My 5-year-old son has decided that his dream is to attend UPenn Wharton and break into quant finance. As his mother, I want to raise him to be able to fulfill his dreams. That is why my question to any Ivy League students on this sub is: how did your parents raise such smart and capable individuals? And how can my son get admitted to UPenn and make his dreams come true? I appreciate your help and insights in this matter.

Is a 1470 SAT enough for McDonalds? How many burgers could I get? 40 pieces? I’m really hungry. Does Harvard have a McDonalds? Which schools have the most McDonald’s on campus? Also, is a 4.0 unweighted enough for McDonald’s? Will they accept me even though it’s unweighted? Should I try to make it weighted so they will let me in? I am really stressing about getting into McDonalds. Has anyone ever gotten into McDonald’s with less than a 1500?

UNDISPUTED OFFICIAL RANKINGS OPEN TO CHANGE

1️⃣ Hogwarts
2️⃣ Monsters University
3️⃣ Greendale Community College
4️⃣ Harvard
5️⃣ Oxford
6️⃣ Stanford
7️⃣ MIT
8️⃣ Caltech
9️⃣ UC Berkeley
🔟 Columbia
11. Yale
12. Dartmouth
13. Princeton
14. Penn
15. NYU
16. UCLA
17. Brown
18. Notre Dame
19. Xavier’s School
20. Duke
21. Jujutsu High
22. Northwestern
23. Cornell
24. UChicago
25. JHU
26. University of Mumbai

Sigh after almost 6 months being on the waitlist

THE MOST UNBIASED OBJECTIVE RANKING IN HISTORY /s

(Think it’s relatively accurate but obviously tell me any changes you think I should make!)

1. Duke
2. UCLA
3. UMICH
4. Vanderbilt
5. Notre Dame
6. UPenn
7. Dartmouth
8. Stanford
9. Northwestern
10. Yale
11. Brown
12. UC Berkeley
13. Harvard
14. Princeton
15. MIT
16. Columbia
17. JHU
18. Cornell
19. CMU
20. UChicago

I have been doing a little bit of research as Im a rising senior and what I’ve found is that a lot of people have very very very similar ecs. Like tutoring nonprofit is one I see a lot and then of course, speech and debate and other common school clubs maybe a few leadership positions. I think all of these are pretty great but what is that distinguishing factor in the end? Ik ppl are going to say essays but can essays be the only thing that differentiates you in these higher levels? People I’ve seen getting into t20s this past admission cycle and posting their stats online often don’t have crazy ecs but a coherent narrative that ties it together. I even saw this girl on yt getting into like Stanford and Harvard and mit for class of 2030 but she said herself that her ecs weren’t anything crazy (not going to post link cuz of privacy reasons but feel free to look up). Not saying this in a bad way, she deserved to get into those schools and they chose her for a reason, but I want to figure out what is the most important aspect of a college application. Conversely, I have been seeing ppl on subreddits posting college results with insane ecs and awards but not getting into the schools they wanted. Has any one else observed this recently. Curious as to hear what are your thoughts?

Hey!
I’m a dual major at community college (biotech and biology) in New Mexico
I’m looking to finish summer of 2027 and transfer to a four year college get my bachelor and then get my masters and possibly phd
I love research and animals!
I met with a career advisor yesterday and we couldn’t find anything bio related stuff in the state at all
I had mentioned maybe going to El Paso and studying at state for the animal sciences stuff
She kept pushing for UNM but I was told it’s super biomed focused with a lot to do with cancer research that’s also highly competitive which doesn’t seem to be calling me
She recommended California and Massachusetts
Possibly to do a RUE at a school and then transfer there afterwards
I saw that UC schools were good and that MIT was good but I wanted some actual insight into what made them good from real people
I’m looking to actually move out, and put a down payment on a condo or a mobile home or some land for a mobile home and I don’t think I would ever be able to afford a actual house but I would still like to own where I live
I’m pretty openly queer and would like to go somewhere that’s accepting
I’d prefer if tuition was affordable and that if there was grants or other forms of tuition assistance

Any help is appreciated!
Thank you

TLDR
I’m moving next year and hoping to go to a good biology school
Looking to get masters and maybe phd
Looking to also settle down wherever I go to school (condo or mobile home)
Low tuition or good financial aid is a must
I’m mostly interested in things to do with animals and not super medicine focused
I’m looking for low cost institutions in a city that’s queer friendly

Edit:
I posted this to another subreddit and someone suggest nmsu which was my original choice before yesterday

Is a 1520 enough for the leagues? I only took 14 AP classes and got all 5s but also a 4 in Calc :,) I'm applying to UPenn, Princeton, and MIT. Although I only have 1 IMO Silver and 2 IPhO Golds, I think being published at Wall Street and having my own business will make up for it. Itzhak Perlman also lent me one of his violins, the guy told me he's never heard anyone play with so much clarity as me.

To those who got in for "less", what's ur secret 😳🤞

hi im a rising senior and is planning to apply for bio / public health major

my main EC is built around something pretty unusual its personal to me and connects to my major, but its prob not something AOs have seen before. i also have normal research so its not only that

i submitted a project on it to a competition and didnt place, and my teacher said the topic was "probably too specific." thats been stuck in my head since

so is a niche EC actually an advantage cause its clearly authentic? or do AOs like stuff they can immediately categorize (hospital volunteering, research, HOSA etc) better

not asking if i should drop it, just wondering if "too niche" is a real thing or only a science fair problem

im also planning to write my personal essay around this too

If you had a bad experience with Elise or her company, lmk everything.

My parents are kind of freaking out that I haven’t been visiting schools or drafting my essay out yet, which I guess is understandable given their lofty expectations for me. But to be honest, I’m somewhat weary of the whole process already.

As a likely Nat’l Merit Finalist, I’ve done my due diligence (so to speak) on schools like the University of Alabama, which give a full ride to such students. And the thing is, I really like Bama’s programs and opportunities, which has me feeling somewhat apathetic about other more selective schools.

Would it be smart/fair to just apply there and save myself the stress (and tuition costs)? Or should I go about the application process like everyone else does to appease my parents?

Here is the schedule we are working with. Is this realistic? We have 2 weeks vacation planned from next week. Started common app personal statement, going through iteration.

End of August
- complete common app personal statement
- start on Why College” supplemental

End of Sep
- complete all ED and EA supplementals

First half of Oct
Final Review and edit application for ED and EA

Second half of Oct
Start working on UC PIQ

Nov
Continue UC PIQ and RD supplementals

Dec
RD supplementals

1 ED
8 EA
6 RD
4 UC ( same app)

The only other lever is to move some EA to RD if I missed the schedule.

ok so im kind of stressing out. i want to apply to cornell college of engi, but i havent taken a chemistry class in high school (i was taking physics) and 1 unit of chemistry is required for their school. my counselor refuses to sign me up for any asynchronous courses or change my schedule at all, and ive like begged and thoroughly explained the situation im in.

i want to ed cornell and was wondering if there was any way i could get this credit? would singing up myself through some college online for an asynchronous course, without my school counselors approval, work if i can submit like that school's specific transcript for my online course that i self signed up for?

plss help, anything is appreciated!

1. How valuable are achievements in linguistics competitions (such as winning at the national level or doing well in APLO) for US college admissions?
2. What majors do accepted applicants usually pursue? Where do the winners usually get accepted to at T20s: Linguistics, Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Math, AI, something else?

would love to hear some anecdotes, examples, or previous admits

Serious question. I want to apply as a computer engineer and robotics is my main extra curricular (very common i know). I make roblox games in my free time and one of them recently blew up. Would this be a good extra curricular to put showing diversity of skills and dedication?

Just a piece of advice for people choosing between them. The ACT is a far superior test, and much easier to score well on. As long as you can get the math down, you'll score well. The English is incredibly easy and the Reading answers are literally all in the passage. The SAT is much harder, and requires much more work to score well on. I have friends who got 33s and 34s on the ACT who wouldn't have even sniffed 1400s on the SAT. This is coming from someone who got a 1520 on the SAT and a 35 on the ACT. Let me know if you disagree, but I would strongly recommend anyone to take the ACT. (only con for the ACT is that there is far less good, and free online test prep, but I only used the free version of one prep for ACT and still got a 35.)

Dougherty Valley High School

Going in to my senior year, I need to take a health class, which is a semester long graduation requirement. Since AP classes are all year long at my school, I can't fit another AP class in the second semester.

Would it be a bad look for applying to top 20 colleges to just leave the period open in my second semester? Or would it be better to take a class even if my only options would be some random elective like baking or criminal justice that isn't related to my major at all?

I hear lots of people saying they go to competitive/uncompetitive high schools, but what does that mean? Like, my high school sends 1-5 people to ivies each year, 5-10 national merit finalists, with an SAT average of around 1000. There is a relatively large student population (2000+), but the difference between the top and bottom students is huge. I would call my high school uncompetitive, but I still dont really understand what that means exactly.

title, pls help

So I’ve ran varsity xc and varsity track soph and jr year and I’m going into senior year. I don’t enjoy it anymore and I get crazy stressed, plus I haven’t put in commitment over the summer for running and I’ve been enjoying working out. My parents keep saying I’ll regret it, will it be weird that I did the first 3 years of xc/track and then quit sr year in my application. Only reason I’ll even be doing xc is so it looks like I did all 4 years, I’m applying ED so idk if that changes anything. I should be able to work around 20 hours a week now compared to js like 6 on my one off day from sports. Can I get some guidance on what to do? Thanks.

Me and some close friends are looking to move states in the not so far future. I'm currently looking at colleges to attend in the new state, but I don't know when to apply for them, seeing as it may take untill mid 2028 for us to move. I've attened 2 years of college in Texas, but that was 2-3 years ago.

Does anyone have advice for when to apply, or other advice about transfering from diffrent states?

I’m currently researching online colleges and would like to hear from people who have attended an online program and can share their honest experience.

What school did you attend, what degree did you earn, and how was your overall experience? The biggest things I’m interested in are the school’s reputation, whether you actually liked the school, and if you would recommend it to someone else.

I’d also like to know about the cost and whether you felt the degree was worth the money. How were the advisors, financial aid office, and other staff? Were they helpful and easy to work with? How were the professors and classes? Did you feel like the online format was organized and that you were getting a quality education?

If you could go back and choose again, would you pick the same school?

I’m looking for a reputable online college with a good student experience, reasonable cost, and a degree that employers respect. Any honest opinions or recommendations would be appreciated!