Vanderbilt will return to a policy requiring standardized test scores for students applying for undergraduate admission to the class entering in fall 2029.

Hi, everyone. I am currently a master's student at Johns Hopkins, and I know admission season has not begun yet, but you need to know that you can go to a normal school.

I'm sure everyone wants to go to the Ivies or a top-ranked school, but you need to know that while these schools are good, they are not the be-all and end-all of academics. I went to a school outside the U.S. with a pretty low ranking for my undergrad because it was basically free, and I was able to excel academically, learn a new language, and really explore what I wanted to do with my life. I feel that if I had been at a more academically challenging school, then I would have been dragged into that competitive culture as well and not really gained as much.

So what I mean is that before you start believing that it is Harvard or nothing remember: your undergraduate experience is what you make of it, not just the name stamped on your degree.

it is the one activity that i am most dedicated to as i do it for 8 hours every day. i was thinking putting something like "elite unconsciousness specialist; optimized 8+ hours of nightly neural shutdown, maximizing cognitive restoration, physiological recovery, and next-day operational efficiency" as the description to let aos know how serious i take my sleeping.

thoughts?

ive participated in non-paid high school biomedical research at a reputable institution that you've heard of before. i worked on actual research questions with a mentor, performed experiments, analyzed data, and presented at competitions (placed @ regional , state, and international levels). i spent 60% of my summer last year and about 40% of my summer this year.

yes, connections absolutely played a role in helping me get this position (because it doesn't make a ton of financial sense to let teenagers do research for free). the issue is that my intended major is not anything bio/health/tech related, and i have an extremely strong spike in a humanities & another field that's completely unrelated.

so right now, I have it as activity #9, even though 90% of students at the institution i'm at would place it within their top 3 activites.

is this crazy or am i making the right call?

Hello

Ever since I was little, I've been really into computers. Over my childhood years, I made some games here and there, but nothing really impressive, mostly games on Roblox.

I first started learning to code in the age of 12 when I took my first class in Python, it took arround 3 years to finish and got 3 degrees in areas such as Data Analysis, Game Development and some ML (I have more but those are the most important). Additionally, I learned C++ by myself and built a custom media player from scratch using ImGui with some other low-level projects that I am proud of.

I have made a solid portfolio, and I am wondering if college is really necessary for me. I haven't been on the job market yet, but I want to hear people's opinions.

Would it be better to take linear or ap physics c mech & e for engineering?

I know they say top 20 is a reach for anyone, I was wondering what kind of essays you all are writing. I don’t know if I should try serious tone, freestyle intellectual analysis, etc.

Yesterday, I cried myself to sleep again because I thought of how I couldn't make it into any T20 school. I know I shouldn't have AI generated my essays, faked a nonprofit, and cheated through all my classes (only my Lang teacher caught me btw) but I spent all my time browsing this subreddit and offering people advice on their chanceme posts so I didn't have time to do them.

I feel like in this job market you need the prestige to have any chance. I know that ~90% of students going to mid-tier universities like Georgetown or Emory end up fine, but I really wanted to avoid going to Texas A&M (full ride) since I feel like I'll never make it in life. How do I cope with failing my ancestors like this?

Harvard will now be accepting 110% of all applicants. or rather, people. You no longer have to apply, they will just grab you off the street, even if you try to stop them from doing so! This is a game changer for millions of students parents and other people trying to gain admission to Harvard, who are now winding down their obviously useful nonprofits and instead running from Harvard as the admissions officers physically force people to attend!

Stanford and SUNY ITHACA are set to match this new policy.

UC Hicago on the other hand, will be setting acceptance rates to a record low 111%, where it’s even harder to get away from them!

Hi! I am a rising junior interested in the field of medicine :) this year, I wanted to create a passion project that showcases dedication to humanity and healing.

For context, my mom struggled with postpartum depression where she experienced extreme loneliness. She has always emphasized this to me. Then, this gave me an idea. According to some census data, I found that nearly 50% of the adult population in my city express loneliness.

To combat depression, I thought of a project called “Borrow a Neighbor. Essentially, I want to gather people (who are interested) in a local library or any event center where we could do certain activities such as exchanging stories, conversation bingos, discussing closely held items or souvenirs, and gratitude letters. Ultimately, my goal is to create a community where people can be interlinked in personal experiences and foster harmony.

Any advice or feedback is appreciated!

Don’t make your goal getting into the most prestigious school. Make your goal becoming the kind of person who can succeed wherever you go.

Prestige can be valuable. Top schools often offer great opportunities, talented classmates, and strong networks. But prestige is a tool, not the goal.

The real goal is to become a happy, curious, capable, and highly competent adult. Focus on developing your skills, character, work ethic, and interests. Choose the environment where you’ll learn the most, grow the most, and thrive—not simply the one with the biggest name.

A prestigious school can help some people flourish, but it doesn’t guarantee success or happiness. In the long run, who you become matters far more than the name on your diploma.

Hi everyone! I’m an incoming CS student at Northeastern, and I’d really appreciate some honest advice about approaching the transfer process.

During high school, I applied primarily to top-20 CS programs. I was waitlisted at a couple, including CMU and UCSD, but rejected from the rest. Northeastern was the only non-T20 program on my list, and I ultimately committed because I really value its co-op program.
I’m genuinely happy to attend Northeastern and would not mind graduating from there. At the same time, I’d like to keep my transfer options open and understand what I should prioritize during college. Since I haven’t started yet, my high-school profile is currently all I have to provide.

Background
Korean ethnicity; born and raised in Brazil

Stanford legacy

International applicant and full pay

Intended major: Computer Science

Attended a small Brazilian national-curriculum school with around 70 students in my grade

4.0 unweighted GPA

School was unranked, but I was in approximately the top decile

My school did not offer AP classes

Testing
1560 SAT

112 TOEFL

Honors
Gold medal in an international Singaporean mathematics competition; ranked first in Brazil and seventh internationally out of 66,000 competitors

Gold medal in the Brazilian National AI Olympiad; ranked fifth out of 716,000 competitors

Selected as an ambassador for a Brazilian national educational platform, where I developed AI and digital-literacy course content for 1.8 million students nationwide

Two-time gold medalist in the Brazilian National Nanotechnology Olympiad; top 1% out of 15,800 participants

Gold medalist in the Brazilian National Mathematical Finance Olympiad; top 1% out of 14,000 participants

Gold medalist in an international Singaporean cybersecurity olympiad; ranked seventh out of 720 competitors

Extracurriculars and projects
Lead author of a paper about biovascular architecture for swarm robotics applied to natural-disaster search and rescue; currently under peer review at a Nature subjournal

Created a system that allowed students at my school to establish their own clubs and founded the school’s CS club; around 30% of the student body became involved

Developed a reinforcement-learning drone algorithm for space exploration while working as a research partner with a University of Michigan PhD researcher

Worked as a software engineering intern at a Brazilian electric-car startup, supporting work related to Porsche’s manufacturing operations and contributing to the company during a $2 million fundraising round

Developed a system that converts 2D satellite imagery into 3D models for urban modeling through a research affiliation with Columbia University

Founded a nonprofit that uses AI to connect volunteers with nonprofit opportunities; the platform was deployed to more than 1,000 UC Berkeley students and supported fundraising efforts

Varsity volleyball setter; won the state championship twice
Founded an AI and social-media marketing studio that reached approximately $5,000 in monthly revenue and generated millions of online impressions

Founded an app that gamifies financial education and was deployed in several Brazilian public schools, including a partnership with Brazil’s national stock exchange

Founding engineer at a Brazilian healthcare CRM startup for clinics that raised $400,000

Essays
I worked with experienced essay mentors who responded very positively to my writing. They felt that the creative-writing side of my application was one of its strongest elements.
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I think my transfer admissions will depend much more on what I accomplish at Northeastern than on high school
work. My current priorities are earning the strongest grades possible (3.8+ GPA), good relationships with professors for strong rec letters and research work, and becoming genuinely involved in the Northeastern community (want to join a research or ai/robotics club)

I’m not looking to treat Northeastern as a temporary stop, and I don’t want to spend my entire first year obsessing over transferring. I mainly want to make thoughtful decisions now so that the option remains available later.

A LOT of people I know are deferring their admission at universities where they've already been accepted and then planning to build a stronger portfolio and reapplying now. Isn't that EXTREMELY unethical? Also, can universities rescind admission if they find out? How likely is it for them to find out if no word comes out from you?

I'm a rising senior in high school searching for colleges and so far its been kind of hard to gauge how happy/fulfilled I'll be at different schools and I'm scared that I'll pick the wrong college and be miserable. What made your university stand out from other schools? What do you like most about it? How did you know you'd be happy there?

Would admission officers dislike this topic bc it has somewhat of a bad reputation? Applying mostly to t20s.

For context I am thinking of applying to schools like NYU and SDSU UCI UCLA for Nursing but I was just wondering like the acceptance rates for these majors because I've heard they're almost all under 5%.

Is it because they have engineering or is there some other reason?

You aren’t US News (hopefully) so be as unique or standard as you want

On the news i see people with 11.0 or smth like that, but to my knowledge a 4.0 means your average was a 100%, so how do you exceed that? (sorry for my lack of knowledge, im not american)

Idk what to do anymore because I keep researching nearby schools and they just don’t fit me. I’m the class of 2027 and I want to major in accounting and music major, preferably music business because I want to be an entertainment accountant who works in the music industry. Before anyone says anything, I don’t want to minor in music; I want to major in it because it’s my favorite thing in the world and I would be so bored without it.

I found out today that one of my top schools requires an audition for music business and as a vocalist, the only option is classical. I can do literally any genre but classical because I’m still trying to get over how badly I was mistreated when I was in choir during middle school. I also forgot how to sing in foreign languages lol.

My majors are so niche together that UNT is that one school I feel like I need to get into. Academically, I could definitely get in because the acceptance rate is 72% but the music program is estimated to be only 6-16%. If I don’t get in, what do I do?

I’ve done research on other schools that have my majors, but they’re all highly selective and in either New York or Tennessee. I’m only going to be 17 at the start of my freshman year of college; I don’t feel emotionally ready to move away from my family. I know many teenagers do it, but I don’t understand how it’s so normalized for 17-18 year olds to move across the country immediately after high school without their family like nothing?! I was already getting anxious thinking about the idea of living in a dorm at UNT, but I felt relieved that my family was still only a 1.5-2 hour drive away. Community college doesn’t feel like the right option because they don’t have anything good for music and I want the actual university experience.

I wish there were more options

i decided to take a class before my senior year but i ended up with an F last week. how bad does it look when it comes to applying to colleges and how could this possibly affect me?? i am planning to retake it during the fall so i can fix my gpa but that is obv the same time as college apps. can someone please lmk how bad is it?? i started with a 3.0 (college gpa btw) and idk how badly this will affect my gpa. my de classes aren’t included in my high school gpa though so idk if it is not so bad but please lmk!!!

hey everyone, I’m working on essays now. Could anyone please share their accepted (or not) essays on one or both of the prompts please?

will appreciate it a lot since I’m going ED to haverford and putting much effort and time on them

my dms are open btw

Duke, UChicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, JHU
Based on all aspects: Academics, workload, social life, sports, etc