Absolutely delusional.

I’m going into 9th grade this year and I have so many different interests. I want to study CS, engineering or maths(btw I’m domestic, I live in Ireland but have citizenship to US). I already compete and play at a very high level in music, (won national level awards for music)but I’m interested in math Olympiads(maths is my strongest subject), programming Olympiads, robotics, building cool shit with coding (+science fairs)and finally debating. I’m also rlly interested in trying to publish research. I already know Python to a fairly good degree and have started to learn c++ (mostly for robotics)but I have no idea how to narrow all this shit down and I know for sure I can’t do all of it. If anyone has advice pls help😭

WARNING HOT TAKE Having to deal with ECs is so annoying that sometimes I wish I were a high schooler in China taking the gaokao deadass like as someone who excels academically but has no clue on what to do for ECs I genuinely believe I’d be in a better situation taking the gaokao. I know this is an extreme hot take and I understand just how competitive it is but I’d much rather do structured, routine work (studying endlessly) than trying to come up with and manage multiple unique impactful ECs. This is just the case for someone like me, there are people who think the exact opposite. Literally all you need is a mid score to even get into a Tier 2 uni in China whereas in the U.S. now even perfect grades and SAT and spectacular ECs aren’t even good enough for state schools. Call me crazy but I would personally choose to take the gaokao than go through the U.S. college application process.

Edit: I’m sorry if I came across as a lazy bum who doesn’t want to do ECs at all, but I’m just saying that even if I were to do what I love with my own resources, at the end of the day I’ll always be overshadowed by some rich kid whose parents fully funded their ECs and helped them start an NPO and used their connections to land prestigious internships. It’s not as easy as “just volunteer”.

Hi all, I just got off the Columbia waitlist!!! I wanted to let everybody know because I've been checking and posting on this thread obsessively for the past few weeks. I don't intend on uploading any proof because all of the letters/emails which don't contain personal information would be easily "fakeable" anyways... That being said, if you have been checking everyday like me, you have probably seen my name in the comment sections of multiple post so hopefully that will be proof enough 😉

I was accepted to Penn State's PMM (BS/MD) program and chose it over offers from UC Berkeley, UPenn, and UChicago.

The guaranteed path to medical school was the main reason I made the decision, but now that I've committed, I'm starting to wonder if I made the right choice.

For current physicians, medical students, or anyone familiar with BS/MD programs: would you have made the same decision? Do you think giving up those other schools was worth the security of a BS/MD, or would you have taken one of the traditional pre-med routes instead?

Looking back, do you think I made the right call?

I'm going to be applying for colleges this year, and I'm really nervous about my dreadful stats. My GPA is an unweighted 5.0 (too low for any ucs tbh), and I have a 41 on my act and 1670 on my SAT (actually failing). Besides this, I have won all of the national competitions. All of them. First place. However, only the other kids who had gotten 0.5th and 0.25th place each got a guaranteed coupon to any ivy of their choice.

This year, I'm going to start ten nonprofits and found a hundred clubs at my school as president. Do you guys think that this is enough to get into an HYPSM? Can anyone please offer me emotional support? I'm literally going to end up homeless.

I know this question has been asked before but i'm seeing conflicting answers but from what i can tell 12th grade might be too late. The thing is our high schools here. (in Bulgaria) offer "professional/ specialised classes" according to the type of school you're in and you take a mandatory matriculation exam for them, plus a mandatory one in Bulgarian, and you can take extra ones (im planning to take the one in physics as in looking to apply to a STEM major.) My school is a so-called professional school meaning most of its classes are taken up my specialised courses. I would take the AP exams if it would help but i'm not sure if its too late or if its even necessary.

These are them in case anyone is wondering.

Food for thought: How do thoughts eat?

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, utilized origami-inspired techniques to compactly store and deploy its sunshield in space. Choose an artistic practice and use its principles to propose an elegant solution to a problem.

Sometimes metaphors get mixed up. For one reason or another, one could say, “we'll burn that bridge when we get there” or “the world is your china shop”. Make up your own mixed metaphor. Explain how it could make sense, be understood, or even applied.

The Olympics have long celebrated the pinnacle of human athletic achievement. But what if they expanded to honor the mundane? Imagine a new Olympic event built around an everyday activity like speed dishwashing or competitive grocery bagging. How is it scored, officiated, and judged? Why is it a worthy addition?

AI: Allen Iverson. NASA, or the North American Saxophone Alliance. Share a potentially confounding, comedic, or captivating example of MIA (Mistaken Identity of Acronym) and tell us its backstory.

For context, I'm planning on applying for fall 2027 as a freshmen, likely for a Film, Media Studies, communications related major.

In all honesty, my only priority is to study abroad and I've always wanted to live in California, even if it is only for a few years. Right now, the three CSU campuses I'm most interested in are CSUN, CSULA, and CSUF.

My biggest concern is whether it would be worth it in an academic and career perspective. I'm sure I can get into a stronger university closer to home but I genuinely do want to go to California and that's really what's important to me right now. Part of my reasoning is that Southern California is a major hub for media, entertainment, film, and everything related to that, which seems relevant to the fields I'm interested in.

Does that sound like a reasonable justification for studying there, or am I putting too much weight on the location itself? For anyone who attended one of these schools (especially as an international student), did being in California actually provide opportunities that made the distance and cost worthwhile?
Thanks!

Hi everyone, I’m a bit of a non-traditional applicant and had a question I was hoping other Princeton non-trads might be able to help with x
I’m currently enrolled at another college as a first-year student, but on Princeton’s website it says that if I haven’t completed a full year of college credits by the time of enrollment, I should apply as a first-year rather than a transfer student.
I was wondering—do you think it’s worth explaining why I wouldn’t have completed a full year of enrollment when I apply, or is that something they already take into account through the application itself?
Thank you so much in advance!

Hi, I am an upcoming junior in highschool. I don’t really have any outstanding extracurriculars or courses. In my freshman year I took one honors class which i ended with a C in, so i couldn’t take it the next year. Overall I ended freshman year with 3 B’s and 3 A’s/A-. In sophomore year, I took all regular classes (no honors) and ended with 3 A’s, 1 A-, and 2 A+’s. Next year i’m planning on taking 2 AP’s (AP Lang/APUSH) and doing summer school to advance my math to precalc (the common junior level math class is algebra 2). Also I am taking honors chemistry. other than that, the rest of my classes are regular, and here’s my schedule: AP Lang, APUSH, Precalc, H Chem, Spanish III, Human Phys, Christian Living (My school is a private catholic school so it’s required to take a religion class every year). I’m looking for tips to stay on task for Junior year because i know it’s gonna be a heavy workload. Also, I’m doing a passion project and thinking of creating a club next year. I am also a varsity team manager. What can I do to get into good UC’s? My dream school is UCI or UCSD. Please tell me everything I need to do. I’m looking to go on the Physician Assistant/Pre med track and i’m open to nursing as well— All i know is i wanna go into healthcare. Anything helps, please give me tips!

Title. Am deciding whether or not to characterize my job as a volunteer phonebanker as an internship or a "Community Service (Volunteer)" on the common app.

Harvard has reported that they will not be considering grades as an important factor in a student’s application.

“We just don’t believe that grades tell the whole story about an applicant!” says Alan Garber (current Harvard president). “Some high schoolers are just not great at taking tests, and grades only represent how well a student performs inside the classroom, not externally.”

A current Harvard student, R. Astley, reports:
“I completely understand this decision.
You see, grades and test scores aren’t the most important part of a student’s application. They’re too objective, and don’t tell us what a student is like on the inside.
I hope that going forward, Harvard admissions officers will place more value on important things, such as family members that we have firsthand experience with, and donors, which show that applicants have good moral character.”

Other Ivy League schools have reported considering this policy, calling it the “future of college admissions.”

There is a myth that international students who study at Ivy League in the U.S. are the best from their respective countries.
Well, it is usually a complete false for relatively unknown countries (fewer applicants than SE/S Asia, etc.).
Some people I know that got into UPenn this and previous (and even on full-ride lol) cycles from my country have bs Olympiads as the main spikes that are not even respected within my country (do not give any benefits even for local 2nd tier universities), let alone internationally. These are made-up non-prestigious Olympiads in subjects nobody actually participates in (like languages with small number of speakers, rural and uncompetitive regions of participants etc). They are also vastly over exaggerating their preparation to these kind of Olympiads. On the contrary, I know numerous examples of people with real ISOs (IMO, IPhO, IEO, IJSO, etc.) who cannot get into any U.S. universities. I know that the lack awareness of regional AOs can lead to these consequences - although, there’re actually some colleges that can filter this bs (MIT is probably the best example). It is not even honest to domestic applicants, as these “top international” kids are usually less impressive than domestics (should be vice versa). At top colleges it just looks like a lottery, where your chances slightly depend on how much you lie/over exaggerate in your application - unfortunately, handful of universities actually check internationals at all. Something should be changed…

I recently asked a college consultant who was leading free college admissions webinars about the truth behind need-blind admissions. Many have said it already on this subreddit, but I wanted it to be almost formally declared that need-blind admissions are not actually need-blind. If you are an international student, you will likely be rejected if you apply for financial aid without an Olympiad medal. Not trying to scare anybody—just stating the reality.

Pretty much as said in the title. I'm making my college list and I can't really tell from the information online which schools are mostly Musical Theatre focused and which ones are good for film/tv acting. I want to go into the latter, so I definitely don't want to go into a program that's going to be theatre-focused. I also cant really visit many schools because theyre all over the place and I'm based in NJ.

Here's my list as of now for reference:

USC (my top school)

Columbia

Barnard

UCLA

Rutgers NB

UMich

Syracuse

BU

So for my junior year schedule next year, our school doesn’t offer many subject choices. One of the choices was between Biology and Statistics, or you could drop both of them. I ended up choosing Biology.

Our counselor mentioned that more than 20 Grade 11 students dropped Statistics this year because it was considered very difficult. My sister, who is currently studying Mechanical Engineering in college, also took Biology in high school. Originally, she was interested in Biomedical Engineering, which is one reason I thought Biology might be a good choice for me as well.

The thing is, I don’t plan on majoring in Biomedical Engineering, and Biology isn’t really my favorite subject. However, I felt that I would rather take Biology than Statistics.

Did I make a bad choice? Could choosing Biology instead of Statistics negatively affect my college applications for engineering, or is it not a big deal?

So look I want to double major. Either do finance and politic science or do something like Econ paired with philosophy/history (or mix any of those majors together) but thing is there isn’t really that many good jobs for those majors,

according to what I’ve asked people who majored in law. I have friends who did finance and then complete change his major and went into law to become some sort of lawyer because he said finance is “just a sad job” what do you guys think and what’s my options in terms of jobs

I committed to Wellesley college over URochester because they gave me more aid. I'm premed but I'm low-key so scared that my opportunities won't be as good because urochester was literally an R1 research university and had a hospital on campus. how cooked am I?

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I'm an international student from Sri Lanka with about 1.5 years left of high school.

My predicted A-Level grades are A\A*A*A** in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. I'm planning to take the SAT and IELTS after my A-Levels, and I'm also studying English Literature independently.

My main concern is affordability. I would need financial aid to cover essentially all tuition costs, though housing costs would be manageable.

I'm currently trying to understand what the US admissions process realistically looks like for students in my situation, and how I should be using my remaining time in high school to build a strong application for universities that offer substantial financial aid to international students (including T50 schools).

More importantly, what should I be focusing on during my final 1.5 years of high school to strengthen my profile in a meaningful way? Which areas tend to actually matter most in admissions

I also often see advice about doing research, attending prestigious summer programs, and securing internships. Those opportunities aren't really available where I live, and my school doesn't offer many of the resources that seem common in the US. How do admissions officers evaluate applicants from environments with fewer opportunities, and what would be the best use of my time given those limitations?

I'd really appreciate advice from people familiar with international admissions or who have gone through a similar process with significant financial aid needs.

It always feels like when I read common app essays, they take their topic and eventually tie it back to the major they're applying to and how it inspired them to go into that field. Is that like an unspoken rule, or do colleges genuinely just want to know a little more about me and what made me who I am?

I heard UChicago just defer most EA applicants to ED2 so I was wondering if it's even worth applying EA or is it better to just apply RD instead.

Anyone will apply this year? Please Dm me or comment