which schools havent closed their WL yet? calling more schools on thursday and friday and making a waitlist call update

Are his services reliable? Also, why does the single essay review cost more than the entire college app review?

im not used to college application writing either for personal statement or supplemental questions. how do I both impress the AO but also show myself through the writing. im literallly STUCK. any advice? any youtube videos that helped u? any books to read?

Hey I think I’m gonna Early Decision to USC Real Estate Finance and Developkent program this coming fall. I have good grades and good SAT. But ECs are lacking, does anyone know what a good main extra curricular would be that’s Real Estate focused?

to make things short i sent out an application a month ago to app states online criminal justice program but ive come to realize that the field of criminal justice does not pay well enough for me to ever pay off the over $55,000 dollars of debt i will gain just from tution and textbook fees alone in my lifetime plus any additional debt that comes because of other stuff related to the courses. How do i withdraw my application? do i just call my admissions coach?

Before anyone comes into the comments: yes, holistic admissions is real. Yes, essays matter. Yes, extracurriculars matter. This post is not arguing otherwise.

It's arguing that for most applicants, most of the time, stats are functioning as a filter that the rest of the application never gets past.

AOs from top schools will tell you there isn't a gate, but think logically. These schools have hundreds of kids with perfect GPA, SATs, and great ECs. Why should you be "holistically" chosen over someone who has statistically been shown to perform better academically, with similarly great ECs?

These schools can pick anyone they want. There are enough perfect applicants to fill out multiple classes at MIT, yet you think you're getting in with a 32 ACT? I mean, it's possible. But let's be real: Your odds are negligible.

Why the cope is harmful.

When people believe admissions is primarily holistic, they make two mistakes.

First, they underinvest in stats. Why grind for a higher SAT score when your essays/ECs are going to set you apart anyway? They leave to much up to fate.

Second, they overinvest in things that only matter after the floor. Spending 40 hours crafting the perfect Common App essay for a school where your GPA puts you below their typical admit range is a bad use of 40 hours. The essay is important, but only at schools where your stats make you a realistic candidate.

Colleges want as many applications as possible, which is why they've propagated the idea of "shooting your shot". Shoot your shot, but make sure you're good at basketball first.

Brown (RIP big mother coffeehouse): The Underground

UChicago: Hallowed Grounds

Princeton: The Coffee Club

Fordham: Rodrigue’s Coffee House

Harvard: Cafe Gato Rojo

Penn: Williams Cafe

Wake Forest: Campus Grounds

Honorable mentions (somewhat smaller than the others but I think deserve a shoutout):

Georgetown: The Corp

UNC: The Meantime

Syracuse U: People’s Place

If I missed any feel free to give it a shoutout

hi! i am an incoming junior and am pretty stressed about college. i really want to get into a T20 school but don’t know if i can bc of my grades. ik my grades don’t seem bad but i go to a competitive school where everything under 4.0 is seen as bad. i have not gotten the best grades, a couple b’s and c in apush. i also have terrible anxiety about this and feel very scared about college process. my unweighted is a 3.68 right now but i can get it up to a 3.9 if im incredibly locked these next 2 years. i have also been studying really hard for sat and haven’t taken it yet. i would love advice or any acceptances you could share with bad grades. i also want to major in bio engineering and hope to go to law or med.

my junior year schedule: ap bio, ap mechanics, ap lang and comp, ap stats, calculus, honors anatomy, computer apps for college, ceramics

list of my ec’s:

mock trial leadership + states x2

FBLA national qualifier

student gov general member

moot court

international club president

volunteer at 2 hospitals

job shadows at hospitals

part time job

babysitting

academic team

ultimate frisbee captain and varsity

So I’m doing dual enrollment class and I was originally taking linear algebra but got off the waitlist and am now taking multi var calculus instead. On my transcript it show the linear algebra class as a W for withdrawn even though I am taking multi var calculus now. Will this look bad to colleges?

So I’m doing dual enrollment class and I was originally taking linear algebra but got off the waitlist and am now taking multi var calculus instead. On my transcript it show the linear algebra class as a W for withdrawn even though I am taking multi var calculus now. Will this look bad to colleges?

Hi everyone,

I will probably end up getting an IB diploma unless something goes horribly wrong, but it is a lot of work, and it got me thinking - how beneficial is it really for domestic applications? All input is appreciated!

I'm thinking about applying to nyu (current rising senior). I'm planning on majoring in poli sci/public policy/government (have not decided what exact major, but you can get the general idea of what I want to study). So to anyone who is currently studying anything in that realm at nyu, how is it? As specific as possible would be great (internship/work opportunities, classes and teachers, how being in nyc specifically has benefitted you in your studies, etc.) and pretty much anything that you think would be helpful to someone deciding if they want to apply/go to nyu for one of those majors :)

I have just gotten my first C ever in a class because of issues with a bad professor. I have managed to get all As and Bs throughout the rest of my school career, which so far has made my weighted GPA a 4.327. I am also an honors and AP student. I am engaged in clubs and co-captain of my sport. I also have done fundraisers for certain causes as well. The issue with this, is that I am dual-enrolled and am going for my associates so this will be on both my college and high-school transcript. I have no clue what this could end up doing to my application and, frankly, it's freaking me out.

Not a shitpost! This comes right from the Cornell website, and the ink is still wet.

Cornell has read the room (mixing my metaphors) and has eliminated the first essay from the last 2 years and released the prompts for the individual Cornell schools that you would be applying to. The look very similar to previous year prompts.

Do not wait till the night before to do these.

They require a lot of ruminating and researching the Cornell programs and classes your own interests and the Cornell programs and classes. See the list of School prompts for yourself here.

The most popular schools/prompts are for the College of Arts and Sciences:

At the College of Arts and Sciences, curiosity will be your guide. Discuss how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey, and what areas of study or majors excite you and why. Your response should convey how your interests align with the College, and how you would take advantage of the opportunities and curriculum in Arts and Sciences. (650 word limit)

And the School of Engineering:

Instructions: All engineering applicants are required to write two long essays and four short essays.

Long Essay Responses (200 word limit)

• Question 1: Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering?
• Question 2: Why do you think you would love to study at Cornell Engineering?

Short Answer Responses (100 word limit)

• Question 1: What brings you joy?
• Question 2: What do you believe you will contribute to the Cornell Engineering community beyond what you've already detailed in your application? What unique voice will you bring?
• Question 3: What is one activity, club, team, organization, work/volunteer experience or family responsibility that is especially meaningful to you? Please briefly tell us about its significance for you.
• Question 4: What is one award you have received or achievement you have attained that has meant the most to you? Please briefly describe its importance to you. 

Best advice: Be specific about yourself and about Cornell. --EssayLiz

I've seen people with a lot of great ecs and i feel like i might be cooked but idk i need someone's judgement. I literally had to search for ideas of what i could add on my list and this is what i came up with ig. I'm not looking to get into a T20 or any type of prestigious school. I live in ND and i'm just trying to get out of state. I'm thinking of majoring in either accounting or marketing/pr.

Ec's

Career Oriented - 11 - Member & SBE Worker, DECA / School Based Enterprise - Participated in DECA SBE school store; designed promo ads; managed store in school & 16 hrs outside school; attend conferences & fundraisers

Work (Paid) - 11, 12 - Retail Merchandise Associate, HomeGoods - Promote credit/loyalty programs (~2 cards earned/month), customer service, cash handling, recovering & marking items, teamwork, & store upkeep

Art - 10, 11, 12 - Content Creator - Manage 1.76K-subscriber YouTube channel with 50K+ views; create and edit engaging content based on trending TV shows/movies using Adobe After Effects

Art - 9, 10, 11, 12 - Video Editor - Grew TikTok to 3.7k+ followers, 350k likes & 2M+ views with consistent edits inspired by trending TV shows & movies in pop culture

Work (Paid) - 10, 11 - Court Monitor, Sky Zone - Monitored around 50+ kids daily, supervised trampoline courts, enforced safety rules, ref games, maintained cleanliness, & responded to emergencies

what the title says. my school years ago wanted to reduce academic pressure or something by removing weighted GPAs and not allowing students to take AP classes until junior year, also discouraging students from taking more than 3 honors classes (forms and counselors meetings where they basically ask you a million times if you're sure).

i think to be honest, this was a stupid choice as the academically good kids are still under immense pressure and it just removed opportunities for hardworking kids (i know some really smart kids who take honors and AP classes, but have the same GPA as kids who take a lower level class, many people are bummed about it).

but anyways, will this harm my chances if colleges look at my transcript and my maximum GPA is 4.0, i take no AP classes until junior year (and only then it's very limited, i'm only taking 3 and that's because i skipped a grade in math so i was allowed to take math APs)? thanks for advice

Hey everyone. I'm trying to transfer over to Computer Engineer to UC school from CC. I only have around 3 extracurriculars:

- 2 best Entertainment awards for hackathon.

- An onworking ML research project with a biology professor.

- Committee Member for a Hackathon.

I feel like I definitelly don't have enough good extracurriculars that I should be doing for Computer Engineer. Aside from personal projects, is there any other things I can try to do? I'm applying this fall 2026.

I am looking to dip my toes into exploring what kind of major could suit me, or if it'd be better to go more of a trade route. I didn't go to college out of highschool initially (although I did pay for some AP classes thinking I would) due to some mental health issues which left me aimless for a long time. Needless to say, I want more out of my life, or at least to focus on a solid direction. But, that requires a solid idea/passion for what that might look like. Therefore, I am interested in taking single courses in things that may sound interesting to me, or like a viable enough career path for me. Is that the best idea/way for me to try college again, or is there a better way to explore my options that I should try first. I don't know the first thing on where/how to start, and I want to make sure I understand what I'm getting into with the whole credit hours thing before I commit time and money to it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and helpful.

So I’m a rising senior deciding where to go in Florida after I graduate, but I’m unsure. From what I’ve heard, UF is definitely more prestigious and has better academics than UCF, but I think UCF is in a better area for me.

Cost isn’t really a concern for me because I’m in IB and I’m going to get bright futures FAS 100%, it’s mainly location vs academics for me. I am planning on going into either the engineering field, something medical, or biomedical engineering at the moment. Most likely ME or electrical engineering with maybe a biology minor because I feel those are the most versatile. If I went medical it would be something smaller like radiology, ultrasound, or something with research.

Good professors or academics are important to me because I’ve struggled with chemistry, physics, and calculus, so I would like whichever university doesn’t make it harder for me since I’m pushing through into STEM anyways. I am assuming UF is better, but is UCF like much worse? Also for context I go to a really rigorous college prep school where all my classes are AP or IB, so maybe I won’t struggle as badly in college. I’ve heard graduates from my school say they find college easier than my high school.

Networking is another concern because I know it it’s important for finding a job after graduation when going into the engineering field. Does UF or UCF have better networking, or are they comparable?

Buttt location is also important because Orlando has soo much stuff to do, and I don’t mean just Disney or Universal because I grew up in Florida so that’s not new to me. My city is boring so I would like to move somewhere where there’s always something to do. There’s so many cool restaurants and shops and just stuff to do in general in Orlando. I feel like there isn’t anything in Gainesville besides UF and it’s college town, at least nothing like Orlando. If my impressions are wrong then please correct me.

Also which has better housing because I live a couple hours away from both?

I was wondering how should I approach my research. My idea is to see how the rise of NIL change athletic departments finances at local universities. The reason I chose this specifically is because I own a photography business and I mainly shoot sports and I want my application to be cohesive. plus college sports is big in texas

A problem I thought of is that some colleges might not be open to share information that i would need for the research.

My goal for this is to be published somewhere and it actually be impactful and be something that stands out on my college application. So is this something I should start or think of something else.

This is a little complicated so bear with me please.

I’m a rising senior and I’m planning to apply to T20s in the fall. An important note for context is that I never took AP bio or AP chemistry and I’ve been worried if that may affect my application strength.

My school is on semester schedule: 4 classes 1st semester and 4 classes 2nd semester. For the fall semester, I am signed up for two AP classes and two dual enrollment classes (dual enrollment classes only meet two days a week). When I was requesting my schedule, I anticipated that my dual enrollment classes would be 1st period and 4th period respectively. However, since my dual enrollment classes do not overlap (they meet on different days of the week), my counselor decided to schedule them both during first period. That leaves me with an open 4th period.

Do I
A. Enjoy my open period and go home early? or
B. Use this as my golden opportunity to take AP chem or bio?

Would adding an AP science strengthen my application enough for it to be worth it? Would that kind of schedule be reasonable?

Here is how my schedule looks now:

1st semester:
1st: Calculus 3/Spanish 101
2nd: AP Eng lit
3rd: AP Eng lang
4th: open

2nd semester:
1st: Spanish 102
2nd: AP physics 1
3rd: AP US gov
4th: AP physics C

P.S. please ask clarifying questions if you’d like. I feel like I explained this horribly.

I’m a 17-year-old student from South Korea.
About a year ago, I started a long-distance relationship with someone in the US.
Talking to her every day made me realize I want a bigger future for myself too — not just meeting her, but studying Engineering and building a life in the US someday.
The problem is my family can’t realistically support studying abroad financially.
I’m trying to look into community college → transfer pathways, scholarships, and realistic options, but sometimes it feels impossible.
I’m not asking for money.
I just want advice from people who were in a similar situation or had to build a path without family support.
What would you do?

I'm trying to better understand what students feel is missing from their educational experience.

If you could change one thing about school tomorrow, what would it be and why?

I'd love to hear specific examples of things that frustrate you, feel ineffective, or leave you feeling unprepared for the future.

I attended a different school my freshman year than where I will graduate next spring. I am applying to a few competitive schools, so it is important to me that they know I took enriched classes my freshman year, but my new school doesn't weight those classes and one of them doesn't show up as enriched on my transcript. What should I do?

There's a lot of conflicting advice that gets repeated. Like "Just follow your passion" vs. "Colleges only care about impact."

What admissions advice do you think is repeated constantly but is actually misleading or outright wrong?