Hi, I'm former Harvard admissions + a Harvard graduate and founder of r/ivyleaguecollege . I want to start an AMA thread where you can post any question you would like me to answer about Ivy League admissions or college prep. Please stay on topic.

(Also, please be patient if it takes me a few days to answer -- I will answer!)

Meanwhile, if you're applying to the Ivy League and want 1:1 help with your college admissions essays and applications, contact me via my website for a free consultation! IvyCollegeEssay.com

https://preview.redd.it/ninx7e7e1ibh1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6729a936f2353ff9380d4d45bd567482ba5a9498

So I'm confused which ivy should I apply through early decision? Cornell or upenn? These are the ones which are most realistic for me out of all the other ivys and I'm confused whether Cornell have greater acceptance rates in ED or upenn

Hi! I just spent the last three years (8-10 grade) in the US and am now moving back to India smack in the middle of 11th grade as a CBSE PCM student. The problem is, I'm moving in August, which means I'll be 3 months behind on schoolwork. I do want to go back to US for university, but I come from a low-mid income family, so my best bet is getting into a need blind university, which are mostly ivy leagues and t20s. So to do this, I’m going to have to balance grades , extracurriculars, sat prep and exam prep, all while catching up to 3 months of work, since I’ll be starting school in August. I have been strategizing all summer over extracurriculars. I was going to start an AI business, found a coding club chapter, do national debate, volunteer with a 3d printing for blind org, do research, play in orchestra and do robotics. I was so excited to do it all. But now, all I can worry about is the work that I'll have to put into school as a PCM student. I did to cbse for 1-7 grade, so I'm familiar with the system, but I also know how much more rigorous it is, and balancing that with all these ecs, sat prep, and competing in award seems extremely daunting. I've currently made a seasonal plan on how I can do all of the before college apps are due, but it all seems very overwhelming and daunting, since I've barely started SAT prep. Should I just give up? Please give any tips you have. Thankyou!

This might be a dumb question sorry!!! Here’s the background: Basically i unintentionally “blew up” on social media when i was 13 for learning how to play an instrument. I originally started posting to track my own progress on the instrument and save storage by posting it to TikTok so i wouldn’t have to save it to my phone. It got a lot bigger than I expected and kind of impactful to not only me but other people on the internet? I went from posting simple daily progress videos to giving tutorials, tips, advice, etc. to new learners and the traction was pretty insane. A bunch of people started replicating my account too and I found out I was the reason a lot of people started learning said instrument. Anyways this experience was what pushed me to get out into the music scene and face some of my biggest fears so I started writing, producing, and even performing my own music at open mics and tipped gigs. But aside from just music, the experience taught me a lot about facing exorbitant amounts of hate and discouragement, self-expression, confidence, perseverance, and what it means to be yourself. Years later I still not only play the instrument and continue to build my music “career” but people still find me to ask questions about the instrument and seek tips and advice!
HOWEVER—the only reason any of this was able to happen was because i lied about my age on social media 😭 eventually the platforms found out and my account got permanently shadowbanned so now i don’t really get much traction at all. I really want to write about this but I’m scared that a lot of prestigious universities especially will see through the experience and only focus on the fact that I lied…so my chances would be ruined.
Am i overthinking this? Is this “lie” not at all as serious as im making it out to be? IDK!!!!!!!!
ALSO this topic technically has nothing to do with my desired major since im not trying to pursue an education in music so would it be pointless to write about anyway?

Essay coach here. I don't believe I've yet seen a post about Harvard's supps for 2026--27--which are much like last year's.

Answer these questions in 150 words each.

In general, H. is looking for students who are top academic performers and whose work and other activities reveal initiative, leadership, and impact. They are also looking for geographic diversity, musical instrument diversity, and it does not hurt to be a legacy, child of faculty member, recruited athlete, and/or member of the donor class.

1. Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a student body with a diversity of perspectives and experiences. How will the life experiences that shaped who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?
2. Describe a time when you strongly disagreed with someone about an idea or issue. How did you communicate or engage with this person? What did you learn from this experience?
3. Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.
4. How do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?
5. Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.  --EssayLiz

I am currently a rising sophomore, and my DE instructor gave me a 0 on multiple assignments that will likely make me end up with a B in the class. I was ill and he said he would be flexible with missed assignments however he was not flexible at all and told me to submit a grade appeal if I want which I doubt will do anything. I can withdraw the class without any penalty to my GPA and take it next semester to get an A or I can just end up with a B and submit a grade appeal which likely won't fix my grade.

EDIT: I currently have 2 b's and my uw gpa by applying to college will likely be a 3.92 the de class won't affect my uw but it will slightly affect my weighted.

For context I would easily clear the academic bar for athletics, I am 6', 165 lbs, and decently athletic from playing hockey my entire life. I also have nothing but time and could train nonstop for the next few months, but I am a rising senior now.

I just committed to my dream school, and Reddit has helped me a lot (despite never actually having an account, lol!). Got off the waitlist a bit ago and had to make a decision, but I'm going with the school that I've loved since the beginning of the process. go blue devils ;)

I am a Turkish citizen, and I don't understand how people get into Ivy League schools. I am going from 10th grade to 11th grade, but I didn't do anything in 9th grade. I want to study CS or finance, but I don't know yet. I want to get into Columbia, but I don't know how. I didn't know anything about studying abroad until this last month. Still, I took 3 AP classes, and I am waiting for the results: Physics 1, Calculus AB, and CSP. I am doing an internship in a university's CS lab. I will do this for one more month. I am volunteering at a large cancer group, the biggest cancer group in Turkey. I will take 6 more AP classes next year: Calculus BC, Physics C: E&M, Physics C: Mechanics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics, and CSA. I participated in a Health Tech competition at Stanford, but we didn't win a prize. I want to be the captain of our chess team and start a math olympiad team next year. I can score an 800 in SAT Math, but my English isn't good enough for now, and I am waiting for next January. I will take the IELTS too, but I still don't know how to get in, or if I can ever get into a good school. Some people says to me my next year is too busy but i believe i can do. I don't know anything and i can't sey something to someone because i'm afraid little bit and stressed out.

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Black
• Residence: Competitive State, but bad neighborhood
• Income Bracket: >$100k (around 85-90)
• Type of School: Small, uncompetitive Private school
• Hooks: First Gen Low Income, Immigrant, Underrepresented Country

Intended Major(s): Political Science

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.6
• Rank (or percentile): Don't Do Rank But I Estimate I'm Between Top 5-10%
• AP Courses Completed: AP US History (5), AP Pre-Calc (5), AP English Language (4), AP U.S. Government and Politics (5), AP Seminar (5) (like 16 honors)
• AP Courses In Progress (Senior Year): AP Phycology, AP Calc, AP African American Studies, AP Literature, DE: Intro to American Politics, College Writing II, Intro to Phycology

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1550 (750 Math, 800 English)

Extracurriculars/Activities (Intentionally vague)

1. Founder/President of Law Club (LAC) (2 years); connected students to professionals, started internships, gave workshops, and did q&a's.
2. Leadership Board of Mock Trial Club (4 years, leader senior year); reached states 4 times, progressed heavily this year, help organize meetings and strategies, run middle school seminars
3. Intern at Local District Court (1 month), discussed various court procedures with clerks, attorneys, judges, and officers, observed every part of a trial and worked closely with a renowned judge.
4. Legal focused podcast (3 years), broke down complex policies to minorities, 30+ episodes, and collaborated with councilors, mayor, nonprofits (basically became city imitative.
5. Volunteer at Legal Nonprofit (2 years), ~120 hours, worked on emails, followed cases closely, got close to victims, and ran initiatives to support families.
6. Paid internship with Councilwoman (2 months); helped at her meetings, ran her social media, gave insight on her acts and proceedings.
7. School Ambassador (3 years), selected to represent my school and guide prospective students and families.
8. Youth Council for my city (2 years); elected to sit on my youth council and directly advise our mayor on acts that could affect different groups of people, ran and organized events to give the youth a voice
9. Research assistant to Harvard PhD student (2 years): helped a sociology phd student get insight from my community, gave advice on different findings and how to approach research.
10. Paid work with elected organization (few months), fellow at a government office working to find solutions to common issues minorities like myself face.
11. Worked with AGO (1 year), worked closely with my state AGO to give the youth a voice.
12. Other miscellaneous stuff (volunteering to end racism and support black holidays like Juneteenth, peer tutoring, online writer with more than 1k reads, varsity crew athlete all 4 years, etc.)

Awards/Honors

1. Quest bridge College Prep Scholar
2. Scholastic Gold and Silver Key Winner
3. Published in undergrad law journals
4. Niche statewide program (16% acceptance rate)
5. AP Scholar with Distinction
6. Recognized honors in school due to academics

Recs (estimated)

1. Lang Teacher: Close with him, and he knows my personality and background, think he can write a really good essay.
2. AP Gov Teacher: Pretty close with her too, really focus in her class, she thinks I'm a good student.
3. Counselor: Played a big role in my high school career, got close with her and she found me some opportunities.

Essays (estimated):

Pretty good. Showed my identity as a black immigrant and how that shaped me and the hurdles I had to overcome to make a change for others.

I genuinely cannot find a place that shows me internships for my field of interest. I’m really interested in writing and want a writing or journalism internship. Please tell me where you guys find these internship opportunities even just where you find the people to email to ask for these.

Princeton has been my dream school since I was 9. I first visited the campus with my dad where he met up with a club that wanted to know more about his work (He started a nonprofit that helps North Korean Refugees). I completely fell in love with the campus, atmosphere and the passion every student had. I go to a moderately size high-school in the midwest suburbs. I really want to go the Princeton but I feel that my application lacks national and state recognitions and awards that a lot of admitted applicants have + my academics aren't the strongest. Do I still have a chance?

Demographics

Gender: Female

Race/Ethnicity: Korean

Grade: Senior

Income: Upper middle class

Intended Major: Major in Bio (minor in political science)

Intended Career: Immigration lawyer or a Neurologist???

Academics

• 3.9 UW (I had 4 B's my freshmen year, 1 B my sophomore year, rest are A's)
• 4.56 Weighted (on a 5.0 scale)
• ACT: 34 composite super score (3 attempts)
• AP's (6 total): APHUG (4), USGOV(5), Psych(5) (Still waiting for scores but I think I got a 4 on Bio, 5 on APUSH, 5 on Seminar and 4 on Pre-calc.
• Currently dual enrolled in community college for my senior year. I will have taken 10 dual credit classes by the end of my senior year (general chem I, general chem II, english 101, english 201, microbiology, human anatomy I, human anatomy II, statistics, ethics, social political philosophy)

Extracurriculars (in order of the stuff most important to me)

• Volunteered throughout my life to help my dad with his nonprofit that aids North Korea refugees. I've helped out with mailing news letters to donors, traveled to church conventions to spread awareness for the issue, organized some activities for the refugee safe house and traveled to South Korea to teach a few stretching and exercise classes with refugees.
• First degree black belt in taekwondo. 200+ volunteer hours as a taekwondo instructor. Actively working towards my 2nd degree and competing in state competitions next year.
• Founded a D&D club my sophomore year(has one of the highest participation rate in the school out of the non sports clubs)
• Vice captain of the Debate team during my Sophomore and Junior Year. Going to be the captain of my debate team during my senior year.
• Member of a student council that works with the super intendant board to create and execute plans for school improvement.
• NHS President (senior year)
• Paid part-time job as a barista.

Awards

• Excellence in Leadership Award (given by the Taekwondo midwest association annually)
• AP Scholar with Distinction (probably..? still waiting on scores lol)

I want to apply for Princeton REA. However, people around me have been telling me to be "realistic". I don't want to live with the "what if", hence I have been finding any students or alumni that can maybe have a coffee chat with me on the same.

I will be really grateful for the same, so please reach out!!!

Good afternoon! I am a college admissions counselor, and the parent of two children who are current students at T10 schools (one Ivy and one LAC). I know there are a lot of students looking for advice/insight on highly-selective colleges, so feel free to ask me anything, and I will try to respond asap!

WHY IS COLLEGE SO EXPENSIVE

so basically im applying to college this upcoming cycle as a premed and unfortunately my family is not eligible for any financial aid bc my familys income is too high, meaning i have to pay full price for nearly all the schools i apply to.

brown is my absolute dream school; i love everything abt it whether thats the open curriculum, the majors they offer, the area, etc. however after doing the financial aid calculator i will have to end up paying 96K a year..

originally i really wanted to ed to brown, as i cant fathom not doing everything possible to get into my dream school. although i would still love to go, im starting to contemplate if paying 96K a year is worth it and if i should just apply rd where competition will be much higher.

also if i plan to go to med school it will just be more debt. fyi i CAN afford brown if i take out some loans. but even if i can afford it, i dont want to be spending hundreds of thousands and for it to be a bad decision. im wondering if i can see the same success and career outcomes as a physician at another school in comparison to brown.

im also really in love w brown and am kinda being blindsighted by how much i wanna go, but pls be honest even if its not smthn i wanna hear.

thank u sm 🥹🥹

Hi everyone, I’m just curious about students at top-tier universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley...How impressive is the admission application package? What is the most valuable element within it? And do you really need to be at the very top of the rankings to get into those schools?

Demographics
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
Residence: Northern California (Siskiyou County)
Hooks: Rural 

Intended Major(s): Linguistics, Economics

Academics
GPA: 3.6 unweighted / 4.1 weighted
Class Rank: Top 10%
# of APs: 7

Standardized Testing
ACT: 36 
AP: 7 scores of 5

Extracurriculars
My extracurriculars focused on my interest in linguistics, specifically conlangs and the Universal Grammar Theory. I’ll list my main activities below

• Founding the Siskiyou County Linguistics Alliance (very small rural organization for linguistics with ~50 kids)
• Creating my own Conlang (a fictional language and grammar system) and creating a long dictionary 
• 2 Paid Jobs at a local Mount Shasta Tour Center and a Roadhouse restaurant
• Family responsibilities, caring for mom with a stomach disorder (epithelial lining metaplasia)

Awards

• National Merit
• A local, community scholarship for my ACT score
• A county award for my small Linguistics organization
• AP Scholar with Distinction

Essays
My personal statement was very personal about my family situation and resilience I gained from, which I don't feel fully comfortable sharing in depth on Reddit. My supplements focused on unique linguistic programs at Columbia (like the Teacher’s College Program where they focus on using linguistic models in school education, which piques my interest and I did similar work on a smaller scale in my county organization)

Letters of Rec were from my English and Calculus teacher. I think they were moderately strong.

Decisions
Acceptance: Columbia (Early Decision)

Additional Information
I added more context below

I went to a high school in Northern California in Siskiyou County and our high school was considered rural. Not many kids at all go to T20s and its a small class size. I was the only one of two ivy acceptances this year (the other one was Dartmouth). Finances were not a huge issue for me (middle income with loans, some financial aid, and some grants)

I know rural is an established hook. I am also Hispanic and LGBT, though I don't know how/if that plays into admission post-affirmative action

I got a 36 ACT on the second try and opted out of science. My first attempt was a 34 but I didn't submit that. Columbia was test-optional when I applied but I still submitted

My class didn't publish class rank in the traditional sense but they did this weird thing with deciles where they would list if you were in the top two deciles. They listed if you were top 20% or top 10%. I was in the top 10%.

My school offered 8 APs and I took 7, and tied for the most number of APs taken with three other kids.

My intended major and ECs were on linguistics bc I got interested in linguistics after trying to learn Esperanto in the eight grade 😝

Hope that provides more context!

Help I don't know if have an actual shot at Cornell ED or if I'm just being delusional. Let me know, any responses are appreciated.

Demographics:

Gender: Male  
Race/Ethnicity: White  
Residence: North Carolina  
Income Bracket: Low  
Type of School: Public, low-mid competitiveness  
Hooks: Single Parent Household

Intended Major(s): Biochemistry (Pre-Med) ,  
Minor in CS

Academics:  
GPA (UW/W): 3.83, 4.45

*Freshman year I had 3 B's and a C, the rest of my grades my other years are all A's. I will be giving context in the additional information section regarding my poor freshman year grades (Scoliosis, Taking care of sister who had trouble regulating her emotions)*

12 AP's by graduation

Senior Year Course Load:  
AP Calculus BC, AP Environmental Science, AP  
Statistics, AP Physics, AP Lang

SAT: 1580  
ACT: 36

AP scores: All 5's and 4's except for AP World History (I took it freshman year)

Extracurriculars/Activities:

1. Science Research at Duke:  
      \- Published research on microplastics in local food sources using spectroscopy, presented findings to my city councils environmental committee

2. Found a nonprofit where I translated rare disease guides to 17 underrepresented languages  
      \- Had my guides accessible throughout multiple North Carolina hospitals, plus had them posted for free as PDF's on multiple websites

3. Built a predictive model for food desert-linked disease rates using my county's health data  
   \- Published online and took large attention of my local community, got onto my towns newspaper

4. Co-Founder/President of my schools coding club  
   \- Every semester our club built a project based on the votes of all students and staff within school (Projects we built include a School Lunch Meal predictor, an interactive AI chatbot that helps students learn to enjoy school, etc) Also every semester we held a fundraiser downtown, raising over 10K in total.

5. Vice-President of Science Honors Society   
   \- Spent many hours after school tutoring biology and chemistry students for free via the club. Created long, immensely detailed slideshows for each twice-monthly meeting that contained interviews of local biologists

6. Shadowed Two Doctors  
   \- Shadowed the famous Dr. Hey of the HeyClinic, an orthopedic spine surgeon. Also shadowed a cardiologist and worked with her on a small awareness project regarding hereditary heart disease.

7. Dishwasher at Senior Living Community  
    \- During summers and during the school year, I dish-washed, set the tables, etc. Also spent a lot of free time (Un-paid) just chilling and conversing with the Elderly there.  

8. Scenic Mountain Biking   
   \- Often spent weekends biking hours on end among the mountains, used it as a stress reliever and a large sense of peace. Started a social media account with more than 80k followers where I would post a beautiful view with a piece of advice.

9. Varsity Tennis  
   \- Just tennis. Could become the captain this year? (LMK if that would help out)

Awards/Honors:

1. US Biology Olympiad Semi-Finalist  
2. US Medicine and Disease Olympiad Silver  
3. Won 2 Hackathons, placed second in several   
   others  
4. Medical and Bioethics Essay Third Place

Applying to:

- Cornell ED  
- UNC Chapel Hill (In-State)  
- University of Rochester  
- University of Michigan  
- NC State  
- Other safeties

Hello everyone, first of all I want to say that to anyone that replies thank you so much for helping me out with this. So basically my question is just about one of my ECs and the EC is essentially an app we created which took off like its reached many downloads and has done pretty well and so it was something that I was planning on listing. But I was not the main guy behind the app while I was a lead on it, another student was the main creator and so the app did well enough to have some publicity written about it and so in that article I am not mentioned but this lead student is and so basically what I am worried about is while I did play a decent role in making some of the app and certain features, since I am not listed on the article, an AO might look up the app and see I am not listed on the article and think that I am lying about playing a role in it and I do have evidence of me working on it like a video that me and other people who worked on the app filmed showcasing certain features and such but its an unlisted video and so obviously its not something I can just attach to my common app and so I am wondering whether you guys think I should list it or not because I am just worried an AO will assume I am lying even though if they did actually reach out to me I could send them the video or other logs but yeah just wanted any advice. Thanks

Edit: Also wanted to mention that I did show my school counselor the video and everything so he knows I am a part of the app if that helps because I know that usually for verification AOs will reach out to your counselor but I was still not sure so I wanted to ask what to do here