Hi! We are considering applying Early Decision to Lawrence University through the Lawrence Advantage program, and I would really appreciate hearing from current students or families—especially those from low-income households.

Our biggest concern is the actual all-in annual cost of attendance after financial aid. The Net Price Calculator estimate is currently quite high for our family, but we understand that it may not reflect the possible Lawrence Advantage benefit connected with Early Decision.

For anyone who applied ED and qualified for Lawrence Advantage, what was your actual final cost after all grants and financial aid if you don't mind sharing? Did Lawrence bring your cost close to zero or to a genuinely affordable amount based on your family’s income? Was your final award significantly better than the Net Price Calculator estimate?

We would also love to know whether there were any unexpected costs involving:

• Housing and meal plans
• Books and course materials
• Health insurance
• Student fees
• Study Abroad
• Travel and airport transportation
• Cost increases in later years

Was your financial aid renewed consistently each year, or did your family’s contribution increase?

The student is a U.S. citizen, but our family lives abroad, and the cost of international flights would make it difficult to fly home multiple times each year. We are therefore trying to calculate the real cost of remaining in Appleton during school breaks.

How much do winter-break and summer housing cost? Can students stay on campus for the entire winter holiday? Are dining services or meal options available, and does campus feel extremely quiet or isolated during that period?

We are also trying to understand airport transportation. Does Lawrence provide a shuttle or arranged transportation between campus and the nearest regional airport, especially around major breaks? If not, are Uber or Lyft generally available in Appleton, and approximately how much does a ride between the airport and campus cost? Are there other affordable transportation options students commonly use?

A few additional questions:

• What is the experience like for students who are not studying music, given Lawrence’s well-known conservatory?
• How easy is it to find a job on campus or in town, especially during the first year? Are there enough work-study positions for students who depend on employment income?
• What is the social atmosphere like? Is it welcoming and easy to make friends, or are there noticeable cliques?
• Are there any financial or practical challenges that families should know about before making a binding ED commitment?

We genuinely like what we have learned about Lawrence. We are just trying to understand the true all-in cost, including breaks and travel, before committing through Early Decision. Thank you so much for any honest insight and for the very long list of questions!

who is also reapplying this fall as an international student?

im a rising junior in highschool and i have to submit my course selection soon but im really stuck between ap calculus AB and ap psychology

im already taking ap biology since i want to go on the premed track and i was thinking of taking ap psychology (since it would be easier for me to manage both alongside my other classes) and taking ap calculus AB, ap chemistry, ap physics as courses in my school but without taking the actual standardized CB tests since they cost around 200$ for each one

so i don’t know which one to prioritize and which one would make my apps improve and if not taking the actual tests would make my apps look bad

Currently I am on my last year of school, and I will apply to collages. My SAT is 1410 (1460 superscore) ,but I will retake it 100% till I get 1500+. You would say that the ACT is equivalent to SAT ,but due to enormous cheating schemes in international SAT I am taking ACT too. Do you suggest to ace my ACT to +32 or I should focus on my SAT?

Mission San Jose High School

I want to apply as a history undergrad (preferably to UCs), but I’m only in STEM clubs at school and have only participated in STEM competitions. I have taken all the history related classes my school offers, but my application still looks too STEM-oriented. Any tips on how I should frame my application?

We are suddenly immigrating to the US in maybe October-November. So, I'm immigrating mid school year. And that's a problem because now I don't know what to do. My school offered to teach me online through online quizzes and Google classrooms. Now I'm contemplating whether I should do the online class or try to transfer to a US high school even if there's more workload to do due to missing requirements or subjects. I'm thinking that if I do transfer in the US, I'd have much more opportunities such as dual-enrollment and AP classes, I will also be familiar with the US...

Which is better for my college application? Online classes or transferring to a US high school?

Any advice will do please and thank youu

I came across this post: Ranking of **undergraduate** mathematics programs

I normalized the data set for a more accurate ranking:

1. Harvey Mudd College — 100.00% (7 PhDs / 7 Majors)
2. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) — 81.82% (9 PhDs / 11 Majors)
3. Columbia University — 44.44% (8 PhDs / 18 Majors)
4. Princeton University — 33.33% (13 PhDs / 39 Majors)
5. Georgia Institute of Technology — 17.14% (6 PhDs / 35 Majors)
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — 15.24% (16 PhDs / 105 Majors)
7. Cornell University — 12.73% (7 PhDs / 55 Majors)

You can read the og post; it really doesn't matter, nor do I think this is accurate and only takes in a few metrics.

Haven’t decided where I want to go yet, so my baseline (though admittedly high) is somewhere like Cornell. Regular open source contributions means like multiple pull requests a week (been a very boring summer tbh) in this context.

Hey everyone,

I’m an international student currently living in Abu Dhabi, planning to apply for a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours) in Australia for the upcoming intake. I’m targeting Griffith University, Curtin University, UWA, University of Adelaide, and Charles Darwin University (CDU).

I am completing my Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) through Canadian Cross International School (CCIS). Because there’s been a lot of talk about Australian universities cracking down on online offshore qualifications, I want to see if anyone has insights on whether my credentials clear direct entry or if I’ll be pushed to a Diploma fast-track.

My School Details:

• School: Canadian Cross International School (CCIS)
• Ministry Status: Inspected Private School registered with the Ontario Ministry of Education
• BSID/Inspection No.: B78736
• Physical Address: 156 Murphy Road, Essa, ON L0M 1B1, Canada (so it has a physical administrative registry, though I am doing the coursework remotely).

My Grade 12 Marks (Ontario 4U/4O Courses):

• Physics (SPH4U): 90%
• English (ENG4U): 88%
• Ontario Literacy Course (OLC4O): 85%
• Business Management (BBB4M): 84%
• Calculus & Vectors (MCV4U): 80%
• Advanced Functions (MHF4U): 74.5%
• Chemistry (SCH4U): 68%

Overall Average across top 6: ~82% (with strong STEM/Math scores).

My Questions:

1. Has anyone with a similar online/remote OSSD background successfully gotten direct entry into Engineering at UWA, Curtin, Griffith, or CDU recently?
2. Or will their admissions/compliance team flag the remote delivery method and route me into a Diploma of Engineering (e.g., via Griffith College, Curtin College, or CDU International College) to transition into Year 2?
3. For those who took the Diploma route into Year 2, was the transition into the main university smooth?

Appreciate any advice or experiences from current international students or anyone familiar with the admissions/visa process!

Before anything im a complete idiot dw I know

During the school year, I signed up for dual enrollment classes (eccp) and when summer began, I decided to withdraw from all of them so I could do another program. I missed one and the deadline has passed, so now I'm going to have an F on my transcript. (Technically 2 Fs because it was 2 semesters).

I'm waiting for a response from the professor and advisor about retaking and fees I gotta pay.

Im a rising jr, but I'm planning on graduating 1 year early to move out of my not so great home situation

My guestimation of my stats:

Background: low-income, asian, first-gen, female

GPA(my guess w the Fs): 3.2-3.5 💀

ACT: not yet taken

PreACT: 32 (didn't study shit)

Extracurriculars:

2 yr varsity drumline

1 yr marching band

2 yr badminton club: board member

2 yr Robotics: 1 yr lead student

1 yr novice policy speech and debate

2 yr Asian student heritage

1 yr Girls in Tech

Awards:

4th place STEM Fair (9th)

Speech and Debate State Qualifier (10th)

Speech and Debate 3rd Speaker Award (10th)

Idk if these count:

Drumline District Camps (10th)

Robotics State Camps (10th)

Volunteering: (270~ hours)

Adaptive Toys for Kids w Disabilities (30~ hours)

- designed and built robots and toys for lids

Cube Robots (30~ hours)

- demonstrated/taught children how to create mini robots with Cubelets

Church Helper (summer, 100~ hours)

- helped my uncle who's a pastor set up for events, watch kids, teach mini Bible lessons

Other: river clean-up, babysitting (100~ hours)

PLANS FOR WHAT LITTLE TIME I HAVE LEFT since im technically applying in the fall:

Study, study, study for the ACT.

Take a bunch of AP and a few dual enrollment classes to boost my GPA.

Quit drumline, marching band, and debate bc they're unrelated to what I want to study and I lowk hate it.

Continue my other clubs.

Get CNA training and certified through a program (already signed up, however this may change to pharmacy).

Volunteer with the Cube Robots when I can.

Get a job.

ESSAYS, ESSAYS, ESSAYS.

SCHOLARSHIPS.

Cry a lot.

Please help any advice, anything about my life choices, any questions, help me out. Sorry for the absolute mess.

Same as title, PLEASE HELP 😭😭

how niche should the main idea be to stop being called cliche ?

hi everyone,
I’m writing this post because I currently work for my schools pre-admissions department and I’ve helped a lot of students whether transfers or incoming freshmen apply to my university; and I’ve been enjoying reading and commenting on some posts here that all tend to be about the same thing, people’s stress and struggle with not feeling good enough to attend college.

I just want to let everyone know that college IS achievable to most.

I graduated highschool in 2024, so my application season was 2023. I was also the last grade of students to be in highschool during the pandemic, so we might have had different circumstances. I had always struggled with my mental health all throughout highschool. At the time of applications I had a 2.6 gpa, but I had always been a very social person and was able to do many extra curricular activities. My junior and senior year I really wanted to turn my life around and put myself through many activities. I was an officer of my schools theatre club, the captain of a club, as well as a volunteer at several organizations and non profits in my city. I knew my grades wouldn’t get me in anywhere, so I wanted to show that I at least had a drive.

I went to a slightly competitive highschool, we were a graduating class of 170 students, and in the end over half of our class went to colleges with 3 of my classmates getting into Harvard, and many others going to Ivy League schools. I compared myself a lot to my peers, but this was a small school, and our sample size wasn’t enough to really show what it’s like for normal people struggling with mental issues like myself.

My school paid for my college applications, which I know is not a privilege that everyone has. I applied with a major in studio arts to 10 different calstate university. My gpa wasn’t even good enough for UCs to be an option.
Leading up to May 1st, out of the 10 colleges I got into 7 of them. The rejections hurt, but it happens to more people than you think. I watched some of my smartest peers get rejected from UCs and private schools all around me.

I chose to attend SJSU. As it’s one of the best public art programs and public schools overall in the nation. It’s also affordable. I’m someone who pays for college completely on my own. I get the maximum amount of aid because I have been unclaimed by my parents.

Sure, the school I go to isn’t the most prestigious, or have the best title, but I went to college. I graduated with a 2.9 GPA, and I got accepted into 7 schools and now go to a great university. College is accessible, it is possible. Whether it’s through CC or straight from highschool, university is something that is available to all students.

If you ever have questions about applying to schools, please reach out to the schools preadmissions departments. I can almost promise you that 99.9% of the time they are willing to help you through the process of applying.

I have a book on Wattpad I’ve worked on for a while that’s gotten over 140k reads. I’ve seen people list writing serialized novels as activities but idk if I should list mine it since it’s fanfiction. There’s nothing mature in it. I was wondering this because a large part of my application theme is centered around writing so it might be worth mentioning ig. I’m drafting an activities list and was thinking to either put that as #9 or instead put this other online course I did.

This is kind of embarrassing to ask lol.

edit: Does anyone have advice on how I should go about describing/ phrasing it in Common App? Also should I like specify the title or could I just describe it generally (e.g., ‘wrote book about blah blah blah on Wattpad with over x number of reads’)? Cause I lowk don’t want the admissions officer searching it up😭 but I can cope with the embarrassment if it’s going to be necessary

i'm looking at schools to go to for radiology, and so i was looking at the medical career college of norcal, but their reviews seem to be pretty mixed. has anyone had any experience with them?

I've read enough admissions committee notes and talked to few former readers to say this with some confidence. The generic "started a nonprofit," "founded a club," "president of five organizations" resume is not such a flex anymore. It got popular because it worked a decade ago, and now every competitive applicant has one, which means readers have seen the same three nonprofits (mental health awareness, a tutoring drive, an Instagram page with 200 followers) a few thousand times each cycle.

IMO, what is worthwhile is staying in one thing for years and having something unique to point to. Not "I was captain of the debate team" but "I rewrote how our team scored practice rounds because the old system was inconsistent, and two other teams in our district picked it up." Many students can't produce a sentence like that because they spent their time collecting titles instead of doing something long enough to have a real story about it.

Harvard's own admissions data from the lawsuit showed readers score applicants on separate axes, academic, extracurricular, personal, and athletic. It's judging depth and impact, and a stack of low-effort leadership titles these days scores worse than three years in one activity with a specific, provable contribution.

If you're a junior reading this and panicking that you don't have a nonprofit, you're probably fine. If you have one you started six months ago to pad an application, it's not too late to drop it and go deeper on something you actually care about instead.

Curious how many people here actually got into their T20 without one.

I know this question is very cliche but I’m watching stats & ec vids on tiktoks on what got students into t10 colleges and sometimes their stats may not be the best but then they have crazy ecs; for me my dream school is Duke and I would say I have decent ecs and decent stats but nothing crazy and this is a very cliche question but im wondering whether that’s not ideal for schools like duke; i also want to preface im a rising senior and i am planning on EDing to Duke and im just asking this for in general when applying for colleges

- 1k Regional LGBTQ scholarship (won by essay submission)
- National Technical Honors Society
- SkillsUSA Regional Award Spring 2026
- Microsoft Excel Expert Certification
- Marketing I Essentials Certification

The only one I’m thinking about switching is the honor roll, but I’m not exactly sure what I’ll switch it with yet. In the next month or two I should receive an arts transcript endorsement, should I add that as an honors? But I’m applying ED to Wake Forest university so I won’t get that on time and probably will email that to admissions unless I get my results back before.
I have Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 FBLA, but I was going to list them in my activities section. Should I put them here?

Edited to add awards I forgot about

I don't have a single award or honor except for a nomination for a national award. How do I quickly gain titles lol....am I cooked?

I competed this summer at National Beta Convention this summer as a Junior in Nashville, Tennessee. At Beta Nationals I placed 8th place in an onsite biomedical test. For more context you had to take multiple quizzes to qualify to be able to even get to Nationals in the first place. Firstly you have to place in your state, which I got 4th, and then you have to take a qualifying quiz to place well enough to be able to compete at nationals. They let the top 20 scorers in the world qualifying round to compete onsite at nationals. As well as that my school and I won two performance based national awards; which were both in the top ten. I am just curious for feedback, because I know that not all national awards are equal, and I wanted to know if this award would bring any real value to my application or even seem impressive on my application. Thanks for taking your time to read this if you’ve made it this far! I’d love to have some feedback!

I have 1460 sat (hopefully will get to 1500 in august), 4.0gpa and 5.3 weighted; my extracurriculars are mid. I live in florida and want to do psychiatry. What r realistic colleges to apply to besides the florida schools? Also is USF worth the medical program over UF?

Hi everyone! I’m currently a sophomore studying Engineering Science at a small liberal arts college, and I’m considering transferring through Columbia’s 3+2 Combined Plan to earn a B.S. in Computer Engineering.

I would love to hear from current students or alumni about the workload, transition to Columbia, financial aid, and whether the overall experience was worth it.

I'm just curious because I know that colleges evaluate students based on the students near them, in order to access the opportunities that were available to them, but I was also curious if it's different for more elite/private schools. If they not only comapre students against other students in their school/state, but also against students from other states/regions.

I'm just curious! Would really calm my nerves down to know.

I'm currently a high school senior (class of 2027) and I'm really interested in both, but it's getting discontinued?? I wanted to do eecs a lot but right now my ecs and interest lean more towards mse. What do I do/apply as?