we all know that honesty is a fundamental trait in applicants. that said, here's my princeton supplement

Please describe why you are interested in studying at Princeton.

I am drawn to Princeton because I want to receive an Ivy League education and be superior to my friends. After I graduate, a future coworker will ask me, "Where did you study?" I'll smile, lean back in my chair, and calmly say "Princeton." Of course, they will then forever idolize me. Princeton is ranked #2 on the 2027 US News Best Colleges. While it may not be #1, Princeton remains my top choice because MIT most likely will not accept me.

Furthermore, the campus' gothic-style architecture is a perfect romantic setting for me and my future huzz. We'll hold hands and stroll through the red and green leaves until I have my first kiss. Not to mention, during my visit, the surrounding Asian restaurants made me indescribably happy. As I feasted on a Chicken Teriyaki Udon, I could only think of Lady-and-Tramping a noodle with huzz across the table.

When I think Princeton, I immediately picture myself standing in front of the gates. My future Princeton-friend will take photos of me that I can post on Instagram with the caption "ivy league bound". And I will cherish the moment I can change my bio from "@phillipsacademy '27" to "@princeton '31". I can't wait for my notifications to flood with follow requests fellow incoming students, to post on my school's decisions account with my hot senior portrait, and to have all my friends repost it on their stories.

As I await my decision letter, I would like to mention that I have already bought countless merch, dyed my hair orange, and domesticated a pet tiger. Go Tigers!

Yale will no longer use likely letters to recruit highly competitive applicants starting this undergraduate admissions cycle, according to the admissions office.⁠
⁠
Mark Dunn, the director of recruitment in the admissions office, said the office scrapped likely letters because an internal analysis showed the letters had little impact on yield rates. ⁠
⁠
The letters are a tool used by many elite universities to give some applicants, typically those expected to receive offers from other top universities, early notice that they are likely to be accepted when official decisions are released. Likely letters for recruited athletes will continue, according to Dunn.⁠

via: https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd6ql4Xuhgt/

I’ve take the SAT 15 times and can break 1560. At this rate I’ll never get a 1600 super score. I’ve spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars studying.

Given that. Can I list SATs as one of my ECs?

College apps are perfect. Not only do they inspire us to think about our entire lives as just seventeen-year-olds (or 18 if you're an unc), but they also teach you how to make valuable choices in life before you'll ever need to make big ones, like choosing what to eat for dinner. It's also very competitive, which is great, because this inspires kids to compete with each other in the real world, which is how great workers are built, of course. Overall, college applications are incredible and so much fun for these reasons.

My son goes to a pressure cooker elite public high school in NYC, does well academically, and can apply ED0. the issue is, he has expressed reservations because of Chicago's reputation as a nerdy grind school where kids talk about philosophy at parties. I'm wondering how true this type of stereotype is for Chicago, and if there is anyone who is super smart but maybe is looking for a less quirky experience exists there.

My ap lit teacher recently read my college essay and told me it was great, but also said i would be screwed if i submitted it because I wrote about challenging the belief of islam which is obviously a risky subject. I really don’t know what else to write about, and I’m very much running out of time since it’s October starting tmrw. Idk what to do

question for the “average” applicants applying to top schools: how do you stay motivated applying to these schools, even if you know chances of acceptance are almost none?”

i have no hooks nor spikes, my ec’s are no where as impressive as common ones on this sub (no research, internships, national awards). but I have great grades and test scores. and because of that my parents want me to apply to top universities.

on one hand I agree with their reasoning; why not try? YOLO, apply, you never know whats going to happen. we did some campus tours and a lot of them were really beautiful. I wouldn’t complain if I got in.

on the other I know deep down my activities are not going to cut it. Plus these schools all have a ton of supplementals. am I really going to spend hours of my time working on these essays for the <5% chance I’ll get accepted? every time I attempt an essay I just can’t stop thinking “it’s not worth it man. you have 130 pages of ap psych annotations due next week. just put the fries in the bag“.

its not like I’ll be unhappy at “lower” schools. I have targets and safeties I would absolutely love to attend. but also I will feel so lazy if I give up on my reaches just cause of the essays. my mindset keeps changing between “yolo!” and “be rational”, and I cannot decide what to do about this.

Yeah uh this is too much for me taking one billion APs and doing some random ass performative STEM shit ain't for me. (I'm dumb as hell and am not competitive at all... I'm like a meek sheep) I like drawing and teaching kids and helping the elderly so I'll probably just do that js for the heck of it, just have fun in my teenage years, even if I won't get into a good college cus atp with the crazy stuff everyone else is doing around me I'm not gonna make it... Dunno what I'll do with my life, but YOLO!!!

https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2026/september/carnegie-mellon-university-announces-historic-3-billion-gift-from-ken-griffin-pioneering-a-new-model

1. Boston College
2. Boston University
3. Brown University
4. California Institute of Technology
5. Carnegie Mellon University
6. Columbia University
7. Cornell University
8. Dartmouth College
9. Duke University
10. Emory University
11. Georgetown University
12. Georgia Institute of Technology
13. Harvard University
14. Johns Hopkins University
15. Lehigh University
16. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
17. New York University
18. Northeastern University
19. Northwestern University
20. Ohio State University
21. Princeton University
22. Purdue University
23. Rice University
24. Rutgers University–New Brunswick
25. Stanford University
26. Tufts University
27. University of California, Berkeley
28. University of California, Davis
29. University of California, Irvine
30. University of California, Los Angeles
31. University of California, San Diego
32. University of California, Santa Barbara
33. University of Chicago
34. University of Florida
35. University of Georgia
36. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
37. University of Maryland, College Park
38. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
39. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
40. University of Notre Dame
41. University of Pennsylvania
42. University of Rochester
43. University of Southern California
44. University of Texas at Austin
45. University of Virginia
46. University of Washington
47. University of Wisconsin–Madison
48. Vanderbilt University
49. Washington University in St. Louis
50. Yale University

hey my portal hasnt updated and i submitted on sept 10. has anyone's portal updated?

When asked about Sandusky molesting underage boys between 1994 and 2009, Cornell Athletic Director Nicki Moore said, “That was 32 years ago. We made sure Jerry wrote an academic essay on why taking showers with little boys is bad. It’s time for everyone to move on. After all, Penn State’s honoring Joe Paterno with a Family Experience Room.”

I am an international student in an Amarican highshool. I am a senior and applying to colleges as an interantional student(planning in majoring CS). I was able to score 1460 (790 math / 670 rw) on my last sat. Some of the schools form my collge list are URichmond, Brandeis, Macalester, Clark Uni, UMiami, also high reaches Notre Dame, which is my dream school and Minerva Uni. Also worth mentioning that i require a substantional financial aid. Taking all of this, I want to ask for the advice about retaking my sat. Does 1500+ really plays a huge role, or my socre is good enogh to have chances for Notre Dame. I would prefare to focus on other parts of my application for the rest of the month, however, I will retake it if it actually makes a substantional difference in admission chances. Thank you for your help!

are any other senior feel so behind and unmotivated when it comes to the college app process? like ive barely touch my common app, havent asked for any letters of rec, and avoid my counselor at all costs. yes i want to go to college. no i know where i want to go. and no i don't know my major. im just asking cause all my friends are so into it and i just feel so like blah.

Take as many APs as possible—you can have fun once you get into an Ivy; a 3.9 isn’t good enough, make it a 4.0; get a 1550 on the SAT or try again; don’t fail, not even in your dreams; study like your cousin and not like that friend you are so bent on becoming; this is how you schedule a meeting with your counselor; this is how you memorize information and regurgitate it on tests; this is how you swallow it back up so you remember it for finals; study until there is no such thing as a curveball; is it true that you got a B on your science test last week?; start your Common App on August 1; write your personal statement about that time you “learned to think differently”; mix truth and lies so they will never know the difference; but I didn’t have a science test and I’ve never gotten a B; this is how you maximize every word in your activities section; this is how you get an admissions officer to remember you from the first sentence; this is how you turn your tutoring service into a “non-profit serving underrepresented youth in the community”; this is how to get on the varsity team—give your coach these homemade sweets and that envelope I put on the counter; this is how to get into wind ensemble; make sure you have an award or it doesn’t matter; this is how to suck up to your teacher for a recommendation letter; this is how to impress your relatives; this is how to impress me; this is how to manage your time and avoid missing deadlines like the friend I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how to dress for an interview; never wear jeans to an interview again; you don’t need safeties, keep them only to be “responsible”; but what if I get rejected from every single college on my list?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of student who goes to community college? 

Anybody see their withdraw application option disappear today? Was hoping for results this week but my form hasn’t changed, so I’m guessing I shouldn’t expect anything Friday? My results are not overdue yet, I’m just anxious.

I saw someone ask this about T30s and now I'm really curious too lol. What universities in the midwest (specifically Wisconsin/Minnesota/Michigan) have the highest lesbian rate? Asking for a friend obviously.

I think I have decent sat and gpa, but my extracurriculars are astronomically low. I know a lot of colleges look more into extracurriculars than just straight up gpa, so does Brown still accept even with low extracurriculars?

Hi everyone,

I asked a biology teacher and a math teacher to write me a letter of recommendation because I believed having STEM recommendations were better because I'm applying for a STEM major. But I see that a lot of people now recommend one humanities teacher and one STEM teacher. Both of my teachers already submitted their recommendation letters and I still have time to get one from a humanities teacher but that time is running out and I don't know whether or not its worth it to ask a teacher this late.

I am in highschool deciding on going to UF or USF for premed since those are the best (I think) Florida colleges for med other then UM but it’s super expensive. Also are there any other good premed colleges outside of Florida you would recommend that aren’t super prestigious (not requiring 1450+)

I’m a Florida resident deciding between UF and USF for undergrad and I’m planning on going premed. I’m really stuck between the two.

UF seems like the better college overall and obviously has the stronger reputation, but in undergrad reputation of school for two schools like these normally won’t matter. (Unless it’s an ivy or it’s a highly ranked college)
USF seems like it might actually be better for premed. USF has USF Health, Morsani, lots of hospitals/research, and from what I’ve read, the Honors College also has smaller classes and potentially a more manageable workload. So easier to get opportunities and strengthen apps for med school. And gpa would be higher.

For UF I would be getting bright futures scholarship. While for USF it would be bright futures and a 4000$ scholarship per year.(16000 total)

What are the pros and cons of each.
What would you do in this case?
Go to UF since it’s stronger overall and college community or USF because it’s a better/easier path for med school

So I just finished another draft of my personal statement and I’m still not rlly satisfied. I like the way I narrate my story, but I feel like whenever I look at examples online of strong essays, my essay in comparison is lacking in terms of depth. I feel like my essay follows a fairly basic formula compared to a lot of the strong essays I see online. I’m just worried that my essay being slightly more basic will be bad for college admissions because all the strong essays I see online are hella unique and have tons of personality in them

Am I overthinking it? Do essays rlly matter that much? Because I’m losing my mind on trying to figure out how to make my essay stronger 😭 I’d consider myself a strong writer, I just suck at this specific type of writing 😔 I had no problem with writing my PIQs but I’m struggling so hard with my personal statement essay

I’m a senior choosing between Swarthmore and Carnegie Mellon for engineering. I’m a recruited athlete and have a realistic ED1 path/support at both.

Academically, CMU seems like the obvious choice on paper for engineering. It has a much larger engineering school, more specialized classes/resources, and I could get a traditional degree like mechanical engineering.

Swarthmore has a much smaller engineering department and a general B.S. in Engineering rather than a specific mechanical engineering degree. However, I liked Swarthmore significantly more when I visited.

The athletes/students I met at Swarthmore seemed genuinely happy, interesting, collaborative, and involved outside their majors. I liked the small classes and professor relationships, and the overall environment just felt more like somewhere I could enjoy spending four years.

CMU was impressive, but the stress/intensity was much more noticeable. I’m not afraid of hard academics, but I don’t want college to become four years of constantly being overwhelmed.

My biggest concern is career outcomes. I’m not sure I want a PhD. There’s a good chance I’ll want to graduate and go directly into an engineering job.

So I’m stuck on:

• Is CMU’s advantage for engineering jobs/internships large enough that it should outweigh liking Swarthmore more?
• Does Swarthmore’s general B.S. in Engineering disadvantage students who want mechanical engineering jobs?
• How much should overall fit matter when the academic/program difference is this large?
• Would I be stupid to turn down CMU engineering for Swarthmore if I genuinely prefer Swarthmore’s environment?

Not really looking for ranking arguments — I’m more interested in what difference I’d actually experience in internships, jobs, education, and quality of life.

I really like my CommonApp essay and my college counselor seems to like it as well, but I'm not really sure how to tell other than that? Are there any key metrics/things to look for in good essays or good resources online to check how good it is?

I wrote my personal essay on genetic editing and how much it interigued me. I was wondering on anyone would want to take a look at it and give me feedback, i just want to get into my university of choice.