Many of you will wait until junior or senior year before worrying about college applications. I did that, and got lucky – getting accepted at Harvard, Yale, Stanford and a few other schools. There are many strategies I discovered to make this happen – but you’ll have to read my website to find out what they are.
I’d like to talk about what you can do when you have several years. When you’re a freshman and can plan ahead. Those years can easily make the difference between getting a fat packet to Stanford, and a thin rejection letter to Yale.
1) Make sure you have a good GPA and SAT score. Take every AP-level class and test that you can – and get 4s and 5s. Princeton expects you to challenge yourself at the highest academic levels, over and over
2) Participate in a few clubs that really show what you’re passionate about (eg, environment, education, poverty, science, etc). And become the President or Vice President – you must demonstrate leadership
3) Sports and music are critical - they demonstrate that you have diverse talents
4) NATIONAL and/or INTERNATIONAL awards, prizes, and scholarships are the fastest way to distinguish yourself in this competitive environment. Admissions is simply too competitive to just dominate your high school
Make sure your accomplishments and experiences tell a STORY ABOUT YOUR LIFE. Admissions committees want to know that you have clear interests, clear goals in life, and all those things are reflected by your essays, recs, and experiences
Rejections happen because applicants do too much and spread themselves thinner than peanut butter on bread. They’re not DISTINCTIVE in anything they do – and they don’t get into Harvard or Stanford.
Too much breadth can kill you – focus instead on depth.
TELL A STORY in your application. That’s the one secret. People forget that 50% of your chance at Harvard is in your application. The other 50% is the hard work you’ve done to get to this point.
Want to learn more? Buy my Hopeless To Harvard guide today!
Want to attend Ivy League schools? Check out my insider’s course and guide to getting into Harvard, even with a 1360 SAT from a public high school.
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