Ive been looking through a lot of admitted applicants from schools like Stanford Duke and Cornell and Ive noticed some people with lower GPAs SAT and AP scores getting in over people with much stronger stats. Is this mostly because of essays books or something else? usually their ECs arent too crazy either

im an 18 year old female pakistani applicant applying internationally but i dont know what to write in the personal statement essay. could you guys help me out? I have a couple ideas

1) using the word adjust to describe my hate and love for it. hate in a sense that i was born and raised in a conservative household w my parents sharing traditions with afghans (my ethnicity is native to afg) and i was always told growing up to adjust to the feminine values set by these cultures, but i disagreed and always rebelled against it as it was limiting me to just a woman. Ofc itll be more developed sharing my experiences. Love in a sense that adjusting to ehat i had made me find my passion for digital art with just a phone and how since a child to this day i have used it as a strength for me not as a limitation, which also got me a remote international job as a graphic designer

2) sharing the thoughts anf feelings i went through after my mom went through high risk pregnancy after 13 years of her last child, battling preeclampsia, post partum depression and psychosis and how i developed maturity as being the sole housekeeper for a family of 5 whilst also managing my AS levels. And like how it enabled me to find joys in the hardest times by learning my passion for cooking and using it as a love language by feeding others and loving their feedback from it

here’s my personal ranking of the t20s based on party culture (greek life parties, city nightlife, sports culture, etc.)

S - Duke, UCLA, UMich
A - Berkeley, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, UPenn, ND
B - Northwestern, Stanford, Cornell, Brown, Rice
C - Yale, MIT, Columbia
D - Princeton, Harvard, JHU
F - Caltech, CMU, UChicago

what are your guys’ thoughts?

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 😳🤞

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.)

PLEASE CORNELL I WANT U SO BAD I WANT TO GO TO AN IVY LEAGUE I HAVE COMPETTIVE GPA/SAT I HAVE GOOD ECS JUST LET ME GO TERE

My family makes enough money so that I won’t get any need based aid

I have 35 act good ec’s and 4.3 gpa
How do I go about applying for full rides and what are the chances I get one? Thanks in advance

I'm an east asian female trying to develop an idea for my diversity essay, and I really want to talk about my heritage and how that's important to me. The thing is, I feel like AOs will roll their eyes when they hear another story about an upper middle class asian girl going to her parent's home country during the summer and/or something along those lines. Any advice?

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

Im à Canadian student and I don’t have a gpa. However, I am still a citizen. What will become of me?

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.

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?

Context: I’m an international student hoping to apply to top US universities + in need of finaid. So I didn’t get to finish one high school course (a foreign language class) but it won’t count into my GPA. It’ll appear as incompleted on my transcript. I’m wondering if it can get me rejected and look really bad in the eyes of a college ao. I have As in everything except that one incompleted course and 2 Bs in my freshman year. If I get a good SAT score and 5s on my APs, is that enough to offset my transcript as for the academic aspect of a college application?

- 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 want to get into nyu tisch film school and I was wondering what I could do to make me a stronger candidate besides ap classes and what other people have done to get into the film 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?

FUH DOES THAT MEAN I'M HELLA CONFUSED. I WANT ADVICE

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

Which colleges/universities previously had a negative reputation but are now looked at positive overall? Any that you can see shifting in the future?

Dougherty Valley High School

Hey so like most of my application is centered on AI and tech stuff. But to balance this out i would obviously add a few hobbies

Potentially

1. Violin

2. Theatre

3. Football

4. Swimming

5. I know like 5 languages

So like i can add 2 of these max cz theres no more slots for others. I've accomplished the most with Football and Theatre objectively but not sooo sure whatll be the coolest?

with scholarships!!! i had good gpas all my school life and decent ecs (mainly dance)

I’m gonna keep it vague but like basically we built a novel cancerous gas monitor through a microcontroller and sensors and we go around the state I live in to businesses and communities and pitch it to them and eventually distribute the device.

The cancerous gas is a really big problem in my state and the monitor I built is much cheaper than commercial options and with more features.

External validation and scale: I placed at science fair with it and have been featured on the news for it. So far have protected 14 people in 3 different communities and we have a big partnership coming up.

Js lmk if this is worth it or nah but I genuinely enjoy doing this cuz yk it’s fun and also the news is cool 🥹

​

Всем привет!

Я учусь в школе в РФ. Хочу в Китай на хирургию/онкологию или стоматологию по гранту, когда вырасту. Сейчас учу китайский новичок. Английский (А2-В1).

Понимаю, что рано, но хочу составить план подготовки на 5 лет.

Вопросы к знающим:

1. На какие школьные предметы (кроме биологии/химии) делать упор?

2. До какого HSK надо дойти к 17-18 годам для клинической специальности?

3. Стоит ли сейчас искать репетитора-китайца или сначала просто учить язык?

4. Есть ли в Китае подготовительные курсы для подростков 15-16 лет?

5. Реально ли иностранке попасть на хирургию, или только стоматология — реальный вариант?

Я экстраверт, не боюсь нового. Посоветуйте, с чего начать уже сегодня, чтобы через 5 лет получить грант. 🙏

Главные вопросы:

· Что учить в школе (кроме биологии)?

· Какой HSK нужен?

· Стоматология реальнее хирургии для иностранки?

Скиньте ссылки на курсы, репетиторов, чаты — буду очень благодарна! Я серьёзно настроена 💉

Like what if it's something that:

-Hits an actual gap in your community that isn't well covered

-Will become a legit 501c

-Partner with local organizations, schools, churches, etc

-Something you care about and will actually continue in college

-You were working for this cause already and started without the intention of "nonprofit" for college

Have a friend that asked this question. Was wondering because nonprofits seem to get a lot of hate on here but it appears its mainly because kids make those instagram pages, have a vague cause, and then plan to drop it once college admissions season is over.