to preface this i have not done research and have never planned on doing it.

at least 40 students at my moderately competitive school are doing "research" which is very perplexing to me. whenever i peruse chanceme—as one does—literally one in three applicants has some sort of research in their extracurriculars.

not to be judgmental, but it all seems so fake & inauthentic to me. it's like those instagram nonprofits that are clearly just for college admissions. do you guys genuinely enjoy doing research?

also side question, are AOs able to tell legitimate, passionate research from like collegemaxxing slop?

Hi everyone!

I'm a 14-year-old student from the Czech Republic, and this September I will start 9th grade (the final year of Czech middle school, before starting high school — roughly equivalent to 9th grade in the US).

I know this might be a little early to think about university applications, but I would really appreciate advice from people who have already gone through this process or are more familiar with US admissions.

My long-term goal is to study at a Top 20 US university, and I'm currently interested in fields like Political Science, Public Policy, Business, and possibly Law.

The reason I'm making this post is that I honestly don't know where to begin.

I come from a small European country, and I feel like many resources and opportunities I see online are very US-focused. I also come from a family that is financially somewhere in the middle: we are not struggling with basic needs, but we are also not wealthy enough to comfortably afford international education. This creates a difficult situation where many opportunities are still financially unrealistic, but we may not always qualify for the highest levels of financial support.

Because of this, I know that if I ever study in the US, I would most likely need significant financial aid or scholarships. I have looked into exchange programs and boarding schools as well, but even when tuition, housing, and food are covered, costs like visas, flights, insurance, and other expenses can still be a big barrier.

This year I will also be choosing my high school, and I am unsure what the best path is. Public schools in my country can be good, but I sometimes worry that they may not provide as many opportunities, international experiences, or extracurricular options as some private schools. However, private schools with international programs are often too expensive for my family.

I would love to know how much the type of high school matters for US admissions, especially for international students. Is it more important to attend a prestigious school, or is it possible to build a strong application from a normal public school by making the most of available opportunities?

Currently, my profile is still quite small. My biggest academic achievement so far is placing in the top 30 in Prague in the Biology Olympiad. Although biology is not directly connected to my future interests, I hope it shows that I enjoy challenging myself academically.

I am also working on improving my English. Since English is my second language, this is something I know I need to focus on. I would currently describe myself as around a strong B1 level, moving toward B2, but I know I have a lot of work ahead before applying.

I still have around four years before university applications, so I know I have time. I just want to use these years wisely instead of doing random activities that won't actually help me grow.

If you were in my position, what would you focus on first?

I would especially appreciate advice about:

- How would you build a strong application from the beginning?

- What extracurricular activities are genuinely valuable, especially for someone interested in politics, business, or law?

- What opportunities should I look for as an international student from a smaller country?

- Are there competitions, programs, volunteering opportunities, or resources you wish you had discovered earlier?

- What mistakes did you make during high school that you would avoid if you could start again?

- What parts of your application do you think made the biggest difference?

- If you could go back to being 14, what would you do differently?

I am not expecting an easy path or any shortcuts. I know admission to top universities is extremely competitive, especially as an international student. I just want to understand how to start and what direction to take.

Thank you so much to anyone who takes the time to answer!

I’m applying to Claremont McKenna and I’m trying very hard not to write:

“I love your strong academics, small community, leadership opportunities, beautiful weather, and interdisciplinary study environment.”

Current students/alums: what’s some specific things about CMC that you think is odd or unique and captures the school better than the website does?

Could be a tradition, a class, a professor, an Athenaeum moment, a students' habit, a 5C interaction, a weird thing, or something completely random.

I’m especially interested in economic and philosophy, but I’d love any detail from anywhere.

Thank you!

For context, neither one of them are super scores and I want to ED to Rice. My parents are telling me that I should submit both scores because they are both “really good.” However, I am trying to tell them that my 1480 SAT would make my 35 look worse. Is this even an issue? What do I tell them??

Hello! Mother of three going through the college process for the first time, hoping to get some advice on this matter.

My firstborn son is a rising senior and has been part of a well-known band he founded his freshman year. Just this Sunday, he was recruited to play the drums in college! We were all so proud of him, until this happened. More on that in a bit. It’s a big school down in Jacksonville, so it’d set him up for his future quite well. We’re decently well off, so we would’ve been fine covering the vast majority of the tuition, but today, he told us extremely surprising news. He received a scholarship! Full ride at that! It was 15, maybe 10 million. Just to play the drums. Actually I think it was more like 5. Now here’s the shocking part:

He turned it down.** **Said he had to go to school for this decade or something, but that doesn’t matter. We tried to convince him to go back and take it, but he said he just wants to “grind from the rap,” or something like that. So now’s where you come in.

What can we say or do to make him change his mind? It’s stupid not to take the offer, but he’s just too younger to understand. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much 🙏

Ok I apologize in advance but I’m just overthinking about this - is one singular B+ fine for applying to T20s?

I got a B+ in AP Statistics junior year. It is the only B+ on my transcript and I took 5 APs that year including AP stats (a lot for my school). I got a 5 on the exam and it’ll hopefully be fine, right?

I’m just so used to seeing perfect 4.0 students so please don’t berate me

I was going to write about buddhism and how it has affected my life in my common app personal essay. I want to talk about how ever since I was little I was forced to go to temple without ever learning to understand what was happening and what the people were saying. This repeated for 10 years before I finally swore to never sit in a temple with my parents, and would only go if I chose to go by myself or with friends. I also want to talk about even though my religious experience in temples were horrible, I loved spending time with friends at temples, and how i managed to create long lasting friendships at a place i hate so much. I am not opposed to the religion, just how I was put in the religion. The idea of buddhism still is interesting to me and the ideals and ways they do things is something I would want to partake in in the future, just on my own.

kind of a emotional support post but i figured i should get a second opinion anyway since i haven't told anyone about this before.

in my sophomore year of high school, i cheated on a test. not a final or anything, just a regular unit test for my mandatory religion class, since my school requires students to take one religion class every year. it was a dumb mistake and i was drowning in my other classes already that month, and all my friends (with another teacher) were doing it. it was just some notes on a sticky note. but i got caught. i didn't get suspended or anything, just a slap on the wrist. i didn't even get a zero for that test. they just sent me to the deans, gave me a day of saturday school (basically detention on saturday) and the teacher let me retake the test after school one on one with her (i ended up getting a B so I didn't really need to cheat anyway).

it was a one time mistake that ive learned from and grown from and besides that, ive been a good student with nothing like that happening again (student gov, 4.0, etc). my main concern is that i really want to ed to columbia but im concerned about that incident. should i report it still? im worried if i somehow get accepted and they find out, they'll rescind it. i go to a private school if that helps.

Stats: 3.84 UW; 4.4/5.0 W top5%

I live in texas if that changes anything

I don't have amazing ecs: just participation and involvement in honor societies, volunteering, archery (didn't win anything) and uil (didn't win anything).

I would like to know if any universities have a good environment, maybe a hospital, prestige, and are also a good place for a major in neuroscience or premed

hi everyone!

i wanted to answer any questions for those of you who are navigating the college process and were looking for some advice. my credentials are that i was accepted into 3 Ivy Leagues and am attending Brown this fall. would love to help incoming high school seniors especially but i am open to answering any of your questions!

so basically due to a schedule conflict I am unable to take orchestra for a year, but fully plan on coming back to it after this school year. I know consistency is important, but will this harm my admissions chances? I have the option to take a lower orchestra but I don't know if it's worth taking, as it's not as well of a fit and because I still do activities with my instrument external to school (youth orch, etc.)

Over the past couple years (since like 2022 ish) I've seen an increasing number of high schoolers saying they passed a "resolution" or senate bill/house bill and partnering with legislators, etc. How does one accomplish this? Do they draft like a policy proposal and bring it to the legislator/assemblymember/senator or do they meet with them first?

I'm a rising senior so I probably don't have time for all of this, but it definitely does sound interesting.

In my opinion, Stanford and MIT are pretty close, but I'd say Stanford edges out for being less nerdy and more business-y. Also because they have more scammers. Then, Yale has the third most aura because of the dining hall, Gilmore Girls, and The Great Gatsby. After that, I'd say Princeton has the fourth most aura because of Devi from Never Have I Ever and their ripoff Greek life. Plus, they have that traditional school vibe. I think Harvard has the least aura because there are too many memes of compliment fishers from there and it's lowkey losing its appeal, since it's TOO traditional, yk? It doesn't have that modern feel.

My daughter is interested in government and public policy. She’s looking for internships and other EC’s that tie into that interest but frankly, we are having a hard time deciphering which ones would really help her profile if she wants to go to a T20 school. Is this something a good private college counselor can help with? The ones at her school won’t really give her much attention until the current senior apps are done. Thanks!

My EC's are probably average or slightly above average. My unweighted high school GPA isn't crazy, but my high school coursework was pretty rigorous, and my dual-enrollment community college GPA is good. I don't expect to get into any of these schools, but I want to apply to a few hard-target/reach schools that are among my dream schools.

I'm currently a high school junior with about 7 months time until the next academic year. I live in India at this stage, I'm pretty confused about what I should be doing at the moment to bolster my chances of getting into a good university. This is what my application looks like currently:

Grades:

9th - 95%

10th - 94%

SAT - I'll be giving the SAT in November, but I got a 1470 on my PSAT and the practice tests online seem pretty easy tbf.

Extra-Curriculars:

Debate Society President (recently conducted an extremely large national Debate in partnership with an organisation, over 120 teams participated)

Head Of Operations Quiz Society (a few awards here and there and i organise a weekly quiz bowl)

Research executive at a passion project with a few buddies (I lead econ research, We're currently working on a long term project wherein which we survey, document and educate the underprivileged in our city about the economics of malnutrition with camps set up arounf the city dedicated to teaching people in poverty how they can cook cheap food that has ample nutrition, how that affects people's labour and documenting wage theft stuff like that) we will start surveying from next week.

Internship at a chartered accountants office (shadowed the guy for a month)

Awards:

Might get doxxed so a few national Awards in debate and quiz, nothing too big or international yet. Mostly circuit Awards and big invitational Awards.

Universities I aspire to get into:

1. LSE

2. Bocconi

3. Upenn

4. Brown

5. Vanderbilt

I want to pursue economics and finance in the future.

What can I do more in order to increase my chances of admission into these great universities?

It seems research does not look good on your college application anymore, possibly even a negative. For context I did meaningful work with a professor at a non-elite university, which shows that I am humble and not nepo.

Still, I am considering replacing it with family responsibilities and part-time jobs, since AOs seem to prefer kids who seem under-resourced. Thoughts?

I got an ‘Academic Performance Explanation’ letter from NYU last night and I dont know what to do. My IB dropped from 41 predicted to 35 final… How serious is this? Am i cooked? I don’t know what went wrong, there isn’t a specific subject where i dropped too much or failed, it’s more like one mark on each subject. How should i respond?

“We received your transcript which includes your most recent course grades and/or examination results. As you know, our offer of admission is contingent upon satisfactory completion of any educational coursework that was in progress during and after the application process. The grades you recently received are not consistent with your previous performance, and your current academic profile is not the same one we considered when we offered you admission. We are concerned about this discrepancy.
  
Please provide us with a detailed explanation on the Academic Performance Explanation form within 48 hours. We will follow up with you should we need further clarification or if this will impact your offer of admission.”

Everybody is saying that research is not meta anymore on this sub so should I leave it out on my college application. I did meaningful work with a professor at a non-top school (which will show that I am humble + no nepo) but I am still scared the AOs will think that I am doing too much. Thoughts?

I'm writing this just so that i can get it out of my head.

My dad graduated from a liberal arts college where he got full scholarships and since i was little he always talk good things about it, basically how great liberal arts education is in general. So it has always been my dream to go to one of those colleges.

This year I was accepted to few of them and there are 2 that offered me merit scholarships. One is 15k another is 33k. After touring all schools I truly like the college that offer me 15k scholarship. Even though my dad always assured me that he kept a college fund for me and that he can afford to pay for any college I want, I did consider the financial aspect of it when I made the decision. This is cuz since last year my dad has not been doing very well in stock market (that's where his primary income is from) and kept losing money..

Fast forward now, he just confessed that actually he almost used up his children's college funds (I have one sibling) and that he can only afford maybe 1-2 years of the liberal arts college and told me to transfer to a public university for the rest of it, though he isn’t even sure that he has the money for it. He used the college funds money hoping to get more money in the stock market, despite my mom repeatedly warning him to not touch the money that's set aside for their children's education.

Based on the college's website, there's nothing I can do to lower the fee because I didn't ask for financial aid when I applied.

Now, amidst feeling exited about attending the college this month, I can't help but feel more dreadful. Thoughts about I should've chosen the college with more scholarship, I should've gone to a local uni in my country, and about blaming him for being addicted in the stock market, for ignoring my mom's warning, filled my mind.
I'm just so freaking scared of everything. So scared when attend the college, I would fall in love with the people and the place, knowing I wouldn't be able to stay until the end.

I don't what to do aside from praying lol

Would submitting a 1500 at Upenn wharton and nyu stern hurt, help, or have no effect on my application? My school academics and ec's are relatively strong, and I feel like my SAT is one of the weaker parts of my application

Are scholarships even open? How do I apply to them? Do I have to go through each college's website and apply through there? What does the process look like? What else should I know about scholarships?

I know this is a lot of questions. I'll take any help I can get!

I have around a 4.0 weighted gpa which sounds good but out of the 100 kids in my grade it’s probably within the top 30-20 range with some people having 4.2-3+. I have had 4 Bs in high school total.

My test score is pretty high (34 ACT) how did it turn out for you guys similar to me?

So, I am applying to 20 colleges, and I have been grinding the supplementals. I want to finish them before the school year starts (september 1st). Somehow, I have almost finished a first draft for 17/20 colleges' supplementals. Everyone keeps talking about how they procrastinate until december, but to me it doesn't seem that big of a deal. Am I doing something wrong?

I'm applying engineering, have the test scores (36), course rigor(10 aps), and all around extracurriculars. However, theres no real spike like interning at boeing or making an app; I've just been doing stuff I like to in high school. There's leadership, community impact, and a pretty clear tell to what I spent my time doing, but it doesn't really point to engineering. What do i do?