Accepted into 9 (Binghamton, Boston University, Cornell, City College, Fordham, Umass Amherst, NYU and Stony Brook)

Waitlisted to 2 (Northeastern and GWU)

Denied from 5 (Boston College, Brown, Dartmouth, Northwestern and Tufts)

SO where will i be attending?

..well i got the transfer option to Cornell, so I can’t attend Cornell until the fall of 2019, so my first two semesters will be at stony brook!

If you want to get into selective schools and you’re a run of the mill kid (by that i mean you go to a school that doesnt routinely send students to ivy leagues/other very selective schools, and you haven’t cured cancer), here’s the damn truth: your chances are slim. 

I got a fucking 36 on my ACT. I was a National Merit commended student. I had an amazing gpa and took as many APs as I could (my school didn’t offer a lot, but I had A averages in all of them). I had work experience, volunteer experience, was the leader of two clubs, and had multiple awards for academic team. My teachers wrote stellar letters of recommendation. My Common App essay was fire. I was in the top 25% of every school I applied to, four of which were highly selective. 

I got into only one of those four selective schools, which proceeded to give me a whopping $0.00 in scholarship money and financial aid. 

A few other people in my class applied to Ivy Leagues and super selective schools, including the valedictorian of our class. they all got rejected (we’re all going to good schools though, don’t worry).

So if you go to like a normal high school that’s not a literal feeder to selective schools, you’re at a disadvantage. If you’re not a rich legacy, you’re at a disadvantage. If you don’t have a dramatic story or aren’t willing to spill your guts for no reason, you’re at a disadvantage. 

Sorry for bragging about myself. I’m not trying to talk myself up or scare you, it’s just a real word of warning and an example.

If you’re still set on going to a selective school, here’s my advice:

when you’re researching schools, be ruthless in trimming your list down. you’re going to have to put in a lot more effort for a selective school application, and it’s a lot easier if you don’t have a billion apps to do.

i would recommend picking only a few selective schools to apply to. don’t apply unless you can see yourself going there, and enjoying yourself in late winter of your third year. move past freshman year in your imaginings, and in your research too.

the application fees are way more expensive at selective schools (except for a few that are free if you apply for financial aid, which is free to apply for, so do that). bear this in mind when deciding to apply. do you really want to give $70 to this school that may ultimately reject you?

visit, if you can. schedule a meeting with a professor in your field. if you can’t visit, reach out to a relevant professor or the admissions office anyway. ask questions even if you already know the answers. show you’re interested. the selective school i did this for was the one that ultimately accepted me.

have safety schools, ones that are reasonable at the sticker price. when selective schools say, “we charge $70,000/year, but that’s just the sticker price! we give out SO MUCH money!!!!!”, they’re lying, unless you’re really, really unable to pay anything. middle class? good fucking luck. and don’t count on scholarships, no matter what great things you did in high school, they’re not giving them. 

research state schools too. everything i wanted at selective schools i have at the state school i’m going to (except division iii sports. oh well). selective schools and state schools have the same things, the selective schools are just more impressive because there’s fewer people, and they’re only appealing to top students anyway, while state schools have to appeal to everyone. don’t fall into this trap!!

ask yourself why you want to go to a selective school in the first place. think really hard about this one, and have an answer that you’re proud of. i didn’t think that hard about it, and my answer was somewhere in the realm of, “i’m tired of being treated like a freak for being smart, and i want to be somewhere with like-minded people so i can be ‘better’ than all the people who made me feel bad about myself.” i’m not proud of that. spite is not a good reason to dole out ridiculous amounts of money, and it wasn’t even worth the application process. 

repeat this to yourself every single day: SELECTIVE SCHOOLS ARE NOT BETTER THAN STATE SCHOOLS/COMMUNITY COLLEGES/ANYWHERE ELSE. stop idolizing them. you are not superior if you go to one, you are not inferior if you don’t (or don’t get in. see next point). chances are, if you’re willing to put in all the hard work to prepare for a selective school, and the grueling application process, you’re an amazing student, and a hardworking, intelligent, good person. any place would be lucky to have you. and if they decide they’re not going to have you, their loss. not yours.

don’t get your hopes too high. it’s a fucking crapshoot. everyone applying has basically the same qualifications, they basically draw out of a hat, and the “hat” is a complicated system which gives a lot more people jobs than drawing out of a hat. although they have about the same effectiveness. 

please, please, please, don’t base your concepts of self-worth on getting in somewhere selective. it’s so easy to do that, it’s such a simple dichotomy: if i get in, i’m good, if i don’t, i’m bad. No, no nononononononono. you are so much more than what some old dudes in an office decide to whittle you down to. please never hinge your happiness on other people’s decisions. 

in about three weeks, i’m heading off to my last choice safety school, which slowly moved up the list as the application process wore on. i couldn’t be more excited. it took me a long time to unlearn the terrible things i’d told myself about where i “should” go to college. when i finally got around to thinking about my happiness and my reasoning, i realized i had made a lot of mistakes in my thinking, as meticulously outlined above. honestly, i was an idiot, but things still worked out in the end. you’re going to do great, you are great, i promise. 

(i’m really sorry to all the people i inadvertently insulted through this post. i just think there’s a lot of misconceptions about selective schools among high-achieving high-schoolers that need to be rectified. also i’m still kind of bitter, because i obviously run on spite im sorry)

Appblr ‘18 Tag

1. How many schools are you applying to? 10

2. Are you moving away or staying home? Moving away

3. What’s a school that you love but won’t be applying to and why? Northwestern: their Computer Science program (my intended major) isn’t as good as UIUC’s, and they’re super expensive

4. What is a school you considered but is no longer on your list and why? Cornell: I didn’t like how much of a hassle it is to reach their campus. tbh also because I didn’t want to write a 650 word essay oops

5. The biggest advice you’d give your high school freshman self? Don’t stress so much. You are smarter than you think!

6. biggest fear about college apps? Not getting accepted anywhere

7. What are your top 3 schools? Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, MIT (hahaahahahahaha...)

8. what are 2 majors that sound interesting to you? Computer Science and anything CS related 

9. Have you visited any colleges, if so, which? Northwestern, UChicago, WashU, Vandy, Duke, CMU, CWRU

10. what’s your biggest high school accomplishment? [ personal, academic etc ] National Merit Scholar: I remember as a freshman, looking in absolute AWE at all the seniors who were National Merit Scholars and thinking, “That’s who I’m going to be in 4 years.”

11. If you could create your ideal college, what three features would it have? Small class sizes, focus on interdisciplinary studies, happy student body

12. Describe the ideal student at your future college in three words or phrases: Intelligent but not solely dedicated to their studies, friendly, multi-faceted, kind.

13. What is a subject/ skill you’d like to study in college that has nothing to do with your field? Writing

14. Small, large or medium sized college? Medium

15. International or local? Local

16. One thing your gonna miss about your home/ hometown: Downtown

17. Three things you’d like to improve about yourself in college: healthier, happier, hungrier (for knowledge)

18. If you could tell your dream school one random thing or a fact about you, what would you say? pls accept me lmao i love u

19. what’s something you’d like to do differently than you did in high school? Love myself, focus on myself, have confidence in myself.

What is the class of 2018 network? A place where members of the class of 2018 (students graduating high school/secondary education in 2018) can develop their interests and passion with support, meet new people that will motivate them, encourage others and find drive to accomplish their goals, as well as become part of a group consisting of individuals around the same age that are passionate about their education. We aim to build a tight-knit international group of those graduating high school in 2018 that people will proud to be a part of.

What is the class of 2018 website? The website we created offers many features, such as forums, chats (sorted by major, country, or interests), as well as a study buddy system for people more comfortable with one-on-one communication. Additionally, you can find resources in the fields of languages, education, standardized testing, etc.

hi everyone !!!! i’m a rising freshman at college/uni and thinking back on the college apps process i realized that i learned a lot that i would like to share !! i was successful with my college apps so im hoping i can give good advice✨

want to see more of this series? click here for the rest of the posts !!

organizing ur schools

alright so now u know what you want in a school and have some schools on ur list time to organize them !

the super prepared way this was uhh not at all me but if you are some one who likes to be organized here are some things you can do !

spreadsheets - this is the most common way i’ve seen! using excel or google docs allows you to have all ur schools in one place and it allows you to compare the different factors that youve identified as most or least important. additionally, it is useful to easily see which schools are closer to you stat-wise through the various methods of color coding that excel has

@appsademia has an excel sheet here that you can use

@thestudyaesthetic has another spreadsheet idea here

@science-is-golden has a college application checklist that’s super clean and organized - a good resource for organizing the important info for your applications (such as deadlines, acceptance rate, and other requirements) (original post) 

good ol’ notebooks - super easy way to store key info about colleges and that way u can basically pick any kind of layout that fits your needs. get a new notebook and make a section for each school you’ve considered with all the key factors (dont forget to include deadlines !) also a good resource to make more of a timeline rather than just info

printables - similar to using a notebook, but layouts are already designed for you 

organizer from us news - also includes other sheets for campus tours and a general checklist

plain and simple printable from popdox on esty - includes information that might be overlooked (like what ap credits schools with accept)

less detailed organizer from seekingthesouth blog so it’s good if u just want to get to the point

@studenting has printables that include a sheet for organizing info, checklists, and writing supplements

the lazy student way if ur like me and didnt care enough to make fancy spreadsheets like the rest of your friends have no fear you can still be on top of everything! the number one thing to do is enter every college ur considering into ur common app (even if youre still not sure about a school and might delete it later). the common app dashboard will easily display the application deadlines, if supplements are required, how many letters of rec, etc. for all the schools. additionally, you can save schools on collegeboard which will allow for easy access of a school’s statistics. this is p much all i did and i didnt have problems keeping deadlines or other requirements straight

ranking your schools

now that you have your schools and you’ve gathered all the information about them, it’s time to make a list ranking your schools. this where you decide what schools could be right for you and what schools you should take off your list. while i didnt do this, i have seen many people rank the various factors for each school on a scale of one to ten and add up the points (make sure to include costs in this !!) you’ll want to view your schools critically and determine if you really want to attend a school or if you’re just applying due to external pressures (such as prestige or because your parents want you to). another factor that can help determine if you should apply to a school is a campus tour. on paper, a school might sound like it could be your dream school however you might completely hate it once you visit. the vibe a school gives off can be something that’s hard to describe but it is an important influence in deciding what is right for you - i will cover campus tours more in-depth in my next post

determining safety/match/reach schools

a super important step in ur college application journey !!! you need to make sure that you have a balance of schools (or hope that u dont fall in love with any reach schools lol) to ensure that you’ll end up at a school that you will be happy and successful in

safety - these are schools that you have confidence in and are almost certain that you will get into. your safety schools should have acceptance rates >60% and generally your stats (gpa/test scores) should be better than than the average stats of accepted students. your safety school should also include price !! if you cant afford it then its not a safety school since u might get into a reach school and then realize you cant attend to due cost. this is also super important but make sure you actually like your safety school. i cannot stress this enough too many times have i seen people apply to schools that they dont care about just so they have a safety school. while it doesnt need to be your number one choice, you never know what will happen in the admissions process and it /could/ end up as your only choice so make it a good one !!

match - these are schools that fall right in the middle. match schools have acceptance rates between 40%-60% and your stats should fall in line with the average stats, but they still could be slightly less.

reach - these are the schools w/ crapshoot admissions. doesn’t matter what your stats are, it’s always going to be up in the air if you have a chance a getting in or not. these schools have acceptance rates >40% and they could have stats where u match with the average stats or the average stats could be higher than yours. this category also includes schools that are out of your price range

lots of people wonder what the right number of schools to have is and tbh there is no real answer to this? you should definitely have at least one safety though !! and in general, you really shouldn’t have 10+ schools. i know i cant stop you or tell you what to do but if you have that many, then you probably haven’t put a lot of research into your schools and have found the ones that will be the best fit for you (i personally applied to 5 schools). additionally, application costs can be $70 and several schools have extra essays so that’s a lot of extra effort and money that you do not need to spend.

How many schools are you applying to? I’m applying to about 12 regularly, and doing onsites through my school!

what’s a school that you love but won’t be applying to and why?I absolutely loved UCLA, but it’s too far from me (I live in New York) so I took it off  

What is a school you considered but is no longer on your list and why? I took Villanova off my list because I decided I had enough safeties and didn't need another one.

The biggest advice you’d give your high school freshman self? Care more.

biggest fear about college apps? Well there was a typo in my Boston college application so what can get worse than that.

What are your top 3 schools? Brown, Cornell and Boston University

what are 2 majors that sound interesting to you? I’m an environmental major and I love looking into it so much I’m so excited to get it started. My back up major is environmental engineering!

what’s your biggest high school accomplishment? [ personal, academic etc ] I was recently nominated for a huge scholarship that only 9 people get nominated for a year

If you could create your ideal college, what three features would it have?A beautiful old looking campus, urban environment and large community

Describe the ideal student at your future college in three words or phrases: intelligent, curious and friendly

What is a subject/ skill you’d like to study in college that has nothing to do with your field? photography!

Small, large or medium sized college? large

One thing your gonna miss about your home/ hometown: the people

Three things you’d like to improve about yourself in college: more social, healthier habits and more active

If you could tell your dream school one random thing or a fact about you, what would you say? I am committed to always working as hard as possible, I never stop.