This post includes tips for both writing transfer essays and the intense prep work it requires to transfer. We’ve written a lot about the transferring process, and it’s important to keep in mind that transferring isn’t as easy as most people think. And you need a better reason than simply wanting to trade up. But if you’re reading this, you might already have your reasons for wanting to transfer. If you’re unsure but want more information and/or validation, read our “Should I Transfer” post.
What to do if You’re Deferred Early Decision
If you’re reading this, you’re in a frustrating boat. It’s fair to feel confused, angry, annoyed, whatever. For a lot of students, deferral can be more confusing than straight-up rejection, because the definition of deferral means that the college’s decision has been pushed off to a later date. Then it can be hard not to feel like you’re being dragged along and, likewise, don’t know how to feel or what decision to make next. We’ve created this post to offer a few simple guidelines about how to proceed once you’ve heard back from your first choice ED school that you’ve been deferred.
How to Address College Professors Over Email When Applying to College
There are several reasons you may need to email a professor or other instructor at a college or university you are considering applying to. The most common reason potential applicants need to email a professor is to request a class visit. Other reasons include having a question about a department, desiring more information about an academic program, or following up after meeting them during a visit, event, or through another connection.
How To Fill Out The Activities Section of the Common App:
We get a fair amount of questions about the activities section of the common app. Our first piece of advice is to start a running log (on a google document and a saved word file) of all of your extracurricular activities starting freshman year. If you’re reading this as a junior and missed the boat, it’s not too late. Think back and type out everything that you’ve done in order. This will be especially helpful when you start writing a resume.
How Many Colleges Should I Apply to?
It’s no secret that acceptance rates at competitive colleges are decreasing every year. And when colleges put out articles detailing their stats for their incoming class, they ensure that the takeaway is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get in, but YOU can probably get in so you should apply. More applicants than ever! Students from all over the globe!
Tips for Editing Your Common App Essay
Have you been working on your Common App essay for weeks or months now? Are you feeling stuck, like you’ve written everything you’ve wanted to say but there’s no way to wrap it all up, or are you freaking out because it’s 1000 words and you need to get it down to 650? Whatever boat you’re in, don’t fear. Below you’ll find our basic guide to helping you out of a writing and editing rut so that you can finish your essay and send it off feeling confident it is polished and finally done.
What do I do if I’m Rejected ED?
If you’re reading this in the fall, before you’ve heard back from your ED/EA school:
This is a great place to be in. It’s not too late for anything. Start your other supplements today and put just as much work into them as you have into your ED/EA school. Work equally on the array of schools on your list––safeties, targets, and reaches. To find guidance about how to write the supplements for your schools, poke around the blog. We have dozens of detailed blog posts for supplements (like this one, this one, or this one).
The Additional Information Section of the Common App
Based on conversations that we’ve had with our clients and email submissions from our blog readers, there seems to be some confusion about the intended use of the additional information section on the common app website. Let us start by saying that this blog post will give you guidelines as to what should and should not be included in this section, but we don’t know your life. You should use your best judgment, but before you start writing make sure you’re not just capitalizing on the extra space because you ran out of words elsewhere.
Should I Apply Early Action or Regular Decision to a Reach School
Early Action is an application option offered by some colleges and universities. Early Action (EA) application means that you apply early, typically on or around the Early Decision deadline in early November. You then receive a response of acceptance, rejection, or deferral in December. If you are deferred, your application will be considered during the Regular Decision cycle. If you are rejected, you cannot submit another application Regular Decision. You can apply EA even if you are applying Early Decision to another institution.
Should I Apply To Stanford Restrictive Early Action?
SAT 2 Subject Test Requirements Ivy League & More 2019-2020
Book Recommendations for International Relations / Business majors
What Are My Chances at the Ivy’s?
As we’ve stated before, we do our best to answer the emails we receive from our readers. Recently, we wrote a blog post titled “Which Ivy League Should I Go To?” and in that post we kindly requested that our readers stop asking both that question, and variants of it. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you should know that we do not subscribe to the theory that everyone needs to go to an Ivy League school.
Do Colleges Look at Your Social Media?
Whether or not the colleges you apply to should look at your social media has recently become a heavily discussed topic. As that debate rages on, we wanted to find out whether or not they actually do look at it. So, we called colleges. A lot of them. And the general consensus turned out to be quite logical and uncomplicated.
How Do I Choose a Major For My College Applications?
Choosing a major to write about in your college applications is important, but we’ll get to that in a moment. What’s way more important to understand is that it’s completely, totally, absolutely normal to not know what you want to do with the rest of your life. At 17 or 18, it’s rare to have everything figured out. It’s rare to have everything figured out, ever. You might have goals and ideas, and those goals and ideas might change more than once. That’s fine, too. Most of the students we work with panic when they tell them they have to choose a major before writing their supplement, so you’re not alone if trying to choose yours is causing you stress. We understand how scary it sounds, but it’s an effective application strategy and there are multiple reasons why:
Which Extracurricular Activities Should I Do?
We get this question a lot, and there is no one size fits all answer here. We understand that at its core, what this question really asks is how students can best position themselves to get into college. The truth is that there is no one club that sends your application straight to the accepted pile.
Which Ivy League School Should I Go To?
Subject: College choice
Message: Hi! I’ve read your website and it seems like you’ve helped a ton of people get direction on their university choice. I was wondering if you could help me out too? I really have no idea where I want to go and I’m in my senior year of high school. I want to get into one of the Ivy’s but I don’t know particularly why or which one.
When Should I Start The Common App?
It’s about that time of year when we start fielding questions about timelines, essay topics, and the Common App. It’s also the time of year when students find every excuse in the book not to keep things moving regarding the college process. The dreaded task of studying for finals might even seem more appealing than creating your Common App account, or perhaps you’ve deemed rewatching every season of Game of Thrones more important than opening up the Common App homepage.
Getting Into an Ivy League School with C’s?
Recently we got this email:
Subject: Getting into ivy league with C's??
Message: Hi, I am currently a junior in high school and I was never really interested in studies and getting into good colleges back when I started 9th grade. But now, I finally found the motivation but I feel like its too late. Is there anything I can do with the time I have to boost myself?
How To Get Into Stanford
Before you decide that you absolutely positively must attend Stanford, you need to get clear on why. “Because it’s Stanford!” is not a reason. While it’s impossible to characterize the entire school, we’ve spent years helping students apply (and get into) Stanford. Generally speaking, students who get into and thrive at Stanford have the following three qualities: