The Ivy LeagUe

Application to highly selective schools requires a thoughtful and thorough examination and explanation of your abilities, achievements, and goals. You must clearly convey your strengths, who you are, why you are interested in a specific college, how you will use the resources, and what you will add to campus life.

In addition, you will need to determine the timing of your application; if you want to apply to the college “early decision” or “early action”, or during the regular admission deadline. If you know where you want to go, some colleges may have higher acceptance rates for students who apply early action or early decision, especially for those with a talent that the college needs to fill in a particular year. 

Each part should be thoughtfully crafted and connected, including:

• Application Format: Thoughtful answers to the general  information questions of the application (name, contact information, address, family information, possible area of study, planned tests, etc.)

• Control of your Social Media: THIS FACTOR HAS PREVENTED MANY  STUDENTS FROM BEING ACCEPTED AND CAUSED SOME STUDENTS TO LOSE THEIR  ACCEPTANCE. Every contact and record you give to colleges should accurately reflect the way you present yourself in your application.  Consider your phone message, email address, and all forms of social media. What are colleges able to see from their connection to your social media accounts?

• High School Transcript: Accurate 9th-11th grade transcript, and plans to submit transcripts for the fall and spring of the senior year. (If appropriate, use essay opportunities to address any weakness in your transcript that may reflect a time of personal challenge or growth and a current time of new resiliency.

• Standardized Test Scores: Record of test scores sent to colleges directly from CollegeBoard.com for the SAT, and from act.org for the ACT test results. Also include AP and IB scores, or other pertinent measurements of your knowledge. Forms will also ask for upcoming test types and dates.

• List of Activities: Meaningful and complete resume of your interests beyond the classroom, and any honors or recognition that you have received.

• One or More Essays: Well-written essays that reveal your interests, character, personality, unique experiences, and confirm your goals. On supplemental essays written to each college, include the reasons for your specific interest in that campus.

• Letters of Recommendation: Strong letters of recommendation from your counselor and core academic teachers, who can confirm your academic talent and ability. Others may be included to confirm specific talents, interests, and passions.

• Extra additional evidence of your interests, talent, and skills: YouTube videos, Google Docs, DropBox, the Coalition Application “Locker,” etc.

As you craft your application, think about what you want to say about yourself to each college and determine which part of your application will convey the information you are trying to communicate. Ideally, when all the elements of your application are read together, they will demonstrate who you are, what you want, and why you are a perfect fit for a particular school. 

First and foremost, schools will review the content and rigor of your high school courses and the grades you received. Highly selective schools anticipate that you will have taken the most challenging college preparatory, advanced, honors, AP, or AICE courses in high school and that you have been successful in those classes. Include known scores of AP and AICE exams and dates of exams that you plan to take.

Excellent test scores are ideal for serious consideration by highly selective schools, and you should devote extra time to test preparation. Take the ACT and the SAT by the spring of junior year to decide which to pursue, to allow for additional preparation to retake tests, and if necessary, to improve scores. 

The PSAT, administered in the fall of the junior year, is the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship program. It is optional, but for students applying for highly selective colleges, we recommend taking it. Learn more about college application testing.

TIP: If a highly selective school does not require something but “recommends” it, you should consider that recommendation as a direction to do it. The students who are competing with you will be doing so. For these colleges, you should take these exams if you are qualified to do so.

Having an essential leadership role in a club, community service organization or entrepreneurial enterprise is an important addition to your resume and can be highly regarded by admissions officers. Ideally, you will have engaged in authentic, committed service to an organization over 3-4 years rather than a longer list of activities and organizations with only surface-level involvements. 

Evaluate interests and strengths early on in school, community, national or global involvement, or competitions, and find opportunities to explore that interest in depth. This might include academic subjects and competitions (including STEM), athletics, fine arts, or a unique interest or passion unrelated to school. Genuine commitment in these fields might be demonstrated through honors and awards, research and publication, volunteering in these areas, participation in summer programs and internships, etc. 

Selective colleges are seeking students who have demonstrated their developed talent and passion in some aspect of their extracurricular or academic lives. This might include athletics, and performing/visual arts, among many other types of documented special and developed abilities. As a result, you should evaluate your interests and strengths early on and then find opportunities to go deeper in those areas. Choosing one or two interests and achieving real excellence is preferable to trying to “do it all” on a modest basis.

Depth in these fields might be demonstrated through honors and awards, competition results, and letters from noted people involved in the area of performance. Students often include evidence of their abilities through videos, YouTube, Google Docs, DropBox, etc. It will also be important to contact the coaches, professors, or representatives on campus who will be interested in verifying your talent, recruiting you, and representing you to the admissions officers.

For highly selective colleges, letters of recommendation are invaluable and sometimes, they are the first items that are read from all of the application materials. It is important to give accurate information to your counselor so that they can represent you in terms of your character, personality, goals, and growth at your high school. Your core academic teachers need to write about you as a student scholar and your performance in the classroom, not about your extracurricular activities. Be sure to give your counselor and teachers appropriate and meaningful information from which to write your letters. 

Interviewing with campus or local admissions representatives (and coaches, if appropriate). In interviews, convey who you are, what you will bring to campus, and why you are interested in the school. 

Sometimes, highly qualified students are rejected by admissions officers because they do not show enough special interest in the campus. Showing your high level of interest in the college campus through research, communication (including following the school's social media), and gathering information during campus visits where you show and state/record your interest in attending a class, speaking with faculty your intended major or interest, and meeting students.

If visiting the campus is not possible, find out all you can from websites and virtual tours, and attend all possible meetings when the college representative is in our area. See more info about visiting colleges.

Having an affiliation with a highly selective school can sometimes give you an advantage in the application process. Some examples include being a legacy with a parent alumnus, having a relative who is either a high-level government official or a member of the faculty, having special celebrity status, or donating a large amount of funding to the university.

If you have an affiliation, you will likely mention it in your application, but the affiliation alone will not guarantee an acceptance. You must keep the emphasis of your application information on your qualifications.