Caroline Koppelman
Why This College Essay Question Guide and ...

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.

Caroline Koppelman
Official Common App Essay Guide 2024-2025

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.

Caroline Koppelman
Rejected Early Decision from Columbia 2023

Getting a rejection in the Early Decision round is definitely not easy. But the good news is, it’s really just the start, and that one rejection has no bearing on how you’re going to do with other, similarly competitive schools. The thing about Early Decision is it comes alone and it comes first. It’s sometimes easier to tolerate a rejection when it’s preceded by several acceptance letters. College admissions are extraordinarily competitive these days and the Ivies are just more competitive than any other time or place in history. That’s it. It doesn’t get harder. And Columbia in particular has just a 4% acceptance rate! So, if you’ve been rejected in the Early Decision round, don’t despair. We have some advice about how you might go forward. (And don’t worry, it’s really not that much more work!)

Caroline Koppelman
Deferred by Harvard — Now What? (2023-24)

If you’ve been deferred by Harvard, you are not alone. Harvard is notorious at this point for deferring an enormous percentage of early admission applicants. While most elite colleges with early admissions programs, like early decision and early action, only defer students they are seriously considering for the next freshman class, the statistics Harvard has released on early admission suggest that they take a very different approach.

Caroline Koppelman
Writing the “Why This College” Essay

Even though every college has slightly different supplementary application materials, you’ll likely run into a variation of one question more than any other: “Why do you want to attend this school in particular?” It’s every institution’s way of saying, Let’s cut to the chase. Why us?

UC schools

How to Get into UC Berkeley

University of California Berkeley, often just called Cal or Berkeley, is a public university in (you guessed it) Berkeley, California. It is the founding campus of the UC schools, the state’s nine-school university system. The school is famous for research, and in 2021, the funding for research and development exceeded $1 billion. Cal is also a large university with over 30k undergraduates across five undergraduate schools (The College of Letters and Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Environmental Design, Natural Resources, and the Haas School of Business). Some schools are more competitive than others, and some majors have strict enrollment caps, so it pays to do your research into the school and program you hope to attend.

How to Write the University of California (UC) System Supplement 2024-2025

The University of California system is a collection of some of the most sought-after universities in the country — all of which are state universities in California…but hopefully that last bit is obvious. The perks of the UC system for in-state students are real. You got in-state tuition, and the acceptance rates are much higher than for students applying from outside California. These schools are so popular, that tens of thousands of out-of-state students vie for a small percentage of spots, causing the acceptance rates overall to plummet. The nine UC schools are Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, UCLA, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, and the acceptance rates overall range from 83% (UC Merced) to less than 12% (UC Berkeley).

How to Get into UCLA

The University of California Los Angeles, usually just called UCLA, is a public university in LA’s Westwood neighborhood. UCLA is one of nine undergraduate schools in the popular University of California system. UCLA has six undergraduate schools and Arts and Architecture, Engineering and Applied Science, Music, Nursing, Public Affairs, and Theater, Film and Television (and over 120 majors!) They are especially celebrated for their School of Theater, Film, and Television (TFT). Come on, it is LA, but they also have popular majors in biology, business economics, political science, psychology, and psychobiology.

Summer Strategy Ideas for UCLA

UCLA, or the University of California, Los Angeles, offers a big school experience in a big city. It’s sort of like ‘maximum’ college. UCLA is prestigious, it’s fun, it’s creative, it’s community focused, and it’s academically intense. It’s everything, and that’s why students love it. There are over 33,000 undergraduates at UCLA, and nearly 50,000 total students. The student body represents over 100 countries, and over 9% of students are international — one of the highest ratios of international students in the country. Students in the undergraduate colleges are able to pick from over 125 majors, and over 90 minors, and many mix and match subjects and arenas. People who love to explore, to challenge themselves, and to collaborate with others thrive at UCLA. Two out of three classes have less than 30 students.

Applying to the University of California (UC) System as an International Student

The University of California undergraduate programs cover dozens of academic majors, hundreds of degree programs, and nine distinct universities scattered around California — a state in the United States that is larger than Vietnam, the U.K., and France (although not combined).  Some of these campuses are predominantly popular among California-based students and fairly accessible for those outside of the state, while others are globally-recognized as top-tier universities and are very hard to get into.

How to Write the University of California Supplement 2023-2024

The University of California is more than Berkeley or UCLA (although those are two of the most popular colleges among our clients). The UC system is made up of nine different colleges (UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, and UC Merced), all with varying acceptance rates, admissions requirements, campus ~vibes~, and class sizes. While the UC system isn’t on the Common App (boo!) they do have a pretty cool portal that allows you to apply to all nine, with the same essays for each, with a simple click. Well, technically nine clicks (gotta check off all the boxes).

UC Schools Legacy Strategy

Maybe your legacy student is dreaming of going to Haas, a UCLA cluster, or even Film School at Santa Cruz. You might be wondering, “will my alumni status help them get into a UC?” It's a question we hear from parents all the time, especially when it comes to UC Berkeley and Los Angeles. So we wanted to break down what legacy means (and doesn’t mean) when applying to top UC schools.

How to Write the UC Application 2022-2023

So you are applying to one (or more) of the 9 UCs? Let’s talk about it. For those out of the loop, the UCs or the Universities of California include 9 campuses across the Golden State. The campuses include Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Riverside, Merced, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Davis. While the schools range when it comes to size, programs, acceptance rates, etc they all share the same application. Students choose which of the campuses they want to apply to by checking a box on the application and paying separate application fees for each campus. TLDR: applying to one is as easy as applying to all 9, however much cheaper.

UC Berkeley Legacy Guide

It isn’t uncommon in Northern California to see a child dressed up head to toe in UC Berkeley merch. These kids often go on to dream of going to Cal just like their parents did. We work with a lot of these kids and we always get questions from their parents about if their legacy status will help them get in. We have been doing a series on the ins and outs of legacy status at top schools and wanted to dive into what UC Berkeley says about legacy status and what that can mean for your applicant.