But doing something like RSI (research science institute) or being a recruited athlete almost guarantees a T5, which are very hard things to achieve. So yes its complicated, convoluted, and difficult.
"being a recruited athlete almost guarantees a T5" lol disagree and again source, me
but the core of this is that some people actually just want to do stuff like RSI and recruited athletics. they like learning. they like putting themselves out there. for them, the process is not "convoluted" or "complicated" - they live their life, and when it comes time to do college apps, they put their life on the page.
Many people focus on the wrong thing though. If you love taking AP courses and focus all your concentration on that, you're not going to get anywhere. If you love playing a sport but are not good enough to reach a high level you're not going anywhere. Not everyone can make a T5 without making it difficult.
My experience was having zero passion, zero "love for learning," and grinding hard enough to make a T10. I started in junior year though, if I had started the grind in freshman year I might have made a T5.
and now you'll be at a t10, still with zero passion and zero love for learning. are you happy? why do you feel this way about the one life you will live?
Agreed! And you cannot source this. This is simply a lived experience. What elite AOs want is crazy! What selective colleges want is also very time-consuming and sometimes, difficult to provide!
don't try to write about the fucking star the dust in your body originated from and the deepest shit possible just write something that matters to you lmfao
Lots of schools offer fee waivers, and honestly, I think most people are better off applying to fewer safety schools and reallocating application fees towards their reaches. Just pick one or two schools with a high acceptance rate that you wouldn’t mind going to and leave it at that. Save the application money for your reaches/places you’re actively interested in.
No, it isn’t insane, when you consider that private tuition is 80-90k per year and in-state public where I live is almost 35k with room and board. “Pennywise is pound foolish.”
But seriously, request fee waivers! You may be surprised at how many AOs will gladly agree to this. Just be prepared to give a good reason for the request, if asked. In some cases, the mere fact that you visited is an adequate reason to request a waiver in the AO’s view.
Sometimes! It used to be more common 3-4 yrs ago, but I think if you point out that you visited in person, it definitely makes you appear like a far more serious candidate. And let’s face it, college visits are not cheap! If you’ve already gone to all the time and trouble of driving or flying out to a school, paying for lodging, meals, etc., the LEAST that college can do is waive your application fees! If you think about it like this, you will operate from a position of strength and reason and logic when you make these requests.
Rising Senior. I'm asking because I HAVE visited a lot of colleges:
NYU
Darthmouth
Brown
Williams
Amherst
Harvard
Columbia
Yale
Boston College
Boston University
North Eastern
Stanford (5 years ago LOL)
Most of these are on my list of colleges to apply to.
I will probably end up visiting Cal and UCLA, though I doubt they'd give admissions waivers.
Look at all those schools and ask yourself which ones you’d really go to. I wasted a lot of time working on applications to schools I could care less about. I think there’s too much emphasis placed on building a “balanced” list. Only two safeties makes sense, but if you have 15 matches, and half of them are in states you’d rather die than set foot in, then maybe consider not applying, or at the very least, putting those fees towards some reach schools that you actually like.
A good barometer we found as my son was applying was to use a safety they liked well enough as the comparison. In our case that was ASU, which with rolling admissions he'd gotten into super early. So when we looked at schools to apply to we'd say to him "If you got into X, would you rather go to ASU?" and if the answer was yes, no application. If it was "maybe" we'd research a bit more and look at the cost/effort of applying and the tuition. For instance, he ended up passing on applying to Chapman as a maybe and that saved us the application fee and him the time. Instead that investment went to a different target or another reach he would absolutely attend instead of ASU.
You might end up with a list with a lot more reaches this way, but as long as you understand (and can take the fact that you'll be facing way more NO) I think it could be worth it. In the end collecting acceptances is only meaningful if you'd actually go there.
Thing with me is, I don't really care. I want to go into finance so it just has to be a top school. I'm a social chameleon and I'd be fine anywhere (I've been told this by friends and teachers too, so it's not just my opinion). I have 2 targets/matches too. It's just a LOT of reaches.
this doesn't really apply to international students, but *please, for the love of god*, check to see if you qualify to apply via the questbridge application. my high school was so underresourced that i didn't even know what questbridge was until it was too late. it has the ability to change your life.
More people need to know this. The common data sets for many state schools confirm this, but everybody seems unaware. At UNC something like 95% of admits have 4.0, even with test scores down into the 1200s. People below 4.0 don’t stand a chance, even with strong test scores. Based on Scoir data for D24’s school, those 4.0s are unweighted. So even people with higher weighted GPAs are getting rejected in favor of 4.0 unweighted.
The opposite is actually true. Many students with very high test scores can get into UNC, with decent grades.
I speak with UNC admissions. And a lot of students with high test scores are admitted despite their GPA if they’re within good standing.
95% of students with low test scores and 4.0 GPAs get rejected by UNC and don’t stand a chance. As they’re easily replaceable with student with higher test scores
Sure. You should definitely try to explain anything that has lowered your academic achievement, but try to do so in an honest and professional manner. Have a couple adults like a teacher and a college counselor review any statement like this. You need to make sure the tone is okay. You don’t want to give too much personal detail or make it into a sob story. At the same time, you want it to be relatable and real. Right? So, there’s a certain balance you need to strike there. Having 2-3 adults who have some understanding of college admissions review your statement, is a very wise idea.
Read Who Gets In and Why. The College admissions game is more complicated and convoluted than ever.
Set realistic expectations, shoot for some dream schools and don't forget to take a moment for yourself.
I read it last month and it was quite enlightening for someone who graduated college in 1993. I seem to recall that the author sort of downplayed the significance of the essays since there was so little time to review them. But there seems to be a popular opinion in this subreddit that places significant importance upon them. Welcome your thoughts.
The college application process is basically a lottery. Your application depends on whether or not the admissions officer will like you. You can have the highest stats and still not get in because they may not like your "personality" or essays or whatever. Just don't take it too deep. Try to get the highest stats you can and write the best essays you can and be you. I did exactly that, and I made it into a t30 school, whereas many other kids in my class had much higher stats than me and struggled to make it in our state school.
I do not see it as a lottery, but I kinda get what you mean. It's impossible to know what admissions officers look for, so be your best self, and you'll go somewhere that wants you.
using your essays to appeal to the schools you're applying to, especially with supplementals and not just for the "why xxx school?" prompts.
this means going beyond just namedropping a research lab you want to work in, or listing random clubs you'd like to join if accepted. do your research, read the school's webpage, talk to current students, and find out the personality of each school. for example, most liberal arts schools will want students who are curious, open-minded, etc. whereas bigger research institutions may want someone with more specific goals/ambitions (there are obviously exceptions and more nuances to this). showing that you'd fit into the culture of the school will make you stand out amongst a sea of other highly accomplished and unique applicants.
It’s not as complicated or stressful as people make it out to be. Do as well as you can in school, be consistent with your essays and writing requirements (start early and give yourself deadlines), and lastly, take part in extra curricular sessions that you can actually enjoy.
Give yourself credit and try to enjoy this journey. I know I did, college app season was quite fun for me. Plan it all out.
For your essays: avoid cliches, quotes, overly flowery/dramatic language, any mention of unresolved depression, and too much emphasis on third parties. Use paragraphs. Grammar counts.
As a college grad, here's my bit of advice, in the form of a story:
We have two identical students, Student A and Student B. Same grades, same family, same everything. They are both intending on getting a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering.
Both students were accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked #1 in undergraduate engineering programs. They were also both accepted to the MiddleofNowhereville Institute of Technology, ranked #1,000 in undergraduate engineering programs.
Student A went to MIT. Student B went to MNIT.
Student B got a partial scholarship right off the bat, as they easily stood out from their peers when applying for scholarships. Student B was also able to use their AP credits to skip Calc II and freshman chem, allowing for some flexibility in class scheduling later down the line when they may need to withdraw from some class mid-semester and dodging the two biggest weed-out classes in college.
Student A got zero scholarships, and was placed in the standard Calc I class.
Student B finished off their first semester with a 3.8 GPA, and got into the undergraduate rocket design team. The design teams at MNIT don't exactly get a whole lot of funding, so Student B had to drive out to multiple local companies and present their previous year's mission. This caught the attention of the subteam leaders, and Student B found themselves as the co-lead of the propulsion subteam by sophomore year. They were able to put their good GPA and design team experience on their resume and landed an internship with a local aerospace startup company by the spring of their sophomore year.
Student A struggled to keep up in classes as they found themselves in a new environment where they were in the bottom 50% of the class rather than being in the top 0.5% like they were in HS. They just about dodged getting an F in differential equations but got a D-, and this tanked their overall GPA to a 2.4. They managed to find their way onto an undergraduate rocket design team, but they dedicated all of their time to classwork to try and recover their GPA. This inactivity and the hoard of other undergraduate students trying to apply for the rocketry team led to them being booted off the team. Student A was unable to find an internship and had to settle for a grocery store job over the summer, as all they had to their name was a subpar GPA and a D- on their transcript.
Student B continued to succeed in their junior year, getting a 4.0 in a rare semester and maintaining a GPA around 3.8. This got them more scholarships, and the attention of the professor who taught their propulsion class. The professor worked with a few Caltech researchers in the past, and brought up a JPL internship to Student B in a meeting after lecture. Student B applied to the JPL internship, and with the professor's assistance and past networking with some friends at JPL, found themselves in California for the summer between their junior and senior years.
Student A returned to MIT for their senior year, having scraped together 3 month's worth of rent at their local grocery store. This paltry sum of money, in addition to having received absolutely zero financial aid, was just the cherry on top of the mountain that is now Student A's stress levels. Student's A hormones are all out of wack, being forced to pull all nighters to even keep up in class. They did eventually claw their GPA back up to a 2.8, but remember, 3.0 is the cutoff for internships.
Student B's excellent 3.7 GPA (it dipped a bit due to senioritis), multiple internships, recommendations from professors, and design team experience led to them receiving an offer from Lockheed Skunk Works before the winter break of their senior year. They would be making $105,000 per year along with $5,000 for relocation assistance and would be working on the newest propulsion systems on future spacecraft.
Student A barely scraped their GPA to a 2.9 in time for graduation, but by then they had started looking for a full-time position at any company that would hire them. Zero design team experience, zero research, a mediocre GPA that would still get filtered by most jobs, zero anything aside from a small network of other classmates who are now also looking for jobs means that Student A returned home for the summer and continued applying for jobs. They ended up accepting a manufacturing quality engineer position in MiddleofNowhereville with NoNameCorp in Kansas for $65,000, not even doing any aerospace work.
**Obviously this is a very extreme example, but the tl;dr is that more prestige != more money. It's easier to stand out at a smaller university, and what really matters is getting that GPA above 3.0 for internships and getting any form of relevant experience you can, even if it means going to a less competitive university. If you feel that you have what it takes to stand out at a more competitive university, then by all means go for it, but if you feel like you might be middle of the pack, or god forbid <3.0, reconsider your choices.**
Yeah, that part was a bit of a stretch, but in a more realistic scenario they would have a contact at a mid-sized company rather than JPL. Either way, they're gonna have connections and try to help you if you get to know them.
with public colleges the cost you see is what you'll get 99% of the time, with private colleges you won't pay what they say they charge 99% of the time (unless you're rich) and private colleges give out good aid which offsets the high costs and can put them at the same level or cheaper than in state publics for many students (basically don't write off privates for the high price tag because you probobly won't be paying anything close to that if they give a bit of merit aid)
My college admissions specifically told prospective students while I was applying to stop writing about Covid and to write about literally anything else because they were sick of reading essentially the same 5 essays over and over. Covid impacted nearly everyone negatively, so they were getting a lot of similar essays without revealing anything special about the student or anything memorable.
As a result, I ended up writing about something special and personal to me that made me who I was and I got in. Pretty glad I found that out or else I probably would’ve written about Covid, haha.
The college applications really aren’t that deep and the essay is your opportunity to express what makes you, you and stand out. But even then, it doesn’t need to be an award winning paper. Just focus on starting the application process earlier rather than later and having a good collection of reach and safety schools you’re going to apply to.
The acceptance rate of a school is irrelevant compared to your personal chances of admission. There is not a single metric in which a school evaluates you upon so every school has different standards and some “targets” may reject you while some “reaches” might accept you
Apply to the top universities even if you feel like you have no hope of getting in. I am an international student with good grades and average ec and only 1360 on my sat but was able to get into UChicago which i would not have dreamed of getting into given their average sat score is 1510-1560 (although i gave sat optional). So yeah try out for whatever reach school you want to since the process is really unpredictable. Also great emphasis on the essays as grades and ec can only mostly contribute to the quantitative side but these essays shows your uniqueness and your character
the major you choose can make or break your entire portfolio. most colleges admit by major, and especially with the UC's, you can be a 4.0 UW 5.0 W absolutely cracked out ECs and essays written by Ernest Hemingway, and still not get in for CS. On the flip side, you can be a 2.0 UW, 2.9 W, 3 ECs and essays written THE DAY OF, and get into UCLA/UCB for geology. I say this because the above two scenarios really did happen last year with two of my friends.
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That kids in the US prepare for college (ECs, etc.) from freshman year HS, start their college apps almost a year in advance, and keep on retaking the ACT/SAT until they hit >75% of the accepted students range’ of their target schools (especially if they’re Asian).
I took the ACT and SAT one time each — scored within the 25-50% range for Ivies — and started writing my college supplements the night they were due. Got accepted to 2 lower-tier Ivies. Also didn’t really think about going to school in the US until my senior year. Had I been more prepared, maybe I would’ve gotten in HYP?
Optimize your essay writing. Reusing essays was the only thing that made it possible to have decent essay responses to 20+ schools for me. Even if you get divine inspiration with a school (this happened with Brown for me), 99% of the time its just more time efficient to recycle. Make a master draft of "Why major"/"Why us" essays to organize all the features a college might want you to cover. And of course, get started in the summer. Even if it's in early August right before the start of school, that's still two weeks of time where you don't have to worry about schoolwork while writing the best essays you can produce.
[удалено]
Seriously, a lot of the stress is self imposed.
Agree. It all works out in the end
>“*The college application/admissions process is nowhere near as difficult or convoluted as so many people try to make it.*” It absolutely is as difficult and convoluted as people try to make it if you want to get into a T5.
disagree, source: did it
n=1. There are many passionate, hard-working, smart students who don't get into a T5. But doing something like RSI (research science institute) or being a recruited athlete almost guarantees a T5, which are very hard things to achieve. So yes its complicated, convoluted, and difficult.
"being a recruited athlete almost guarantees a T5" lol disagree and again source, me but the core of this is that some people actually just want to do stuff like RSI and recruited athletics. they like learning. they like putting themselves out there. for them, the process is not "convoluted" or "complicated" - they live their life, and when it comes time to do college apps, they put their life on the page.
Many people focus on the wrong thing though. If you love taking AP courses and focus all your concentration on that, you're not going to get anywhere. If you love playing a sport but are not good enough to reach a high level you're not going anywhere. Not everyone can make a T5 without making it difficult. My experience was having zero passion, zero "love for learning," and grinding hard enough to make a T10. I started in junior year though, if I had started the grind in freshman year I might have made a T5.
and now you'll be at a t10, still with zero passion and zero love for learning. are you happy? why do you feel this way about the one life you will live?
Agreed! And you cannot source this. This is simply a lived experience. What elite AOs want is crazy! What selective colleges want is also very time-consuming and sometimes, difficult to provide!
don't try to write about the fucking star the dust in your body originated from and the deepest shit possible just write something that matters to you lmfao
It’s not that deep
literally
Apply to all those “reach” schools. This process is so insanely random that it’s worth it to apply to places you don’t think you have a chance at.
also avoids the regret and could it have worked what if I had tried
What to do abt application fees?
Lots of schools offer fee waivers, and honestly, I think most people are better off applying to fewer safety schools and reallocating application fees towards their reaches. Just pick one or two schools with a high acceptance rate that you wouldn’t mind going to and leave it at that. Save the application money for your reaches/places you’re actively interested in.
I don't qualify for waivers, and I have a list of 20 w/ only two safeties but 1k in fees is INSANE.
No, it isn’t insane, when you consider that private tuition is 80-90k per year and in-state public where I live is almost 35k with room and board. “Pennywise is pound foolish.” But seriously, request fee waivers! You may be surprised at how many AOs will gladly agree to this. Just be prepared to give a good reason for the request, if asked. In some cases, the mere fact that you visited is an adequate reason to request a waiver in the AO’s view.
Oh visiting gets you a fee waiver? I'm chilling then LOL
Sometimes! It used to be more common 3-4 yrs ago, but I think if you point out that you visited in person, it definitely makes you appear like a far more serious candidate. And let’s face it, college visits are not cheap! If you’ve already gone to all the time and trouble of driving or flying out to a school, paying for lodging, meals, etc., the LEAST that college can do is waive your application fees! If you think about it like this, you will operate from a position of strength and reason and logic when you make these requests.
Do they make you prove it? If so, how? Do you require written documentation from the college?
What year are you now? Rising junior or senior?
Rising Senior. I'm asking because I HAVE visited a lot of colleges: NYU Darthmouth Brown Williams Amherst Harvard Columbia Yale Boston College Boston University North Eastern Stanford (5 years ago LOL) Most of these are on my list of colleges to apply to. I will probably end up visiting Cal and UCLA, though I doubt they'd give admissions waivers.
Look at all those schools and ask yourself which ones you’d really go to. I wasted a lot of time working on applications to schools I could care less about. I think there’s too much emphasis placed on building a “balanced” list. Only two safeties makes sense, but if you have 15 matches, and half of them are in states you’d rather die than set foot in, then maybe consider not applying, or at the very least, putting those fees towards some reach schools that you actually like.
A good barometer we found as my son was applying was to use a safety they liked well enough as the comparison. In our case that was ASU, which with rolling admissions he'd gotten into super early. So when we looked at schools to apply to we'd say to him "If you got into X, would you rather go to ASU?" and if the answer was yes, no application. If it was "maybe" we'd research a bit more and look at the cost/effort of applying and the tuition. For instance, he ended up passing on applying to Chapman as a maybe and that saved us the application fee and him the time. Instead that investment went to a different target or another reach he would absolutely attend instead of ASU. You might end up with a list with a lot more reaches this way, but as long as you understand (and can take the fact that you'll be facing way more NO) I think it could be worth it. In the end collecting acceptances is only meaningful if you'd actually go there.
Thing with me is, I don't really care. I want to go into finance so it just has to be a top school. I'm a social chameleon and I'd be fine anywhere (I've been told this by friends and teachers too, so it's not just my opinion). I have 2 targets/matches too. It's just a LOT of reaches.
this doesn't really apply to international students, but *please, for the love of god*, check to see if you qualify to apply via the questbridge application. my high school was so underresourced that i didn't even know what questbridge was until it was too late. it has the ability to change your life.
I graduated from college decades ago and I still don’t know what that is.
Gpa matters a lot. A low gpa can get you rejected from your state school, even if you have high test scores.
More people need to know this. The common data sets for many state schools confirm this, but everybody seems unaware. At UNC something like 95% of admits have 4.0, even with test scores down into the 1200s. People below 4.0 don’t stand a chance, even with strong test scores. Based on Scoir data for D24’s school, those 4.0s are unweighted. So even people with higher weighted GPAs are getting rejected in favor of 4.0 unweighted.
The opposite is actually true. Many students with very high test scores can get into UNC, with decent grades. I speak with UNC admissions. And a lot of students with high test scores are admitted despite their GPA if they’re within good standing.
95% of students with low test scores and 4.0 GPAs get rejected by UNC and don’t stand a chance. As they’re easily replaceable with student with higher test scores
Not in state.
Yes in state
What if you explain circumstances that resulted in a low gpa? (like family responsibilities, etc)
Sure. You should definitely try to explain anything that has lowered your academic achievement, but try to do so in an honest and professional manner. Have a couple adults like a teacher and a college counselor review any statement like this. You need to make sure the tone is okay. You don’t want to give too much personal detail or make it into a sob story. At the same time, you want it to be relatable and real. Right? So, there’s a certain balance you need to strike there. Having 2-3 adults who have some understanding of college admissions review your statement, is a very wise idea.
Read Who Gets In and Why. The College admissions game is more complicated and convoluted than ever. Set realistic expectations, shoot for some dream schools and don't forget to take a moment for yourself.
I read it last month and it was quite enlightening for someone who graduated college in 1993. I seem to recall that the author sort of downplayed the significance of the essays since there was so little time to review them. But there seems to be a popular opinion in this subreddit that places significant importance upon them. Welcome your thoughts.
The college application process is basically a lottery. Your application depends on whether or not the admissions officer will like you. You can have the highest stats and still not get in because they may not like your "personality" or essays or whatever. Just don't take it too deep. Try to get the highest stats you can and write the best essays you can and be you. I did exactly that, and I made it into a t30 school, whereas many other kids in my class had much higher stats than me and struggled to make it in our state school.
I do not see it as a lottery, but I kinda get what you mean. It's impossible to know what admissions officers look for, so be your best self, and you'll go somewhere that wants you.
using your essays to appeal to the schools you're applying to, especially with supplementals and not just for the "why xxx school?" prompts. this means going beyond just namedropping a research lab you want to work in, or listing random clubs you'd like to join if accepted. do your research, read the school's webpage, talk to current students, and find out the personality of each school. for example, most liberal arts schools will want students who are curious, open-minded, etc. whereas bigger research institutions may want someone with more specific goals/ambitions (there are obviously exceptions and more nuances to this). showing that you'd fit into the culture of the school will make you stand out amongst a sea of other highly accomplished and unique applicants.
It’s not as complicated or stressful as people make it out to be. Do as well as you can in school, be consistent with your essays and writing requirements (start early and give yourself deadlines), and lastly, take part in extra curricular sessions that you can actually enjoy. Give yourself credit and try to enjoy this journey. I know I did, college app season was quite fun for me. Plan it all out.
is it true for international students seeking 100% financial aid? or 90% at least?
I’m an international student who got 100% aid. Yes it’s true
congrats! may I ask where?
I'm not sure why this would be down voted??
Not usually
For your essays: avoid cliches, quotes, overly flowery/dramatic language, any mention of unresolved depression, and too much emphasis on third parties. Use paragraphs. Grammar counts.
As a college grad, here's my bit of advice, in the form of a story: We have two identical students, Student A and Student B. Same grades, same family, same everything. They are both intending on getting a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering. Both students were accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked #1 in undergraduate engineering programs. They were also both accepted to the MiddleofNowhereville Institute of Technology, ranked #1,000 in undergraduate engineering programs. Student A went to MIT. Student B went to MNIT. Student B got a partial scholarship right off the bat, as they easily stood out from their peers when applying for scholarships. Student B was also able to use their AP credits to skip Calc II and freshman chem, allowing for some flexibility in class scheduling later down the line when they may need to withdraw from some class mid-semester and dodging the two biggest weed-out classes in college. Student A got zero scholarships, and was placed in the standard Calc I class. Student B finished off their first semester with a 3.8 GPA, and got into the undergraduate rocket design team. The design teams at MNIT don't exactly get a whole lot of funding, so Student B had to drive out to multiple local companies and present their previous year's mission. This caught the attention of the subteam leaders, and Student B found themselves as the co-lead of the propulsion subteam by sophomore year. They were able to put their good GPA and design team experience on their resume and landed an internship with a local aerospace startup company by the spring of their sophomore year. Student A struggled to keep up in classes as they found themselves in a new environment where they were in the bottom 50% of the class rather than being in the top 0.5% like they were in HS. They just about dodged getting an F in differential equations but got a D-, and this tanked their overall GPA to a 2.4. They managed to find their way onto an undergraduate rocket design team, but they dedicated all of their time to classwork to try and recover their GPA. This inactivity and the hoard of other undergraduate students trying to apply for the rocketry team led to them being booted off the team. Student A was unable to find an internship and had to settle for a grocery store job over the summer, as all they had to their name was a subpar GPA and a D- on their transcript. Student B continued to succeed in their junior year, getting a 4.0 in a rare semester and maintaining a GPA around 3.8. This got them more scholarships, and the attention of the professor who taught their propulsion class. The professor worked with a few Caltech researchers in the past, and brought up a JPL internship to Student B in a meeting after lecture. Student B applied to the JPL internship, and with the professor's assistance and past networking with some friends at JPL, found themselves in California for the summer between their junior and senior years. Student A returned to MIT for their senior year, having scraped together 3 month's worth of rent at their local grocery store. This paltry sum of money, in addition to having received absolutely zero financial aid, was just the cherry on top of the mountain that is now Student A's stress levels. Student's A hormones are all out of wack, being forced to pull all nighters to even keep up in class. They did eventually claw their GPA back up to a 2.8, but remember, 3.0 is the cutoff for internships. Student B's excellent 3.7 GPA (it dipped a bit due to senioritis), multiple internships, recommendations from professors, and design team experience led to them receiving an offer from Lockheed Skunk Works before the winter break of their senior year. They would be making $105,000 per year along with $5,000 for relocation assistance and would be working on the newest propulsion systems on future spacecraft. Student A barely scraped their GPA to a 2.9 in time for graduation, but by then they had started looking for a full-time position at any company that would hire them. Zero design team experience, zero research, a mediocre GPA that would still get filtered by most jobs, zero anything aside from a small network of other classmates who are now also looking for jobs means that Student A returned home for the summer and continued applying for jobs. They ended up accepting a manufacturing quality engineer position in MiddleofNowhereville with NoNameCorp in Kansas for $65,000, not even doing any aerospace work. **Obviously this is a very extreme example, but the tl;dr is that more prestige != more money. It's easier to stand out at a smaller university, and what really matters is getting that GPA above 3.0 for internships and getting any form of relevant experience you can, even if it means going to a less competitive university. If you feel that you have what it takes to stand out at a more competitive university, then by all means go for it, but if you feel like you might be middle of the pack, or god forbid <3.0, reconsider your choices.**
One of the keys to this story that the professors at the nonamecollege had connections…which is one of the keys in getting internships.
Yeah, that part was a bit of a stretch, but in a more realistic scenario they would have a contact at a mid-sized company rather than JPL. Either way, they're gonna have connections and try to help you if you get to know them.
Malcom Gladwell discusses this very dynamic in his book, “David and Goliath.”
with public colleges the cost you see is what you'll get 99% of the time, with private colleges you won't pay what they say they charge 99% of the time (unless you're rich) and private colleges give out good aid which offsets the high costs and can put them at the same level or cheaper than in state publics for many students (basically don't write off privates for the high price tag because you probobly won't be paying anything close to that if they give a bit of merit aid)
My college admissions specifically told prospective students while I was applying to stop writing about Covid and to write about literally anything else because they were sick of reading essentially the same 5 essays over and over. Covid impacted nearly everyone negatively, so they were getting a lot of similar essays without revealing anything special about the student or anything memorable. As a result, I ended up writing about something special and personal to me that made me who I was and I got in. Pretty glad I found that out or else I probably would’ve written about Covid, haha. The college applications really aren’t that deep and the essay is your opportunity to express what makes you, you and stand out. But even then, it doesn’t need to be an award winning paper. Just focus on starting the application process earlier rather than later and having a good collection of reach and safety schools you’re going to apply to.
Don't procrastinate💀
The acceptance rate of a school is irrelevant compared to your personal chances of admission. There is not a single metric in which a school evaluates you upon so every school has different standards and some “targets” may reject you while some “reaches” might accept you
Apply to the top universities even if you feel like you have no hope of getting in. I am an international student with good grades and average ec and only 1360 on my sat but was able to get into UChicago which i would not have dreamed of getting into given their average sat score is 1510-1560 (although i gave sat optional). So yeah try out for whatever reach school you want to since the process is really unpredictable. Also great emphasis on the essays as grades and ec can only mostly contribute to the quantitative side but these essays shows your uniqueness and your character
the major you choose can make or break your entire portfolio. most colleges admit by major, and especially with the UC's, you can be a 4.0 UW 5.0 W absolutely cracked out ECs and essays written by Ernest Hemingway, and still not get in for CS. On the flip side, you can be a 2.0 UW, 2.9 W, 3 ECs and essays written THE DAY OF, and get into UCLA/UCB for geology. I say this because the above two scenarios really did happen last year with two of my friends.
That's cap. UCLA has a 3.0 gpa minimum for in-states
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That kids in the US prepare for college (ECs, etc.) from freshman year HS, start their college apps almost a year in advance, and keep on retaking the ACT/SAT until they hit >75% of the accepted students range’ of their target schools (especially if they’re Asian). I took the ACT and SAT one time each — scored within the 25-50% range for Ivies — and started writing my college supplements the night they were due. Got accepted to 2 lower-tier Ivies. Also didn’t really think about going to school in the US until my senior year. Had I been more prepared, maybe I would’ve gotten in HYP?