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?

restricted early action

Deferred by Harvard Restrictive Early Action 2024-2025

If you’ve been deferred by Harvard, your frustration is palpable. Getting into Harvard is hard. With an acceptance rate of under 4%, you can be astronomically smart, caring, and inspiring, and still not get in. What you do after receiving a deferral decision, especially from Harvard, is going to make or break your college admissions experience. You can wallow in self-pity and let it negatively impact your chances of eventually getting into Harvard, or into any of your other top picks, or you can let it catalyze you into action. We suggest the latter.

Deferred by Princeton (2023-24)

If you received a notice of deferral from Princeton, you’re probably pretty bummed out — and rightly so! A yes or no is simple. You’re either in or you’re not, but a deferral offers a nebulous possibility of a potential future yes without any of the confidence of a yes nor the finality of a no. You’re fully in your right to take a few moments to wallow in frustration, perhaps aided by ice cream, but it’s important to not stay stuck in that headspace for too long. There’s work to be done, and we’re here to help!

What Is Restricted Early Action?

If you’re planning to apply to college early, you might be familiar with the following terms: Early Decision, Early Decision 2, Early Action, and Restricted Early Action. Trying to navigate your way through these terms (and their abbreviations) is the worst. That’s a bit dramatic, but we do think it’s fair to say that it can be stressful trying to figure where you can apply, where you can’t apply, and when everything needs to be submitted. We’re keeping it as simple as possible and breaking it down below:

When Is The Last Time I Can Take The SAT or SAT 2 For Early Decision Schools?

Early decision school applications are due in the beginning in November on either November 1st or November 15th. Early decision has increased in popularity over the past few years as many people believe that there is a significant advantage to applying early. While there are certainly advantages and disadvantages to applying ED, we always want to make sure our students know about the different testing deadlines. Can they take a November SAT and have it count? Do they have to send the scores directly?

The Difference Between Early Decisions 1 & 2, Restrictive Early Action, and Early Action

Early Decision (ED), Early Decision II (ED II), Early Action (EA), Restrictive Early Action (REA). All of these are ways students can apply to a school before Regular Decision. But, it is easy to get lost in a sea of abbreviations, overlapping deadlines, and indecipherable admission statistics. So we’re going to go through and outline the differences between these programs, what they mean, and the various deadlines.