Getting waitlisted or deferred from your dream school is hard. We know it’s hard! You feel rejected, but it’s this weird non-rejection rejection that can leave you feeling lost and confused. And while a lot of things in college admissions are totally out of your control, there is something you can do if you’ve been waitlisted or deferred to give yourself another chance. A letter of continued interest, sometimes known as a waitlist letter or deferral letter, is one of the few, actionable things you can control when admissions decisions seem so out of your control. It’s your only chance to make a good second impression, and we help students write them every single year.
Getting waitlisted is the ultimate limbo – it’s not not a rejection, but it’s not a full-on denial, either. And depending on your circumstances, you could be feeling everything from mild disappointment to full-on panic. Don’t get yourself into a tizzy just yet, because there are things you can do to give yourself a shot at getting off the waitlist and make sure that you have a plan in place for the next year.
Hey, look, sometimes ED doesn’t work out the way we want it to, and we have to change strategies. If you just got rejected or deferred from your ED/EA option, we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Early Decision 2. ED2 is just as binding as ED, and it signals to the school that you are serious about attending that school, and guess what? Schools like when you’re serious about them.
Why do you want to go to school here? If there’s one prompt you are certain to write more than once, it’s this one. This prompt comes in a few different flavors, but at the end of the day, they all want to know why their school is the perfect school for you and why you’re the perfect student for them. No pressure or anything.
We’ve spent the last few weeks breaking down the Common App essay prompt by prompt, and today we’re going to give you our ultimate guide to writing the Common App essay. There might be seven different prompts, but ultimately, all schools want the same thing from their applicants’ Common App essays: a story.
For the last 18 or-so years, you have done it all. You were there for their first steps, their training wheels, even their car wheels, and now, you want to see them all the way through before they fly the nest. What is the best way for you to manage this next step in the process?
DON’T GET INVOLVED. Hire someone.
Think of the supplement to the Common App as a fun way to tell a story in 500 words, 50 words, more or even less. Some schools don’t actually require a supplement. Many universities require some version of a “Why do you want to attend X school?” supplement. Cornell is no different. Here are a few tips on acing the Cornell supplement:
Let us begin with a story.
One of our writers has an older sister who was captain of the high school basketball team. Her sister was a natural power forward with nimble feet. Our writer was, well, better-suited for writing. As she entered high school, she thought being on the team with her sister looked like a lot of fun, so even though she had no idea what a layup was until the first practice, she joined. She subsequently developed the nickname “Bench” because that’s where she sat for most of the season.
Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, CO. The undergraduate population is comprised of about 2,100 students. One of the most unique things about Colorado College is the Block scheduling system. Instead of the typical college schedule where you take 3-5 courses per semester or quarter, you take 1 class at a time. You attend class every day M-F from 9am-12pm for 3.5 weeks. Students then have a long weekend and begin a new class the next Monday. This repeats 4x per semester, and there are two semesters per year. We break down their supplement below:
For many a college-aspirer, the application process can seem like an impassable mountain of paperwork. In the face of juggling both college essays and schoolwork the urge to hide under the covers can be real. Sorry, but that digital stack of to-dos isn’t going anywhere. Fear not, though, applicants, there is an end in sight and just on the other side of it is a beautiful college welcome week waiting to greet you.
Conclusions. Whether it’s the end of a movie, the end of a music video, or the end of your genius and spectacular college essay, they’re pretty important. Imagine cutting the last five minutes out of your favorite movie. Not the credits, but the last five minutes of the actual movie. You’d lose action, resolution, and so much more. We’ve said a lot about what you should (and shouldn’t) talk about in your essays and supplements, but here we’re going to talk about one of the most important pieces of the written components of your applications. You guessed it, the conclusions.
Harvard is fancy. If you didn’t know that already...well, that’s mildly (read deeply) concerning. Their admissions rate is one of the lowest in the world at just above 5% and they are notoriously finicky. If you want to get into Harvard, you have to be at the very very top in everything you do. You should have top grades, top scores, be a leader in your school and in your broader community, and (and this is where most people trip up) you need to have something interesting to say about all of that. You can’t be a damp rag when it comes to talking about yourself and sharing your work because the admissions officials are looking for just about any reason to toss an application.
It’s that time of year again! The weather is cooling down, back-to-school sales are in full swing, and it’s time to really evaluate where you are in your college application process. You’re going to be back in school pretty soon, so there’s never going to be a better time than now. Let’s talk college lists!
The alumni interview is something that some, not all, schools offer. It’s a topic that we get a lot of questions on, from how to coordinate your interview and what to say to what to wear. Regardless of how much you’ve prepared for any individual school interview, though, it’s worth discussing. But how important is it, really?
Sometimes you just don’t want to have to mess around with supplements. We get it. If you’re applying to a specialized arts program, an honors program, or for certain scholarships, you probably won’t have a choice since supplements or portfolios are nearly universally mandatory. But if you’re applying for general admission it is quite possible to craft a college list completely devoid of supplements. Not just without optional supplements, because those aren’t really optional, but free of any supplemental essays at all.
Deciding what to write about for your college essay isn’t always easy. You want to stand out, but you don’t want to come off as totally off-the-wall crazy. You want to do something unique, but you know that writing your essay backward, in a spiral, in colored pencil is a terrible idea (if you were thinking of doing this, don’t, it’s a terrible idea). Within the mountain of grades and scores, your essay is the place where you get to be yourself and to reveal something about yourself that a college wouldn’t otherwise see, but it can be hard to know what to reveal, and how much.
For most students, the college essay is the first time in high school when they are instructed to write about themselves. High school is full of writing. There are history papers, book reports, science lab summaries, and news items for the school newspaper, but, unless your school offers a creative writing program, there often isn’t a time when you’re handed a blank slate and asked to lay a part of yourself bare. Vulnerability isn’t something you can just switch on, good personal writing doesn’t come automatically, and writing about yourself can be very uncomfortable.
A lot of the time, the college admissions process can feel like trying to navigate a maze without a map. Or, when you do have a map, it’s in another language and torn into 100 pieces. There is so much information out there and there are so many who people say they are admissions experts that it can be hard to comb the good information out of the tangles of the internet.
Harvey Mudd is an amazing college. It’s small, with under 900 undergraduates, and located in Claremont, CA. Its primary focuses are math, science, and engineering, but it’s a liberal arts school with strong humanities departments as well. Their supplements require thought and storytelling. We break it down below:
A student gets 2100 on the old SAT and gets into Harvard. No, this is not the start to a bad joke. Despite falling into the 25th percentile for Harvard’s class of 2020, a place that you really don’t want to be if you’re looking to get in, she got in. Not only did she get into Harvard, though. She got into all six of the Ivies she applied to. If you’re scratching your head, that’s understandable, but we’re here to tell you the not-so-secret secret to getting into an Ivy League school with average grades: a killer essay.
Ah! The Ivy League! There are thousands of colleges and universities in the United States, hundreds of which are highly respected, and dozens of which are completely outstanding. And yet, there are eight schools that capture the imagination more than almost any others - the Ivy League. Just the fact that you can refer them as a singular unit says something. There are children who are raised from birth to go to an Ivy League school, but wanting to get into one of the top (and most popular) schools in the country isn’t enough to get you that acceptance letter. You also actually have to be qualified.
So you invested so much energy studying for the math section of the ACT that your Reading score went down, huh? If only you could be evaluated based on your Reading score from the first time you took the ACT AND the math score you just got on your most recent ACT. You can. No worries. Super score to the rescue. As a reminder, Super Scoring is the process of taking the highest scores from multiple SAT or ACT tests. Brush up on your knowledge and familiarize yourself with what it is. It's a great offering that many colleges have during the application process that maximizes your profile. That said, Super Scoring isn't something that every college does.
Arts supplements are optional portfolios that schools allow students to submit in addition to their regular academic application. It’s a great chance to display and share your interest in and contribution to your creative medium of choice, and we encourage students to submit one if appropriate. Your interest in the field should be notable and you should have the time commitment and talent to show for it. So, you’ve reviewed if the arts portfolio is for you, and you’ve determined it is. Now, how do you do it?