Hey guys, I recently received admission into some top US schools and figured I would share my experiences and advice with y’all! I got into Dartmouth (which is where I will be attending), Duke, Cornell, Georgetown, UVA, UNC, and UConn. I was waitlisted by Yale, Amherst, and Northwestern. I’m the most unhooked person ever (white girl from Connecticut, both parents went to college but neither went to schools I applied to, school never sends kids to Ivies, never won a big award for anything) and I managed to figure out how to do pretty well for myself. Here’s what I have to say about each part of the college admissions process:
Testing:
I’m not a genius. I probably would’ve done moderately well on the SAT had I taken it with no preparation (I got a 201 on my PSAT sophomore year without studying, which is like a 2010). I didn’t get a tutor; I just bought Collegeboard’s SAT book and did every single practice test in the book. When I finished that, I bought ten more tests from the Collegeboard and did those as well. I found a few more Collegeboard tests online and did those. After taking approximately 25 full length SATs created by the Collegeboard, I scored a 2340 on the real test on the first time (790 CR, 770 M, 780 W). I did not retake.
Be careful about SAT Subject tests. I find that many people take both subject tests and the regular SAT “just for practice” their first time. Big no. Take practice tests for practice. Many schools require you to send all of your scores, so you want to do as well as possible. I took Physics and USH after preparing for the AP test (I did no extra preparation for these two, especially since there are few Collegeboard materials for SAT IIs) and got 760 and 770 respectively. I did not do well on my math 2 test my first time, and although I took it again in October of senior year and improved I did not reach the score that I wanted. It wasn’t as relevant because I did well on two other subject tests, but I didn’t even bother applying to any programs that required the math 2 test.
Don’t sweat the AP tests too much. I took one sophomore year (Spanish), which was a terrible idea. I got an “uno.” I did not report. In junior year, I got 5s in USH and English Language and a 4 in Physics B. Although I took as many tests as my school offered, only reporting the scores of three out of four tests probably looked kind of pathetic. It didn’t hurt me much in the long run though, so if you are like me and had a hard time with one test, don’t worry about it endlessly.
Grades:
I took the hardest course load possible at my school and got A’s. Grades are honestly the most important part of college admissions in the sense that they’re kind of a baseline. I got a couple of B’s freshman year but an upward trajectory throughout high school is looked almost as highly upon as consistently doing well.
School:
I initially went to a large, highly competitive public school and then transferred to a small, non-competitive parochial school. Both have their distinct advantages with college admissions. Competitive high schools have many clubs, tend to have lots of opportunities for students to receive big awards (like science research classes, connections to certain groups, etc), lots of resources for testing, and tend to be well-known by competitive colleges. On the other hand, I managed to make my school work for me. I’m the first student this decade from my school to get into an Ivy League. There tends to be a lot less competition, which helps with class rank. Although there are fewer clubs, it tends to be easier to get leadership positions in the existing clubs. If you have an outstanding SAT score, you will stand out from similar applicants with high scores that come from feeder schools. Take advantage of the opportunities that your school presents, no matter what they may be.
Extracurriculars:
Within my school, I tried as soon as possible to get involved in clubs that seemed to be kind of related. I transferred into my school sophomore year (and did not participate in any clubs freshman year) and immediately joined the newspaper, debate team, and created a political science club. I positioned myself to be the editor/captain/president of each of these organizations by junior year. Honestly, I feel as though it’s best to do a solid number of things that aren’t a huge time commitment unless you’re a star in something else. Activities like theater and athletics take up so much time and could prevent someone from joining and being a leader in clubs that can fill up that common application. Unless you’re the star of the show every time or are looking to be recruited for your sport, you might want to think about focusing your time on activities that could look better qualitatively and quantitatively (and often take up a lot less time in general- three clubs that have an hour-long meeting each week is three hours of your time).
Hooks:
Contrary to popular belief, it is possible, to some extent, to create your own hooks. Think about all of the stereotypes that apply to your gender/race/region/whatever and try to defy them as much as you possibly can. As a girl, I decided that applying as a STEM major could potentially benefit me in admissions. Therefore, I applied as a CS major. I did a summer program called Girls Who Code (look into it if you live in or near a major city!) that, well, taught girls how to code. Not only did I have an awesome time and learn to love coding, but I actually had something to back up the major I was applying for.
Essays:
The best advice I can give here is that it’s often better to save the basic essay for the supplement. We all have that one thing that we think defines our application: for me it was Girls Who Code, for someone else it could be volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. It’s usually very easy to craft that experience or quality into the typical supplement essay (usually about a challenge you overcame, why you want to go to that school, what your goals are, what you did over the summer, an experience that defined you). If you used that topic already for the common app, you’re going to end up being super redundant and you will have wasted your common app. For the common app, the best thing you can do is try to be as likable as possible. Try to sound like a real human; that’s something you might find hard to do throughout the rest of the college application, so it’s normally your one chance to appear to be more than just an overworked hero. I personally love the failure essay because it’s quite humanizing and tends to allow you to show off in a humble manner. I told a funny story about how I executed a lane change terribly while learning how to drive, nearly killing myself and my mother, and included an uplifting ending about how I became determined to succeed. I saved my Girls Who Code experience for the supplements.
Work and volunteering:
I think that having a job, no matter who you are, is something that looks awesome on a college application. I’ve worked once a week at a local library for four years. The commitment tends to show responsibility and work ethic (and I managed to save up a good amount of money as well, which is always nice). The good thing about volunteering is that it is both a good thing to do in general and there is such a huge range of opportunities. This means that you can find anything to help you back up the way in which you try packaging yourself to a college. Because my angle tended to be a CS major interested in using programming to solve political and debate issues, I volunteered at a different library as a technology assistant and created a program that taught middle school students how to debate. It’s extremely easy to create and participate in programs that give you some sort of recognizable identity and it is honestly a lot of fun for the most part.
Hope this is helpful to someone!