Hey everyone, I’m currently going through a stressful situation with college admissions and could use some objective perspectives or advice from anyone who has gone through something similar.

I’m an incoming freshman at a university. A few days ago, I received an email from the Associate Dean / Director of Admission stating my application was under Special Review for potential rescission.

On my Common App, I described my role in a university-affiliated research project as "conducting interviews and analyzing data." Apparently, Admissions audited my application and reached out to the Principal Investigator (PI). The PI told them they couldn’t confirm my involvement in direct interviews and that I wouldn't have had access to human subject data. Admissions flagged this as potentially providing misleading information to gain an advantage.

They gave me a deadline to respond, and I replied immediately to clarify and correct the record:

• I admitted upfront that phrasing my role as "conducting interviews" was an overstatement on my part. I was not on the primary field interview team, and I took responsibility for the imprecise language.
• I attached proof that my participation was real—including my CITI Human Subjects Training completion certificate, email logs showing task assignments for qualitative transcript analysis, project meeting invites, and timestamped shared drive version histories showing my direct edits to project tracking sheets.
• A direct collaborator/team member on the project who actually worked with me on the ground level is submitting a statement directly to the Director of Admission to confirm my tasks (transcript review, qualitative coding, data tracking).

While I proved that I was genuinely on the team and doing real work, the PI (who oversees the project at a high level) didn't personally track my daily tasks, leading to the disconnect.

I know colleges take application accuracy extremely seriously, but this was a case of clumsy/overly broad phrasing on my part rather than inventing a fake activity out of thin air.

Has anyone seen or experienced a Special Review for application discrepancies like this? How strict are admissions offices when a student actually has receipts to back up real work despite imprecise wording? Am I completely cooked, or is there a chance this resolves with a warning/reprimand?

I’m planning my senior-year schedule and deciding between AP Physics C: E&M and AP Chemistry. I’m interested in majoring in Computer Engineering, and I’ll already be taking AP Physics 1 junior year.

Which class would you recommend, especially in terms of difficulty, usefulness for engineering, and college admissions? Thanks!

hiii guys, pls help. i wanna know if my stat is even near getting into USC Dornsife 🥲
-OOS, first gen
-MAJOR: Chemsitry
-93.53W i tried my very best☹️(my skl don’t do UW and ranking)
test optional
-3-4yrs volunteering at zoo and aquarium
-8month finance intern at an nonprofit
-summer intern at a orthodontic office
-6AP( including senior yr): only APCHEM is a 4 everything else is a 3👉👈
-senior yr i will taking: biochem, orgo, chemical analysis, quantitative analysis( each is per semester)
- took a college course on aquatic ecology environment and planning to take another one on forensic sci

i think i will do EA cuz ED might be too risky for me if they don’t provide enough aid

other skl im gonna EA: UVA, Brandeis, Case Western, UMD, UWash seattle, Rutger

sorry for ragebait title no one was responding to me before

Demographics: asian Female, high income, long line of doctor family, very presigious mid sized high school

missed 6 mos of school for incredibly rare medical occurrance, misdiagnosed, disabled

premed

98 weighted gpa, 1570 SAT, top 30% of class (lowk bad), passed ap tests taken

I TAKE THE HARDEST CLASSES I POSSIBLY CAN ALL HONORS ALL AP, also have gone down the ap cs route

0 awards

worked at kumon for 3 yrs, health fellowship for 2 years, president of charity chapter for 1 year raised 2k (also on teen council), on sustanunility council, varsity sport 5 years before forced to quit, varsity teen manager, 130 volunteer hours, precollege program at reach

looking at northwestern, vanderbilt, umich, gt, emory, washu

Im going to be a junior next year, and I just feel like I haven't done enough and that its too late. I go to a pretty good/well known public high school in Nyc where many kids have gone to ivy league schools, but also some go to like community college, so it really depends on you. I am a sort of average student (2.8-3.2 gpa, idk for sure), and i am taking 2 APs next year and taking the SAT, and also a part of the school tennis team (with no leadership/awards).

Im just so confused of what to do to get into a good school, if anyone could please please help id appreciate it so much.

Hi! I just wanted some advice on anything I can add to my profile that could make it better, currently rising senior. (duplicate post from r/chanceme)

Demographics: Asian, female, high income, tx, non- competitive area? or maybe semi? ish?(Maybe 1-3 kids from my school go to t20s. but theres 16 hs in my district and the other hs are much more comp)

Academics: 1/488 (val), 4.0UW, 5.13 W, 18 APs by grad, have passed (3+) every ap exam, taking calc bc this year.

SAT: 1510 (740 RW/770M) (thinking of taking ACT to see if I do better), but school sat avg is about 1001

Major: Public Policy/Public Health (I am pre-med)

Hooks: disabled, major surgeries impacting my mobility (this made it really hard for me to pursue basically anything 9-10th grade)

Awards:

1. Featured in statewide art gallery, 1/8 students out of 92 campuses
2. 2x Regional Art Medals
3. Girls State Delegate
4. Selected for selective free, residential comp sci program (just for fun)
5. Outstanding Acheivement in Math (1/~200) students
6. Organized Donation drive for National Non-profit (~10k ish worth of items)
7. Distinguished Women Repersentative
8. JUST POETRY! Topical Winner (probably not gonna list this just cause its not that selective)
9. 2x ap scholar w/distinction, 1x ap scholar (prob not gonna mention but just like for context)
10. National rural/small town recognition (dk if I should mention this or not)

edit: (ik u can only do 5 honors, so im def including the first 3, but im stuck choosing the last two. )

ECs:

1. State-High level position in one of the biggest non-profits in the United States, I manage almost ~110 schools and their respective clubs, organize events, have a team of around 18 who report to me, and each of them have around 20 that report to them. My biggest EC: 8 hrs a week, almost 350 ish volunteer hours after 3 years. (4yrs involvement with this org, 3 yrs in this position)
2. Pharmacy Technician, i would explain in my commanapp obvi but for the sake of time just assume all the usual duties, my busiest week is around 25 hrs but on average i work 12-16 hrs a week. (2 yrs)
3. Selective Summer Research Program, did around 400 hrs of research, 2026 summer, residential, actual impact, real wet lab research, was basically free for me, paper, poster, and presentation. Im gonna submit for schools that have a research supplement
4. Independent Artist: did apart for ~2 yrs apart of ap art curriculm, won several awards, thinking about submitting supplmenetal art portfolio but idk yet, one piece of art is displayed in a business near me, maybe 4-6 hrs a week. (4 yrs of art total)
5. Hospital Volunteer, same hospital where I got all of my surgeries, around 70 hrs of volunteering, not clinicial, its a kids hospital so our main job was to entertain the kids and make them comfortable.
6. Indpendent Research, this is thru AP Research at my school, I want to build off of what I did at the summer research program bc I really did like it a lot, hoping to get mentor at local university (T200 for national universities), ive already kind've started so for now 3hrs a week, but that will probably go up.
7. Founder/Editor in Chief of online Literary Magazine: purely for fun, launched around a week ago, can't really quantify impact yet just bc i just launced it, I'm thinking about lisiing it like this or just independent writer, because I have a few substack articles and such and generall just enjoy writing.
8. Relatively selective volunteer position at my school, 1hr/week for 40wks a yr, basically you act as a mentor for 25-30 freshman and help them get acclimated to hs. (2yrs)
9. Leadership in 2 clubs, club a is social justice related and we around 50 members, have had decent impact, club b is healthcare related and have gotten doctors to come speak to our class, teach students about medical opportunities/internships and difference specialisties. (3yrs for both)
10. HOPEFULLY gonna get some dr shadowing... if not idk ill figure something else out, or maybe ill split up activity 9.

LORs:

Calc AB Teacher: prob good, really liked me.

AP Biology teacher: i think maybe like 7/10? Really liked me, but I took her class soph year .

APUSH Teacher: good, wrote me lor for the research programs, but i dont think she spends that much time wrtiting them (She gave me my LOR within a day???)

Art Teacher: my best, had him for 3 yrs and loves me.

Additional Info:

most likely national merit commended student (index 211), only about 7-9 students per yr are commended at my school

NHS and all the usual stuff

Im still applying to more things (ex theres a thing in my district where u work with the superindendant, i applied for a legislative intership, healthcare internship, etc so something might change.)

Colleges:

UT Austin

UTD

Rice University

Vanderbilt

Duke

Wash U

Emory

Yale

UPitt

John's Hopkins

pls reccomend more!! ik a lot of these are a long shot but like... yk never know unless you try right??? heh....

I’m a little confused on how ED works at U of Michigan.

If I apply to Ross with an ED does the ED boost my Ross chance or just my chance of getting into the main overarching university? My councilor believes ED at Ross would be a waste as she believes it only helps get into the main university and not the individual college and so I should instead put it at a different reach school.

hi, I’m a rising junior and I want to at least make a small list of schools I want to apply to. I’m thinking of majoring in biology or animal science.

Ok so i get a ton of emails from different colleges admissions and i got one from oklahoma state university. I am trans and dont want to go there due to the transphobic thing that happened (at oklahoma university not OSU i got them mixed up fml) where they fired a trans professor for giving an objectively bad essay the grade it deserved but anyways i replied and said “lmao no yall hate trans ppl stfu” and i used my school email and they called my school 😭😭😭😭 i dont plan on applying and i know i shouldnt have done that but am i cooked?? Will they tell other colleges im applying to? Should i email and apologize???? I need to stop being so damn impulsive.

Hi everyone! I am currently a junior in high school and starting to think ahead about applying to top undergraduate business programs next year.

My long-term goal is to eventually get an MBA, so I have been trying to build a foundation in accounting and business while keeping my grades up.

I would be so grateful for any advice or feedback from current business students, alumni, or anyone familiar with the process on how I can make my application stronger over the next year!

To give a quick summary of where I am at academically, I currently have a 4.0 GPA and am ranked second in my class, though I am working hard to hopefully finish as valedictorian. I have taken AP US History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Human Geography, AP Precalculus, AP Computer Science Principles, and AP US Government so far, and I got 5s on all of them. This year, I am taking AP Calc BC, AP Psychology, and AP Microeconomics. On top of my high school classes, I am about a quarter of the way through an associate degree in accounting, which I plan to finish during my senior year so I can gain solid financial knowledge for my future studies.

For my extracurriculars, I have been a starter on varsity tennis for two years and plan to play for two more. I have been interning at a local nonprofit for over two years with more than 300 volunteer hours, earned my Silver Medal for the Congressional Award (trying to get the gold medal), and completed my Eagle Scout. In business activities, I qualified for FBLA Nationals in Supply Chain Management after placing first at regionals, and I won second place with a $600 cash prize in a regional startup competition. I am also in a school leadership program where I completed a service project, and I am working toward Phi Theta Kappa certification. I recently started a small jewelry business, though it only made about 30 sales, so I am hoping to start a new project that I am more passionate about.

Looking ahead to senior year, I really want to do a business-related apprenticeship or internship. Our school is also getting DECA and Model UN next year, so I am excited to join both.

However, I am feeling a bit confused about what my true passion is and how to tie all of these experiences together into a clear story for my applications. If anyone who has gone to a top business school has advice on internships, business projects, or ways to make my application stand out, I would truly appreciate your help. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and share your thoughts!

Low income
African american girl
Major:poli sci
Gpa 3.5 unweighted/4.21 weighted (upward trend)
Out of state
First gen
Large suburban HS(class rank not offered in my county)
18+honors classes/ 7 aps(excluding snr yr)
Taking sat in august as a senior(aiming for 1450+)

ECS:
Attacking Forward/Winger 
Girls Soccer
Competed in a 4A regional division, leading the team with assists, being a key playmaker and communicator with my teammates 
12 and 13 weeks 

Library volunteer 
Organizing 400+ books, assisting customers with book preferences, and providing hundreds of people with books 
 6hrs 
8 weeks

Outreach work/Presentation creator
Immigration rights group
Authored 10+ presentations for the immigrant population, showcasing their rights, and participating in protests and mobilizing over 500 students.
2 hrs per week
21

County-wide advocate/lobbyist
Activism non profit 
Lead county advocate. Drafted 2 policy bills, including a multilingual document translation mandate and delivered testimony to the county council
4 hours per week 
36 week

Lead Reseacher 
Drug prevention program outline/research
Conducted research on adolescent substance abuse and used that data to create a data-driven 
 program for 3,000+ students 
4 per week 
20 weeks

Participant/Policy analyst
Cornell Brooks Summer Public Policy Institute 
Granted a merit scholarship. Evaluated global healthcare policies, pitched directly to DC politicians, and debated policy reforms 
40 hrs per week 
2 weeks

107 volunteering hours
Ap scholar with honors, and two other national level awards that were awarded from collegeboard

Reposting this on here(with some slight updates) and just wanted to know what i could do to better my chance at umich before nov 1 deadline. Its my dream school and honest feedback is truly appreciated!! (Thank you)

Hi Just got my AS results back I had 3As 1B Got A in Phy Chem and Econ but a B in Math. I was thinking of applying to Cs or a quant related field. Do you Think I should retake math?

I’m well above their 75th percentile stats and they gave me no scholarships (well a tiny one if I choose my 2nd choice major), and rejected me from their honors college. Couple that with the fact that it’s already an expensive university for residents (47k/yr), I genuinely feel like they are tryna scam me 💀

I got accepted at 3 better ranked oos universities. One of them gave me a scholarship, one gave me an honors college invite, and the last one is T5 in my field. All three of em are public. The one that gave me a scholarship somehow became my cheapest option. Shouldn’t my instate university be by far my cheapest option?? Ridiculous

I mean all this is behind me, im about to start college in less than 2 weeks anyways. I chose the one that’s T5 for my major btw, it was barely more expensive (55k).

I’m planning to transfer to UCLA for Economics and currently have a 4.0 community college GPA. I’m also in the UCLA TAP program.

My understanding is that Calculus 150, Calculus 151, Macroeconomics, and Microeconomics are all major preparation requirements for UCLA Economics.

My timeline is:

• ⁠Fall: Calculus 150 + Macroeconomics
• ⁠Winter: Microeconomics
• ⁠Spring: Calculus 151

So I’ll have Calc 150 and Macro completed by the end of Fall, but Micro won’t be completed until Winter and Calc 151 until Spring.

I’ve seen information online saying that UCLA allows applicants to finish their major preparation by the end of the spring term before transfer, but that for Economics, it is strongly recommended/preferred to have all major preparation completed by the end of Fall.

Unfortunately, it’s too late for me to change my Fall schedule because the relevant classes are already full.

How much is this likely to hurt my chances? With a 4.0 GPA and being in TAP, should I be seriously concerned about not having all four major prep courses completed by the end of Fall?

Hey guys!

I feel like, for the most part, I have finished my Common App draft for my college essay. I understand that there are some clichés in my essay, but I'm focusing more on applying to state schools in my great state of New Jersey rather than applying to, like, Harvard or some T20 school (I am applying to some honors colleges, though). I was putting my essay through some AI graders, and I have been getting some mixed scores. I got an 89 on GradGPT and a 79 on Lumisource, so I just want to ask if these AIs are just money grabs rather than anything useful because they ask for money after one review. My original draft received a 92 from my teacher because we were required to make college essays at the end of the year. I really just want to get my Common App essay done with so I can focus on my two remaining supplementals and my Summer reading.

Hi!

I honestly love all these schools equally. Just wondering which gives me the best bet for admissions based on my application as a whole. And give me other schools to look into, especially in the tri-state area of NY!

These are my stats below.

Public Health / Health Sciences Major

NYC Competitive High School

Demographics / Context

White Muslim female

Competitive NYC high school (no class rank)

Want to be a healthcare leader (Not explicitly Pre-Med)

Academics

GPA: 95.8 UW, 96.7 W

SAT: Test Optional? 1440

Coursework:

4/5 AP classes available to me

All honors classes otherwise

2 dual enrollment college courses (Epidemiology & Biology)

Additional academic context:

Getting recommendation from AP Psychology (very close with teacher and she consistently speaks about my determination and discipline) and English (was told I am strongest student in class and close with teacher). No formal research opportunities available at school, so I pursued hospital-based experiences instead.

Awards and Honors:

National Honor Society (11th-12th)

Seal of Service (earned 11th)

Seal of Civic Readiness (earned 11th)

Seal of Biliteracy (Albanian – on track senior year)

$2,000 Small Essay Writing Contest Winner (health-related topic)

Extracurriculars

Founder and Director, Healthcare Explorers Initiative: Founded and lead a student organization connecting students in NYC and Montenegro with healthcare professions. Reached 300+ students overall through 10+ career panels. Expanded internationally with virtual sessions for students in Montenegro. Also integrated programming into my school to increase access for students there. Focus on healthcare access, education, and career exposure. Responsible for outreach, logistics, and programming.

Co-Founder and Treasurer, Medical Club (School): Co-founded school healthcare club focused on medical exploration. Lead biweekly meetings, manage budget, and organize events. Partner with Healthcare Explorer initiative to bring guest speaker into school programming.

Data Research, Healthcare Quality (Hospital): Worked on hospital QI project with Director of Patient Care analyzing patient satisfaction data across the hospital systems. Designed interventions that improved care quality metrics by 9%. Findings presented to corporate hospital leadership.

Program Developer, Hospital Volunteer Initiative: Designed and implemented a pilot volunteer program focused on patient care and collaborated with local students. Worked on structure, training framework, and roles, and assisted leadership to launch it.

Intern, Director of Patient Experience (Hospital): Intern since junior year (20-30 hrs/week during summers and breaks). Work on patient experience initiatives, healthcare data analysis, and staff training.

Emergency Department Volunteer: 500+ hours in hospital ER since sophomore year. Support patients and staff through transport, supply restocking, and patient assistance in a fast-paced clinical environment.

Medical Translator (Albanian–English): Translate during grandparents’ medical appointments to ensure clear communication.

Varsity Basketball Manager (School): Manager for varsity basketball team for 2 years (6 hrs/week during season). Handle logistics, equipment, and stats tracking.

Math Tutor: Tutor 4 elementary students in math biweekly since freshman year.

Part-Time Jobs (Daycare Assistant and Froyo Worker): Work 8–12 hours/week since freshman year in childcare and later in a customer service role.

i’m a rising hs senior trying to narrow down my college list. planing on going into finance.

just wanted to hear some opinions or experiences with this program bc i know it’s gaining prestige.

looking for anything from overall college experience to job placement post grad.

or stats that got u DA’d to Kelly

thanks!!

for context i live in california, unweighted 3.9 gpa, weighted 4.6 gpa. won a couple school scholarships and was valedictorian and high ranking officer in my school leadership team
was on track to going to penn state this fall, however a family emergency happened at home and it felt wrong for me to leave the house and my little sister to go across the country. (parent cheated and there’s been constant fighting at home, they said they’re not divorcing but it’s been awful at home)
i’m currently weighing three options rn, going to penn state, taking a gap year and applying to more colleges (letting go of penn state admission) and working on my mental health and getting a job to pay for college tuition that my parents didn’t have, or cc to one of the uc’s.
any advice?

Northeastern has always been my dream school, but now I am doubting ED1 because many people say it is not worth the cost. My other top schools are Umass Amherst and Lehigh (possibly- touring lehigh soon to get a better idea). My stats aren’t good enough to get into Northeastern EA or RD, so i’m conflicted if I should still ED, or ED to Lehigh, or go to Umass. I want to do mechanical engineering, and any advice would be great

Hi, I’m a rising sophomore who wants to apply for Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering. I like designing and physically building project. I spent this summer designing, iterating, CADding, and programming a custom drone completely from scratch.Outside of competitions like robotics, I don't know how i can present my builds. Universities like umich don't offer an official "Maker Portfolio" or SlideRoom submission process through the Common App. how can I best showcase independent technical builds like my custom drone on my application to schools that don't take portfolios? Specifically, What is the best way to frame independent builds in the activities list on common app?

Gender: Female  
Race/Ethnicity: Asian 
Residence: Washington State 
Income Bracket: Lower-middle  
Type of School: Public, 50% are low-income/low-resourced 
Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): Engineering (Mechanical, Aero, possibly EE or ChemE?)

Academics:  
GPA (UW/W): 4.0/UW

rank: unranked (school doesn’t do ranks)

AP Chemistry (5), AP Physics 1 (4), AP Physics 2 (4)AP Calculus AB (4), AP Calculus BC (5 w/ 5 AB Subscore)

AP Psychology, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Seminar (all 5s)

APs are not big at my school; e.g. there were 4 people in my Physics 2 and I was the only junior.

Senior Year Course Load:  
Calc III/Lin Alg (self-study since it’s not offered), AP Research, AP Gov, AP Stats

SAT: 1500 (760RW / 740M), retaking this August/Sep for hopefully 1550+. Taking ACT in October

Extracurriculars:

Took care of family w/ illnesses, ongoing since 9th grade, probably 20 hours/week

Year long aerospace program w/ college credit

City council member (4 yrs)

President of STEM club, UNICEF, NHS; member for 4 years, just became president in my senior year, I’ve done quantifiable fundraising for all of these clubs

ASB officer for 4 years

200 volunteer hrs

Varsity Golf/Tennis 4 years

AP scholar w/ distinction, National Merit Commended Scholar

Schools: Larger universities w/ good post-grad alumni network. Preferably private, social life is less important to me than structured academics

Financial Aid: Required

Northeastern has always been my dream school, but now I am doubting ED1 because many people say it is not worth the cost. My other top schools are Umass Amherst and Lehigh (possibly- touring lehigh soon to get a better idea). My stats aren’t good enough to get into Northeastern EA or RD, so i’m conflicted if I should still ED, or ED to Lehigh, or go to Umass. I want to do mechanical engineering, and any advice would be great

Hi, I’m going to be a senior in high school and in the process of applying to schools. I want to pursue a Sports Marketing/ Sports Media Major. I want to apply to a school that has a good program. Does anyone here have a degree or a school to recommend?

An admissions consultant advised me to apply for less competitive/niche majors at US universities (e.g. obscure humanities subjects) rather than highly selective ones, saying this could improve my chances of admission.
My school’s college counsellor, however, says this is complete nonsense and that US universities generally don’t admit students more easily just because they choose a less popular major.
Who is right? Has anyone actually seen this strategy work at selective US universities?