I’m an intl applicant (British) so I have no clue of how to apply to the Ivies. Could someone give me a run down please?
I am British, I study in the UK and was hoping to apply to Harvard and a few other schools. I would greatly appreciate a run-down of everything that has to be shown.
I don’t quite get how ECs (Extra-Curriculars) are shown? Is there an area where we list these on the application? Or are these embedded into an essay?
What are essays and are they essays about a topic or yourself? For instance in the UK, we have one personal statement which outlines a passion for a specific subject discipline.
Also, how important is the reference in application and how many do we have to have?
Start by going to their websites and clicking Apply.
The Ivy League comprises eight colleges that are all different. An applicant to Princeton might not like the atmosphere at Brown. You need to do some work and figure out what these schools are looking for. They will all tell you what they look for, but you have to go to their website first.
You also should read through everything at the EducationUSA website, and contact the counselors at the Advising Center closest to where you live. They are expert at helping international students through the college application process. https://educationusa.state.gov/find-advising-center?field_region_target_id=&field_country_target_id=225&field_center_level_value=All
Hello Both,
Thanks for your replies. Fortunately, I do know more now. How is the application set out? I.e what are essays?
Essays are just a writing task schools use so they can gauge your personality and how well you would fit in at their school.
Some schools post the writing prompts on their website but for the most part these prompts will be on the CommonApp or CoalitionApp, which is the website you’ll use to submit your application.
The essays are often times looked at just as critically, if not more critically than your stats (GPA & test scores). If your stats are weak, a strong essay might be enough to redeem you.
This statement is not true for highly selective schools like those in the Ivy League. For selective schools all parts of your application need to be excellent: grades, test scores, extracurriculars, essays, and letters of recommendation. One part being strong will not make up for a weakness in another area. The competition is just too strong.
How many essays do we write per university, please could you list them all (for Harvard for instance). What is the Common App Essay?
Thank you for your replies. I appreciate it
The common app is how you apply to colleges in the US. It requires an essay. There are a multiple prompts you you can choose.
There is no standard number of college specific essays. When you add the school to you common app, you then will have access to the school specific prompts. My D applied to 8 schools and wrote 19 essays. Some schools had no extra essays, others had 3 or more.
The common app goes live on August 1st but you should be able to access it now to familiarize yourself with it. The essay prompts have been released. Google “common app essay prompts 2020”.
Take the advice in replies 1 and 2.
Thanks for the reply,
Can we write unlimited essays, for instance for Harvard?
No you cannot write unlimited essays for Harvard or any other college. Again, you will need to refer to the application and individual school supplements.
Have you done any initial research on your own? I would start by looking at each college’s website and then go to the school’s admissions page.
Unlike the UCAS application where you apply to I think up to 5 school with one application, one fee and 1 essay, in the US the common application is more like a portal where you create an account and fill out general information about yourself, your school, classes, etc…to complete the application portion and it also has the common application essay prompts. The common app essay goes to every college you apply to with the common application (sort of like UCAS). In addition to the common app essay, each college may or may not have additional essays that are specifically required by that school. The additional essays are also submitted via the common app but only to that particular school. Additionally, each school charges their own application fee.
For example most ivies require the common app essay and 3-4 additional essays which are set by each school. So if you apply to all 8 ivies you would write 1 common app essay and between 24-32 individual essays.
I’d suggest creating a common application account so you get a sense of how it’s set up and the information you submit and the general format.
Hope that helps a bit.
Thanks a lot, yes that really helps - I understand now. So could I ask, I have searched everywhere, have the 2020-21 (class of 25) essay Qs been released yet?
The school specific essays will be released after August 1 as well. Just check the school websites and you should also be able to access them through your common app as you add the schools you’re interested in apply to in your account.
You can also google the essay prompts from last year if you want a sense of the types of questions they ask.
Also keep track of the different deadline dates: early decision (binding commitment if accepted by the school), single choice early action (not binding but can’t apply other places for early decision) and regular decision (no commitment until you choose to accept by May 1).
This was a thing which I needed to clarify. For the Ivy, I understand you can apply 1 early decision (ED) OR one restrictive early action. Therefore we cannot apply both. Is this it, or can we apply to Early admissions to all the Ivies or, if there are combinations that exist which enable you to apply 2 colleges for their ED/EA programmes
Take a look at the application information for each school to get the answer to your question about ED/EA.
https://admission.princeton.edu/how-apply/application-dates-deadlines/single-choice-early-action
You can google the rest!
So even as Princeton has its policy non-binding, I cant apply elsewhere EA/ED??
As the link in the prior post says, Princeton lets you apply EA to public schools or to schools outside the United States,. But you can’t apply EA to other private schools, or apply ED anywhere. So if you apply EA to Princeton, you could also apply EA to some U.S. state schools (e.g., University of Michigan) and some schools in your own country, but you can’t apply EA to both Princeton and Yale.
@BlueberrySauce This is a great question – we recently covered this topic in a College Confidential article, which you can find here:https://insights.collegeconfidential.com/international-student-applications
Thanks a lot, everything has been cleared up!