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?

acceptance rates

Colgate University 2020-2021 Analysis

It’s quite common to hear from colleges across the country that they received “a record number of applications this year.” Because it drives down their acceptance rates and makes schools seem more appealing, there are few things that colleges love more than an increase in applications. We usually take these kinds of statements with a grain of salt because we know to expect them, but in January, Colgate put out a statement that was truly astounding.

Harvard Acceptance Rate for Legacy Students

Students work hard their entire high school careers with their eyes on the Ivy League. But while they might be busting their behinds to break the single-digit entry rate barriers, what they may not realize is the odds might be even less in their favor. According to data published in the Harvard Crimson, legacies are given a significant amount of preferential treatment. While we don’t know how many seats are reserved for legacy students each year, we can tell you that legacy students are typically represented disproportionately in every freshman class.

College Acceptance Rates 2019

The headlines can be recycled (again)! This year, like many consecutive years before it, marked a new record low for acceptance rates across the countries. With acceptances sinking down below 5 percent for some Ivies and nearing the single digits for some non-Ivies, there is no sign of competition slowing down in the near future.  In this post, we chart out how rates have changed over the last few years.

2018 Acceptance Analysis

2018 acceptances for the Class of 2022 are out and what we predicted has come to pass: it is harder to get into college than ever. HOT TAKE. Acceptance rates are plummeting, and the rates at top schools have yet again hit record lows. At the same time, the number of applicants who were waitlisted is off of the charts. Colleges are becoming more conservative in their admissions decisions. Unfortunately, students are bearing the brunt of it.