Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia. W&L has deep roots in the south, but also a mission towards the future. They are especially well-known for a distinctive academic calendar that includes two 12-week terms and one four-week spring term that is focused on immersive study through a single class, often off-campus or abroad. The acceptance rate is about 14%, and they heavily prioritize Early Decision applicants. Well over 50% of the Class of 2028 was admitted in the ED cycle. 

The University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia is a well-respected medium-sized university that is focused on undergraduate education. Just over 3,000 of the 3,700 students are undergraduates, and they have access to over 60 majors. Richmond prioritizes making learning personal, and the average class has only 16 students. No undergraduate courses are taught by teaching assistants, which is very common at large universities, and students represent over 70 countries. The overall acceptance rate for first-year applicants is about 22%. For international students, though, the acceptance rate is only about 8.5%, following a trend we see across the country of a much lower international acceptance rate than that for applicants from the United States.

Wake Forest is a strong small research university with 5,500 undergraduates in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They offer 49 majors, and are especially well known for cultivating thoughtful future leaders in the spirit of their motto: “Pro Humanitate” (For Humanity). The vast majority of classes — 99% — have fewer than 50 students, and the acceptance rate is about 22%. This makes Wake Forest a great ‘foundation’ school for high achieving students drawn to their close community and mission of purpose.

Bowdoin is an extremely popular, yet also profoundly niche, small liberal arts college in Maine. They are well-known for being an intellectual safe haven for brilliant students who think differently and want to change the world. To spark that change, they pair their close-knit Maine campus with exceptional international and off-site learning opportunities, from the Bowdoin Public Service in Washington program to semester and year-long programs in partnership with international universities. For decades, Bowdoin flew under the radar. They were known for super strong academics in an intimate — and isolated — learning community, but mostly attracted students in the Northeast. Then, the world caught on. Over the past 20 years, Bowdoin has skyrocketed in popularity. The acceptance rate is only 6.8%.  

Vanderbilt University is known for offering broad opportunities with focused attention on students. There are over 70 majors and programs students can pick from, and an impressive 7:1 student to faculty ratio. 7,200 undergraduates call campus home, and 13,500 students overall.  The rate of admission for students who submitted regular decision for the Class of 2029 was 3.3%. The early decision acceptance rate for the same year was 13.2%.

Cornell is well-known as the most practical of the elite Ivy League schools. Yes, they have all the usual humanities and liberal arts majors that one expects at a top-tier well-rounded university, but where Cornell truly stands out is in their specialized programs. Many of their programs are singular at the Ivy League level. Agriculture and hospitality, for one, but also many programs that are hard to find at such an exceptional level for undergraduate students, like architecture, public policy, labor relations, and human ecology. The overall acceptance rate is 8.4%, but we’ll break that down further where the data is available in this post.

Duke is a prestigious private research university with a stellar academic reputation and an iconic athletic tradition that makes being a student there, well, a ton of fun. Just over 6,500 undergraduate students call Duke home, and the overall student body is well over 17,000. The top five majors across all undergraduates are Computer Science, Economics, Biology, Public Policy, and Psychology. Based in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is popular with students across the United States and internationally, but especially students from NC, New York, Florida, California, and Texas. There are two undergraduate colleges, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Pratt School of Engineering. Our kids LOVE Duke, and we’re really good at getting them in. Most recently, the acceptance rate was 3.3%.

If you are a junior interested in an English major in college, first of all let us say that you are awesome. In an era that is heavy on the STEM fields, it isn’t common for students these days to want to pursue English at a top-tier school like an Ivy League or similarly competitive college. And yet, English majors are some of our faves. As an English major, you study literature and the written word, you learn how to write persuasively, how to break down anything you read analytically — and how to develop creative work.