Iowa state!! Just something that made me happy :]

To finish the Common App and see a .pdf spit out of the last four years is really jarring. I've never felt so dehumanized. Where do I talk about all the friends who saved my life and are the spark of my world? Why did my orchestra experience get dumbed down to a handful of words and not the everlasting memories that I made? Why is my SAT score the first time and not the second time I took it? I studied CRAZY amounts just to get a lower score? My firefighting experience is the only thing that gets put into 650 words, but that's still not enough to show the brotherhood and the trauma I experienced. My dream school is far away, but it's the one I want. If I go to my dream school, will I see my brothers and sisters again? Will I step into my firefighting gear again?

I've cried so many times and lost so many hours just thinking. EA is around the corner. I dislike this process. I wish I were good at something. I wish I did something that would show better on a college app. I wish my studying didn't leave me barely short of a 1500 SAT. I wish my parents knew that I'm not built for T20 schools.

:(

I am an incredibly boring person. I have no intrest, I've never traveled. I have never had any deep, meaningful character arc in, well, ever. Theres only one thing im good at: telling a story.

So here I am, staring at the blank Google doc on my laptop, mind completely blank. Then it comes to me: they want a story. It doesn't have to be true, it just needs to sound true. The poor overworked underpaid bloke who will be reading this could care less about me as a person. They want to be told a story, so why not give them one.

I think the best way to approach this is by not looking at it as "an essay that will determine if i get into college and therefore the rest of my life", but as 500 word first person short story. I think this will sound a lot more personal than if I wrote about me. I hate writing about myself because I am a very private, and as before mentioned, boring person. But I do love to write stories.

Any advice (or just telling me this is a really shitty, terrible, idiotic idea) is appreciated.

Disclaimer: These are general questions I have received from friends and some of my own.

1. Testing - At what point does a lower than typical testing score genuinely bring up a red flag? Yellow? Orange?

2. Personal Statement - Are you looking for different attributes from different majors? A unique quality? A unique story?

3. Favorite - What are your favorite essays, activities, or genuinely standout parts on an application that has even the most average student gain admittance?

hi guys! I'm currently trying to decide which Ivies I should apply to. I really want to apply only if my character type seems fitting for the school (obviously not the only thing, but a big part for me). For example, Brown is known for its artsy/quirky kids. So my question is: what is the average personality for each of the Ivy League schools?

Is imperial college really better than all U.S schools excluding MIT or are the Brits coping

hi! My daughter was accepted to all 4 colleges she applied to - even her dream one! 3 of the 4 offered merit scholarships - the dream one didn't. FAFSA says we don't get any grants - how do we find out if the school will offer Financial aid before deciding on if she is going there??

whats so different of w&l that makes it stand out from other schools?

im applying for ED1 this november and i just cant make out the supplemental essay, i need help

Is it possible to get into top schools or any ivies with weak ECs
I have a summer job, tutoring, newspaper club, and key club that’s basically it. No leadership

4.0 UW gpa, top 10% in the class, 7APS, 1510 superscore

Can my essays and academics be enough or is it a waste of time?

It's been a guessing game to determine which schools have the most clout around the country, mostly because A2C has its own opinions, but the question has finally been empirically answered. Now, Americans from all over the country were asked to determine which universities are perceived as the best overall and have the greatest public sentiment and goodwill. The results (https://yougov.com/en-us/ratings/universities) were:

1. Stanford
2. Johns Hopkins (makes sense because Hopkins is synonymous with medicine and became really popular due to their leadership with the CDC during COVID, remember this is about positive public sentiment not just who heard of the school)
3. Harvard
4. Yale
5. Oxford
6. Princeton
7. Duke
8. Berkeley (I think people on here forget how prestigious Berkeley is especially for grad school)
9. MIT
10. Cornell (The results were compiled BEFORE the recent scandal became national news, so expect that Cornell has dropped significantly now)
11. Columbia
12. Cambridge
13. Caltech
14. Northwestern
15. NYU (Being in the most famous city in America has its perks with recognizability)
16. UCSD (this is the biggest surprise on the whole list for me, but great school)
17. UCLA
18. UMich
19. UPenn
20. UChicago

MIT tends to keep the acceptance rates for EA and RD the same. So, what difference does it make if I apply EA or RD, where I have slightly more time to build a stronger application? Is there some other sort of advantage other than the raw acceptance rate?

Disclaimer: I know I'm not a legacy!!

My grandfather did a non-degree certificate at Columbia. So can I put yes (in the common app part)? or does it not count.

thanks!

edit: they also ask how many degrees X family member got from there and there's an option to put no degrees so that's what I'd do. (but idk if that's only for dropouts)

So I’ve been looking into college since I’m trying to plan out where to go and how to make it easier for myself when i finally have to apply, and I keep coming back to the idea of community college.

To give a little bit more context I’m a Jr in high school and my unweighted GPA is 2.8 and I want to go to med school in another state.

I realize that my GPA is low and I’m trying to raise it before i graduate but not too sure if I’ll be able to get it high enough to get accepted into my dream school. SO I’m thinking of doing my bachelors degree at a community college so that’s it’s cheaper and I can raise my GPA to better my chances of getting into my dream school.

I’ve talked with some family and I’m getting mixed responses about this, some say it’s pointless and will just waste time while others think it’s a good idea.

Any advice?

Hello, i'm a high school senior applying to college. I have not submitted any applications yet and my list is currently 17+ schools, which is unreasonable. I have a high number of reaches (8-16% acceptance rate) and I am wondering if it is even worth the application fee. I don't know much about college admissions and I am looking for honest advice.

A little background: I am looking to apply for environmental science, sustainability, conservation, or forestry (based on the specific schools I am applying to and the programs they offer). I am planing on applying regular decisions to all schools.

I have a 3.98 unweighted GPA and three -A's which counts as 4.00 but show as -A's. I took the ACT twice with a 31 both times and a super score of 32 and 33 science. I took 5 AP's (two 5's and three 4's) and all my classes were honors or AP, except for a few art classes freshman year.

I have pretty weak extracurricular's, especially for the first two years of high school

- part time job at a thrift shop for all of junior year (20-25 hours a week)

- volunteering at local national park (like 4 hours a month)

- Girl scout for all year of high school, did not do much with this really. I did work a little with the county parks and hosted a invasive plant removal event.

- a little peer tutoring with my school for junior year

- i won a fairly well respected national writing contest junior year (there were two groups of winners, I was in the second)

- probably the biggest, I got a full ride for an exchange year with a well respected program I am currently going to school in Germany for my senior year.

It would be a dream to get into and be able to go to any of the more prestigious schools on my list or to live in a city , but I don't have my whole life hung up on it. I think that I could be happy at my state school which is a good and affordable option (though I really don't want to move back to my hometown). I also am considering taking a gap year and finding an internship, doing seasonal work, or related things to get life experience reapplying for 2028.

I know college admissions can be very random but any advice would be appreciated.

Okay ive been bawling my eyes out for the last like hour so I have a pounding headache sorry if this is written crazy. But basically I had been getting consistent 1500s on my practice tests but sOMR how I only got a 1380. I also only have a 3.6 gpa uw and BARELY 4.0 weighted. my parents also only have 15k in my college fund. I have crazy good ECs but that’s it. I live in a pretty rural area so my SAT is very good for it but not my gpa. I really wanted to go to UMD but I’m not going anymore I guess my chances are shot. here are my options pls choose I’m tryna be diplomat or lawyer. I guess I should mention I’ve taken like 9 aps and gotten all 4s and 5s, max rigor and duel enrollment. So yeah

My class rank is like 30 out of 200 i was kinda surprised because I have a bad gpa but idk if that’s helps I’d whatever

- Go to a smaller, less prestigious college (don’t have enough money for a masters after that so idk)

- Take the SAT again in November and apply everywhere but my safeties as regular decision

plese let me know where I can get in. I lowkey had a mental breakdown my freshman year which is gpa is very bad but like I’m not writing than in extenuatinf circumstances I think

um also i have a one income household and a little brother who is also going to college in a couple of years so idk I feel so ashamed and stipid there’s no hope for me idk Ive been cryjnf all monring

For context, I have a 1490 SAT superscore. October SAT was my 5th attempt and everything stayed the same. I'm very tired of taking it. I think my other parts of app are pretty strong. I have good grades (with only 2 B+s and max rigor, as well as always being one year ahead in science). I have a competetive summer program and national level chemistry awards. Clubs, leadership positions, volunteering are all aligned with my story and intentions. I do a lot around the house due to my family's financial struggles and Im also geographically underrepresented. I intend to major in env.sci or chem or env.chemistry

I was just hoping to hear some similar stories wig good ending and some words of affirmation because people around me keep saying as if Im doing something wrong by choosing to stop :(

I have asked my counselor and english teachers to read it already, but I feel like an unbiased audience who doesn't know me could give good objective feedback. I know people say not to share it to anyone but does anyone have any interest.

Basically I applied EA to UNC last night and stupidly I procrastinated so I ended up not even adding any dual enrollment classes I took (I took a lot) and I didn’t like add all the possible majors I was interested in…. also another big thing is like I was confused because they didn’t let me say if I wanted to go test optional or not and I’m scared because on the common application I put my SAT and ACT scores.

Does anyone know if UNC allows you to change stuff later in their portal? Thank you and I promise Im never procrastinating before submitting an app HOLY shits.

Current senior here - happy to answer questions!

Sat: 1340 (730 reading, 610 math)

GPA UW 4.0 W 4.5

So I took the sat once, didnt study much, and im worried it lo​oks bad that its much lower than im capable of. However its high end of or above average for the schools im looking at, and Im trying to go for dance which I figure sat is not the most important thing for that major. Also with a lot of time in dance training and other extracurriculars its really not an option for me to take the sat again. I also have 4s and 5s on ap tests that could possibly confirm my good academics? So far I've been planning on sending my score since its higher than average, but idk does it make me look bad

I’m honestly really struggling and I didn’t know where to post so I ended up here lol. I’m from Minnesota but my parents grew up in North Dakota so with all that they want me to go to school at UND because I should be able to get it for basically no money at all and it’s new facilities are modern. But I loved the sports and big school vibes from UMN also with all my benefits it should only cost myself 4k a year. I’m also going to be a psychology major so UMN in the 3rd ranked psych program compared tk the 300 something ranked UND program. Idk also the small town vs urban city is hard. Anyone have any tips to help me make a decision? Also forgot to mention the UND is 4 hours from my home while UMN is 1 hour and all my high school friends will be closer if I went to UMN. Ik I’ll make college friends but I would still like to see my high school friend’s from time to time.

What is the difference between the FAFSA and CSS? Do I submit both? I've already done the FAFSA. What does the CSS do?

Some backstory: My asian mom really wanted me to go to Duke and Northwestern, but turns out they were unrealistic reaches for me. Then we settled for Rice and Emory. But now someone from my school also wants to ED Rice which lowers my chances, especially with his demographics and background.

So talking with my counselor, he said Barnard is actually a great fit for me in all aspects, with maybe the exception of its location. NYC is highly competitive and requires constant hustle. I got expelled for nic and weed and she’s got confirmation bias towards my living and studying habits. So Barnard is a strong no for her. But I truly love it and I love the hustle when it’s working for something I want, not something she wants.

What do I do?? I don’t want to say anything hurtful like “your mind is too rigid” but I REALLY want to go and I have pretty high chances too. Plus Barnard is like ranked 100+ in the US and she keeps telling me I’ll have to take care of my own tuition for anything below 30.

Sorry for the long rant!!

submitted all materials on 10.12, results came out today. is it that fast for everyone as well??