Your sophomore year of high school is a valuable opportunity to develop strong academics and engage in activities that will strengthen your admissions profile. At this stage, you should determine what subjects and activities you excel at and enjoy. This will help you develop a compelling application theme.

The longer you wait to develop your theme, the weaker your admissions profile will be. Further, your academic responsibilities will pile up as you get closer to junior year, leaving you with less time to narrow down your interests. Therefore, use your sophomore year to identify the subject area that captivates you the most.

Academic Planning

At most high schools, students are allowed to start taking AP, IB, and other honors courses during their sophomore year. If this is the case in your high school, you should plan on taking as many advanced courses as possible. Strive to take on an intensive and demanding course load.

The grades you achieve during sophomore year will be an important part of your admissions profile. Thus, do your best and stay on top of homework. If you are struggling with a certain course, consider asking your teacher for help.

Standardized Testing

Your performance on the ACT or the SAT will be another important element of your admissions profile. Familiarizing yourself with these tests will help you to achieve a high score.

You should take the PSAT as a sophomore. Colleges will only see your SAT scores, so you can take the PSAT as many times as possible without any penalties. Your performance on the PSAT will show you where you need to improve to achieve a higher score on the SAT.

You will also be able to take the ACT or the SAT. Students are allowed to take the ACT up to 12 times, so you will certainly be able to try it again. There is no limit on the number of times you can take the SAT. Furthermore, you will be able to select your best score on each section to create an overall “superscore.”

Keep in mind, however, that colleges typically want applicants to send all their ACT and SAT scores, so you should limit the number of times you take each test. Too many attempts with little growth will weaken your admissions profile.

Extracurricular Activities

At the start of sophomore year, you should assess your extracurriculars and determine whether you want to pursue different activities. This is an ideal time to make such changes because you’ll still have three years to focus on any new extracurriculars.

Summer Activities

Another important Ivy League admission strategy is to look into possible summer activities during winter break. For example, you might consider studying abroad over the summer, which would give you the opportunity to focus on an academic subject while gaining international exposure and, perhaps, a new language.

Alternatively, you might consider finding a job or an internship at a business or organization (such as a nonprofit or a law firm) related to your interests. An internship or a job would provide you with valuable education, real-world experience, and an expanded network. It may even open doors to future opportunities.

Whatever activities you choose, make sure that they fit in with your overall application theme and contribute to your narrative.

Early in the summer, you should take some time to look up colleges online. By now, you may have a fairly good idea of which top colleges appeal to you. If you are fairly certain about which schools you want to apply to, consider visiting one or more colleges in June or July.

Sophomore year is an ideal opportunity to strengthen your academics and identify your interests. Book an initial consultation with our managing director to learn more about how Ivy League Prep can help you craft an exceptional admissions profile.

As a high school freshman, you may be wondering what you can do to prepare for the competitive college admissions process. Even though graduation is still a few years away, there is much you can do to start crafting an exceptional admissions profile that will make you stand out.

At this stage, focus on early strategic planning. First, you and your parents should schedule a meeting with your high school guidance counselor. In this meeting, you should discuss your favorite subjects, interests, strengths, and weaknesses. Also, find out what after-school programs, classes, tutoring sessions, and other special opportunities are available at your high school. Knowing your options will allow you and your parents to make informed decisions and develop a long-term, strategic plan for your academics.

Academic Planning

One of the main reasons you should meet with your counselor is to get on the right track for pursuing a competitive course of study. You and your parents should familiarize yourselves with high school graduation and college admissions requirements. Take time to review which courses you must take over the next four years, and consider mapping them out.

The courses you take in your freshman year will largely determine your entire academic track during high school, particularly for math, science, and language courses. Generally, you should choose the most rigorous classes offered, including as many advanced or honors courses as possible. Early on in high school, you may not be sure what subject you really enjoy and want to focus on. Therefore, you should concentrate on taking prerequisites for other classes and being academically strong across the board.

While selecting courses for your freshman year, however, include a fun elective that matches your interests. Doing so will provide you with a bit of a reprieve during the school day and a little less homework at night and over the weekends.

To avoid falling behind in your academics, create a study schedule and stick to it. If you haven’t already developed solid study habits, freshman year is the time to do so—good study habits are essential to success at both high school and college.

Keep in mind that you are already crafting your unique admissions narrative. For instance, if you struggle with a particular subject, have a learning disability, or face some other challenge that affects your grades, these circumstances—and how you work to overcome them—will contribute to your narrative.

Extracurricular Activities

During your freshman year, continue to explore a variety of subjects and activities to discover your interests, passions, and natural abilities. Don’t take on activities just to fill empty time or pad your résumé. Instead, pursue what interests you.

After considering all the available extracurriculars, choose the ones that seem most enjoyable. Top colleges tend to view consistency and long-term commitment favorably, so you should try to find a few activities that you can be deeply involved in for three or, better yet, four years. The more activities you pursue during all of high school, the better.

Freshman year is also the time for you to start keeping track of the extracurricular activities you are involved in, as well as any accomplishments, awards, or other recognition.

Summer Activities

The winter break of your freshman year is a great time for you to start planning your summer activities. You should try to find a short summer program (preferably two to four weeks long) at a college or summer school. The summer after freshman year is a great time for you to pursue a subject that interests you.

Still, your summer shouldn’t only consist of academics: take time to relax, enjoy your family and friends, and read.

In fact, reading regularly is an effective Ivy League admission strategy. Read novels, magazines, blogs, news, scientific journals, historical accounts, or cultural documents—pretty much anything and everything. By reading a wide array of styles, genres, and authors, you will gain new insights and perspectives, an expanded vocabulary, and better reading comprehension. These skills will help you achieve strong ACT and SAT Reading scores.

Your freshman year is a valuable opportunity to find out what interests you and plan your course of study for the rest of high school. Book an initial consultation to learn how Ivy League Prep can guide you through every stage of the admissions process and help you gain admission to the best schools.

When should you start preparing your child for college admissions? Is it ever too early?

Some parents start preparing their children for college before the latter even start school. Once their children reach elementary school, these parents may even have them visit campuses, practice for entrance exams, and receive tutoring. Even though this approach may seem promising, it is unnecessary and counterproductive in practice.

In this article, we share some Ivy League admission strategies that will help you prepare your children before high school for college admissions success.

Early Years

Many families focus on getting their children into the best nurseries, preschools, or kindergarten programs. However, no evidence suggests that these programs provide children with a greater love of learning, intellectual curiosity, or overall development than proper attention and encouragement at home. Passion for discovery usually originates at home.

It’s never too early to help your child love learning and reading. Children who are read to at home and consequently develop a love of reading tend to perform well on the SAT Reading section. So, if you want to equip your child for academic success, do your best to instill in them a love for reading. Read to your child while they are little, and help them improve their reading skills.

If your child develops their reading and writing skills early on, other academic abilities will follow. To gain admission to a top college, your child will likely need to be a strong reader and writer. Additionally, encourage your child to explore different activities and discover what they enjoy (this Ivy League admission strategy will help your child develop a unique application theme).

Middle School or Junior High

As your child enters middle school, you should pay close attention to their academic performance. Your child should pursue as many honors courses as they can handle. Determining which and how many honors classes your child should take will require an honest and careful assessment of your child’s performance.

Also, keep in mind that a rigorous course load is one of the most important components of a successful academic record. Helping your child get on track academically is important because the courses they take in middle school or junior high will determine their course load in high school.

Academic trends during middle school or junior high can be even more important for students who will attend a high school that assigns higher grade-point values to honors and AP courses. The key is for your child to remain academically competitive in the context of their high school’s curriculum.

Therefore, you should use your child’s performance in middle school or junior high to determine what course load they should choose in high school. It will be much easier to determine your child’s academic path before they begin high school.

Clearly, there is much you can do to help your child get ready for the competitive college admissions process. Ivy League Prep offers its clients personalized guidance on how to craft the most competitive admissions profile possible, often advising students several years before they graduate from high school. Book an initial consultation to learn more about how we can help your child gain admission to the most selective colleges and universities.

The end of high school is drawing near, and you’re eager to get started with the college admissions process. Perhaps you have a list of ideal schools, and you certainly want to make sure your college applications stand out.

But just how hard is it to get accepted into a top college?

The admission process for top colleges is highly competitive; gaining admission to your ideal school will take hard work and careful planning. You need to develop a compelling, unique admissions profile that will make you stand out from the thousands of other applicants—and Ivy League Prep is here to help you achieve that goal.

This article focuses on a potentially important part of your admissions profile: demonstrated interest. These Ivy League admission tips show you how to use demonstrated interest to your advantage.

What is Demonstrated Interest?

You demonstrate interest in potential colleges by actively showing that you are serious about pursuing admission. For instance, you could contact the college directly, visit the campus, attend an event organized by the school, arrange for an interview, or meet with an admissions officer in person. Visit our list of admissions webpages for top colleges if you’d like to contact potential schools to demonstrate interest.

Many prestigious colleges and universities view demonstrated interest as an indicator that you will attend the school if you are accepted. Therefore, they will consider you a more reliable and trustworthy applicant. Several top schools, such as Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Notre Dame, consider demonstrated interest when assessing applicants.

However, not all schools ascribe importance to demonstrated interest. Many top colleges (including the eight Ivy League schools, Boston College, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California) don’t look for signs of demonstrated interest.

Even though demonstrated interest can be important for some schools, keep in mind that you usually won’t have to go to extraordinary lengths to show interest if you are truly serious about attending your target school. Never get sidetracked from the most important part of the admissions process: crafting an exceptional applicant profile. A compelling applicant profile will always matter more to top colleges than a one-day visit during your junior year or other signs of demonstrated interest.

How to Check Whether Demonstrated Interest Matters

If you aren’t sure whether a college will consider your level of demonstrated interest, you could check the school’s website or contact its admissions office. You could also use our list of the best research tools for learning more about your potential schools and their admission requirements. Alternatively, you can search online for the college’s “Common Data Set” and navigate to the “First-Time, First-Year (Freshman) Admission” section. One of the tables in this section will show whether the “Level of Applicant’s Interest” is considered in the admissions process.

Demonstrated interest is a comparatively minor component of college admissions. Still, you can use it to your advantage if you follow these Ivy League admission tips. Ivy League Prep would be happy to guide you through the entire admissions process and help you succeed.

College admissions have never been so competitive, and top schools are becoming increasingly selective. Therefore, you need to craft a memorable admissions profile that will make you stand out. Perhaps the two most important elements of an outstanding college application are the theme and the narrative.

The theme is the recurring topic that unites the various components of your application. Your theme might be an academic or extracurricular interest (such as entrepreneurship, engineering, and biology) or a specific project.

On the other hand, the narrative is your unique story that shows who you are, what you are capable of, and what you have already accomplished. It should show why you are so enthusiastic about your theme.

In this article, we share some Ivy League admission strategies that will help you develop your theme and narrative.

Start Early

The later you start developing your theme and narrative, the harder it will be to make your admissions profile stand out. If you begin to show interest in a subject in your senior year, it will be difficult—though not impossible—to convince admissions officers that you are serious about that subject.

Rewind one year, though, and you’ll see how much easier it becomes to develop a compelling theme. For example, suppose that you plan to pursue a career in business. Instead of taking a fun but otherwise unhelpful history class, you could enroll in an economics, management, or entrepreneurship class. If no such courses are available, you may be able to take a summer college course or pursue dual enrollment. You could also look for an internship at a local business.

If you decide to pursue business even earlier, you would be able to focus on that subject throughout all of high school, not just during one or two classes in your senior year. Additionally, you may find the opportunity to engage in other business-related activities, such as starting a small business.

The earlier you begin to consider your application’s theme and narrative, the more compelling they will be. Look at our founder’s admissions profile to see how he developed a unique theme and narrative.

Prove Your Value

Value is perhaps the single most important idea that your admissions profile must convey. Everything in your application should add to your perceived value; your application should demonstrate how you will contribute to the quality and overall success of the college. Top colleges are seeking applicants with ample potential for academic and career success.

If you want to create that kind of value, you can’t do everything. You shouldn’t try to take all the hardest classes in every subject, play in multiple varsity teams, participate in student body politics and multiple clubs, and be an all-state musician. Being busy does not add value to your application—being exceptional at something does.

So, you need to focus your time and energy on excelling in a limited number of activities, and these activities should be linked to your theme.

For instance, instead of taking a dozen AP classes, you should focus only on the AP classes that fit in with your theme and strengthen your narrative.

Show Diversity

Showing diversity does not mean you need to be diversified: quality matters more than quantity. Colleges want a diverse class—not individual students who try to do everything.

Instead of trying to show a great deal of variety in your interests, you should try to be the variety. That means pursuing opportunities that will set you apart from the crowd of applicants. For example, programs with low acceptance rates, unique real-world experiences, and international exposure will help you develop a strong narrative. Such experiences will show the admissions officers that your perspective is unique.

Provide Evidence of Your Passion

If you are passionate about a particular academic subject, extracurricular activity, or social issue, you should pursue that passion with focus and zeal. Keep in mind, however, that passion must be accompanied by evidence. Your admissions profile needs to include direct, measurable evidence of passion and success. This includes numbers, details, specific awards, and recognition.

Developing a compelling theme and a strong narrative requires hard work and careful planning. If you follow these Ivy League admission strategies, you can be confident that your profile will stand out.

The Common Application, also known as the Common App, is a standardized college application that is accepted by over 900 schools. It can save you significant time and effort if you are applying to multiple colleges.

In this article, we’ll provide a few Ivy League admission tips on how to fill out each section of the Common App. These guidelines will help you write a compelling Common App and impress the admissions officers.

Profile

The Common App begins with fields for personal data, such as your legal name, birth date, address, and so on. This information needs to be filled in completely and accurately.

The next components of the Profile section are fields related to demographics: religion, ethnicity, birthplace, and language. Including your ethnicity is optional. However, if you don’t include this information, the admissions officer might think you are trying to hide information. Admissions officers value honesty and transparency. Also, if you are Black, Hispanic, or Native American, you will be classified as an underrepresented minority (URM) applicant and will thus have an advantage over other applicants.

The optional language fields are also important to complete, so you should list any languages you have studied in school or speak at home.

Family

The Family section of the Common App is used to gather basic information about your family background, including what colleges your parents and/or siblings attended, if any. This information helps colleges determine whether you are from a privileged background or if you could qualify as a legacy applicant to a particular institution.

Education

The next section of the Common App is for basic information regarding your high school, such as its address and whether it is public or private. The form also includes fields for any additional high schools you have attended, including summer schools and programs.

Other information in this section includes your class rank and GPA. You should also report every class you will take during your senior year, including any independent study, online, or dual enrollment courses. Include the full name of your AP courses, not abbreviations. Additionally, this section asks you to list any college courses you have taken during high school.

The Education section also includes space for your top five awards or honors. Be sure to include your most impressive honors.

Testing

In this section, you need to include your SAT, ACT, and AP exam scores, as well as any planned test dates. Remember that you also need to send the official scores directly to your target colleges.

Activities

The Activities section is optional, but you should definitely complete it. You can list up to 10 activities. Include extracurricular pursuits, academic interests, research projects, community service, family responsibilities, cultural or religious activities, and hobbies. Generally, you should list these activities in order of importance.

You should select the most significant and impressive activities you participated in during high school. The best choices are those that demonstrate exceptional skill, knowledge, innovation, leadership, or commitment—and these activities should fit into your overall narrative. We highly recommend including any work experience in this list.

Writing

The Writing section includes three primary elements: the personal essay, disciplinary history, and additional information.

The personal essay should tie together all the other elements of the Common App. This essay is the main vehicle through which you will convey your unique theme and narrative.

For disciplinary history, you must indicate whether you have been in trouble at school (i.e., serious infractions involving the principal) or in trouble with the law (i.e., arrests and convictions).

Finally, you will have 650 words to add any additional information. This part of the Writing section is an ideal place for you to explain any situation the college should know about. For example, if there were illnesses or deaths in the family that had tangible effects on your education, this is the place to explain those circumstances.

Filling out a compelling Common App requires hard work and careful planning—you need to make sure that your information and the way it is presented will portray you as the ideal applicant. These Ivy League admission tips will help you achieve these goals and craft an exceptional admissions profile.

The time has finally come to apply to college. No doubt you’ve been anticipating this moment for years. Perhaps you have a list of dream schools you’d like to study at, but you know that the competition will be intense—thousands of students apply to the top schools each year.

For instance, the Ivy League colleges and universities had an average acceptance rate of 7.3% for the Class of 2024—an all-time low. That means that only one out of every 13 applicants was accepted.

So, how can you make your college application stand out and increase your chances of admission? Without a reliable strategy, you won’t be able to craft a compelling application.

Ivy League Prep is here to help! These Ivy League admission tips will help you craft a compelling application that will make you stand out.

First, let’s discuss what parts of the application are most important.

What to Focus On

College applications contain several generic fields—information such as your name, address, and high school, among others. These generic fields don’t have any real strategic value. All you have to do is make sure that the information you provide in these sections is accurate.

Other fields, however, require you to make specific choices or write brief explanations. These are the sections of the application that require special focus. You can craft a strong application theme and personal narrative by carefully filling out these sections.

For example, the activities you list—and the order in which you list them—say a great deal about what you value.

Now, let’s look at three strategic considerations for filling out your applications.

Carefully Proofread Everything

You should carefully examine your application for mistakes, looking for misspelled words, grammatical errors, typos, factual errors, inconsistencies, and unclear or wordy phrases. The application should be polished and pristine.

Admissions officers are likely to notice mistakes. However, a single mistake, depending on its nature, might not matter all that much. Particularly egregious or frequent errors, however, could really lower your chances of admission.

You should ask someone trustworthy with a strong command of English to proofread your applications.

Provide Complete and Cohesive Responses

Your application should paint a complete picture of who you are and outline your goals and interests. Each response should clearly point to your overall theme, and, wherever possible, the application should help develop your unique narrative.

For example, this means that you need to do more than include your most prestigious and noteworthy honors and awards. You must also present each honor or award in such a way that it fits in with your application’s theme and narrative. To accomplish this goal, you can explain your achievements in more detail in your personal essay or additional information section.

Highlight Diversity

You should highlight diversity wherever possible in your application. This includes underscoring your ethnic diversity, unique perspectives, rare opportunities, highly specialized abilities, or any other experience or background that is likely to set you apart from other applicants.

Admissions officers at top colleges place a high value on diversity—they want a well-rounded class formed not by well-rounded students but by a wide variety of students with diverse experiences.

If you follow these Ivy League admission tips on how to complete your college applications, you can be sure that the admissions officers will want to know more about you. Still, gaining admission to the most prestigious schools and universities requires much more than a well-written application.

Ivy League Prep would be delighted to provide you with customized guidance throughout the entire admissions process. Book an initial consultation today.

For many college applicants, spring is the culmination of months or years of hard work. This is when they find out if they will be attending their top-choice school in the fall. However, thousands of applicants find themselves on the waitlists for their favorite schools, which confuses and frustrates them. While some waitlisted students hold out hope for late admission, others opt for the reliability of a second- or third-choice school that accepted them.

If you find yourself on a college waitlist, don’t give up hope! Keep reading for tips on what to do to improve your chances of admission.

How Do Colleges Use Waitlists?

Schools often use waitlists to meet enrollment goals, review applicants in further detail, or replace students who retracted their acceptance. Ivy League admission statistics show that some colleges accept most applicants on their waitlists, while others accept very few or none of their waitlisted applicants.

For example, Purdue accepted 1,542 of the 3,378 students on its waitlist in 2019. In contrast, Stanford admitted eight of its waitlisted students that year, and it admitted only 30 the previous year. Knowing how your target school typically uses its waitlist may help you decide whether to wait or move on to another school.

Keep in mind that being waitlisted does not mean that you have failed as a student—the admissions committee probably liked you, but there may have been many other students who submitted stronger applications. You will likely never find out why you were waitlisted.

How to Improve Your Chances of College Admission

Remember that you can decide whether to remain on the waitlist or not. If you are no longer interested in the school, request to have your name removed from the waitlist. On the other hand, if you are serious about pursuing acceptance, you should actively demonstrate an interest in the school.

Ivy League admission, especially from a waitlist, requires persistence, attention to detail, and creativity. Most students simply wait at this stage, so this is your opportunity to stand out.

At this point, you should email or write a letter to your regional admissions counselor. Express your continued desire to attend their college and explain your reasons. Be sure to update them on any honors, awards, achievements, improved grades, or job promotions you have achieved since submitting your application. Ask your high school to send in a transcript with your current grades, and see if one of your teachers will write you a recommendation letter discussing your attributes and explaining why the college should accept you.

Don’t Overdo It

Be careful not to pester the admissions office by calling them every day or sending them a stream of emails, and do not mention everything you have done since applying. Further, name-dropping or sending recommendations from prominent individuals is not advised.

Instead, aim to make an excellent second impression, presenting your information in an impactful and concise manner. Describe your most important recent accomplishments in one email to your admissions counselor. Write down your questions in a list so that you can ask them during a single phone call to the admissions office.

Create a Back-Up Plan

Last, make sure you have a back-up plan. Regardless of how many students a college accepts from the waitlist, there will always be students left on it. It’s also important to note that colleges sometimes make waitlist decisions as late as early fall, but deposit deadlines for most schools are around May 1.

Sending a deposit to your second-choice school will ensure that you still have a college to attend if you aren’t accepted from the waitlist. However, you will lose the deposit if you are removed from the waitlist and enroll at your first-choice school. If you weren’t accepted into any other colleges, you could still send in more applications. Some schools have later application deadlines. Other alternatives include taking a gap year or enrolling in a community college and then taking another shot at applying to your preferred school.

There Is Always Hope!

Waiting is hard, and being waitlisted can make you feel hopeless, but there are several things you can do to improve your chances of acceptance. Follow these Ivy League admission tips, and keep a positive attitude. Most importantly, make the most of any outcome. Even if you aren’t accepted into your preferred school, you can still pursue the career you want. There is always hope.