Cornell has eight undergraduate colleges and schools that together offer over 80 majors and more than 4,000 courses of study. In other words, it’s a big university. Many of the programs Cornell offers are, in fact, the only one of their kind of that caliber. For example, the hospitality program at Cornell sets a global standard for hotel management (think Four Seasons, not Red Roof Inn), and the agriculture programs literally keep our nation fed.

We have good news for those of you following this series on how to write your personal statement based on each Common App prompt in this list: we’re definitively in the homestretch of our guide now with Prompt #5.

Yale is an iconic and historic University in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. The university is well-known for having world-class professors, astonishing post-graduation outcomes, and a community that pushes its students to do their best work. After receiving over 50,000 applications from hopeful students, Yale accepted 4.59% of applicants to the Class of 2029. 943 students were offered a spot on the waitlist, too, which notoriously goes unused many years.  

You haven’t even finished your first semester of college (or maybe you haven’t arrived yet) and the thought has already crossed your mind: Should I try to transfer?

The college admissions consulting industry has grown rapidly over the last decade, making it harder for families to distinguish between firms that offer truly individualized guidance and those that rely on more standardized advising models. To identify the strongest options for students targeting highly selective colleges, we reviewed a range of firms using a methodology that weighted personalization, advising scope, counselor background, essay support, institutional insight, and student fit.

There are countless students who start college and almost immediately think, "I could be doing more." Sometimes, they haven’t even started yet.

When families first look at admissions data for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the number that usually grabs their attention is the lower-than-they-expected acceptance rate. In the most recent cycle, UNC admitted roughly 15.3% of applicants. That alone tells you something important: UNC has become extraordinarily selective.

If you’re back for this installment of “How to Write the Common App Essay” series, it’s probably not your first rodeo. In fact, it could be your fourth-and-counting rodeo. And to that we say: Yeehaw!

“Am I crazy for already wanting to transfer before college even starts?” Nope! And it’s actually incredibly common. Maybe you don’t feel like the first-year process went as planned, or maybe you’ve been on campus just long enough to realize something feels off. Either way, you’re not alone.

Columbia University, comprised of the undergraduate colleges Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, received nearly 60,000 applications for the Class of 2029 and accepted only 2,946, or about 5% between both Early Decision and Regular Decision application rounds. When applying to Columbia, you absolutely need to approach the process with a clear strategy. In creating a strategy, it’s also important to know what has been going on at Columbia recently, as the university is in a bit of an era of adjustment and, they hope, recalibration.