UPenn is looking for a lot when it comes to admissions. They want to see students who can do it all inside and out of class. So yes, while grades and scores are paramount, Penn really cares about your extracurriculars. With a sub-6% acceptance rate, they can afford to be picky. In fact, they have to be picky.
Political science is, of course, the study of the science of politics, but not science like the biology kind. Instead, students in political science programs study the way governments, public policy, and the political world in general work from both a technical perspective and a more humanities-minded perspective. Students who major in political science often go on to work in policy analysis, for government agencies, as political consultants, and basically any field that interfaces with politics or government in any way.
You have a 4.3 and 1590 on the SAT. You might be asking yourself, can I get into Brown? We hear this question all the time and the answer is… maybe? Having great grades and scores is only the first step for elite colleges like Brown. You need more than that. One of the most important things you will need is great extracurriculars
In the United States, roughly 70,000 students annually graduate with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Only one-tenth of that, about 7,000 students, graduate with degrees in philosophy. Philosophy, or at least some form of it, is one of the original university programs dating back to the very origins of universities as we know them today. Universities were fundamentally guilds of scholars and teachers, and philosophers made up a sizable chunk of that. Compared to its origins, philosophy today is a tiny fraction of the university ecosystem.
If you’re a language person, you’re a language person. Some people aren’t language people, but those who enjoy learning languages, and who thrive in other cultures, should consider majoring in a foreign language in college. Mastery of a foreign language can lead to jobs in policy, in government, in education, in journalism, and even internationally.
So Yale is your dream school, but will you get in? A lot of our students are very nervous about their chances at schools like Yale. And we get why: it takes more than great grades and scores to get into Yale. If you are dreaming of Yale, you also need to have great extracurriculars. It isn’t always obvious what that might look like, so we wanted to break it down and give a real example of what the kind of student that gets into Yale looks like.
With climate change becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, studying environmental science in college has never been more popular among students who want to make a difference in the world. If you’re interested in becoming the next great environmental scientist, or even saving us from global warming, you’ll need to think carefully about how you present yourself in your college applications.
Art history is, unsurprisingly, the study of the history of art. It’s also a popular college major offered by nearly every university. Despite the popularity of art history at the collegiate level, very few high school students have access to studying art history beyond a course or two (if that, even) in high school. This leaves students in a tough position — how do you differentiate yourself from other applicants when there won’t be much on your transcript to show your interest in art history?
An increasing number of students we work with are even interested in majoring in business in college. It’s been a steep enough uptick that it’s impossible to ignore. Once upon a time, students interested in STEM wanted to go on to get a secure job at a big company. These days, that’s simply not the goal. Young people would rather work harder days and longer hours — but for themselves. And to give themselves the best chance of succeeding they know they need to understand the mechanics, economics, and even the psychology, of business.
You’ve probably heard about college students getting internships, but did you know that high school students can too? Internships provide you with exposure to a field of work, and give you access to people who want to help teach you. Jobs do both of these things too, obviously, but high schoolers typically can’t access a job where they will spend significant amounts of time, learning from and shadowing alongside experienced people in a field you may be interested in studying in college or pursuing professionally. This is what internships can provide, and this is why we encourage them.
If you’re thinking of becoming a teacher, writer, journalist, academic, or researcher, or even just love reading, you may be considering majoring in English in college. Since you’ve been taking English classes since practically your first day of school, you may be thinking you don’t have to do much to make yourself look like a strong applicant. Get good grades, take additional classes, and read an extra book or two — right? Well, we wish it was that simple. The ubiquity of English courses is actually what makes standing out as a prospective English major quite difficult. Everyone is studying nearly the same topics and reading nearly the same books, so it’s hard to colleges to differentiate you from anyone else unless you do something to stand out beyond the confines of your in-school curriculum.
Anthropology is the study of cultures and customs in context, and anthropologists have helped us gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, those around us, and those who came way before us. Archaeology is, after all, a subset of anthropology! So, whether you are curious about ancient cultures or one not too far from you, a major in anthropology may be a great fit. Before you press submit on your application, though, there are some things you should do to make yourself stand out.
We often hear “My kid has a 4.0, can they get into MIT?” It’s not an easy question to answer, mostly because it’s not the right question to ask. Yes, having perfect grades is the absolute floor if you want to get into MIT, but it’s far from the only thing you need. So when we hear this question, we usually have to respond with a question, “What do their extracurriculars look like?”
History is one of the most popular humanities majors at American colleges and universities, and many colleges have subcategories under the ‘history’ umbrella focused on specific regions, cultures, countries, or communities. If you’re thinking about studying history in college, it’s important to go into the application knowing that it can be tough to stand out as a prospective student even if you have exceptional grades. Because there aren’t a ton of extracurriculars specific to potential history majors, and more high schools don’t offer a wide array of options for history electives, making a splash with your application takes some strategy.
Fun Fact: English is one of the most popular humanities majors for students to list when applying to college. It has also been the default major for students who don’t know what they want to study, aren’t STEM-y, and don’t want to click “undecided” (which, by the way, is something you should never do). So, there are a lot of people selecting it and, if you truly do want to study English, it is important that you make yourself stand out from the pack. Here are some things that you can do before writing your application and in your application itself to ensure your application makes a serious impact.
Economics is a social science that brings together political science, statistics, sociology, mathematics, engineering, psychology, history, and more — basically everything — within the overarching umbrella of money markets and value creation (or destruction, depending on the circumstance). While it is a social science, economics has some major quantitative components that mean it’s nearly as much a STEM field as a humanities field.
Given that you’re reading this post, we’re going to assume that you are thinking of transferring colleges. While transferring to a different college isn’t a ‘big deal’ — it’s fairly common and we help many students navigate the process — orchestrating a ‘successful’ transfer does require significant planning. We should also explain what we mean by ‘successful.’ Most of the students we work with want to transfer to a college that they either didn’t get into when they applied to colleges as a high school senior, or that didn’t even seem like a possibility, so they hadn’t tried to apply. This means that they need to be a better applicant than they were as few as 10 months earlier. And a least three of those months were summer break. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to improve your application, so this whole process takes some strategy if you want the best possible outcomes.
If you love studying and speaking a language that isn’t English, you may want to consider majoring in a foreign language in college. Majoring in a foreign language sets you up to serve the community that speaks the language globally, whether through teaching, non-profits, the private sector, government work, or even literary translation. It’s especially useful if you aspire to live and work in a foreign country. And you can major in a foreign language in college even if you are already fluent in it!
“I am only a 9th grader, are you sure I should be thinking about college? Seems premature.” It’s not. The college application process starts the moment you start freshman year. Every year of college matters on your application, plus the earlier you start building your niche, the deeper and more involved you can get. Starting to build out your extracurricular profile in your interest area as a freshman could be the thing that pushes you into admission at schools like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Environmental Science is becoming the sleeper hit among our clients. There seems to be no other issue that unites Gen Z more than our planet. Oceans, rivers, lakes, plains, and the status of our kids’ own backyards has dominated our client calls for months. It’s also becoming a wildly popular major across top colleges, with many creating in-depth programs aimed at alleviating climate change.