Top Tier Admissions
Cornell is one of the hardest Ivies to decode because its admissions process is not organized around a single undergraduate admissions pool. Cornell’s famous motto, “any person…any study,” feels expansive, inclusive, and open-ended. And, in many ways, it is. But from an admissions standpoint, Cornell is highly structured: applicants apply directly to one of Cornell’s […]
In late May 2026, Yale University Admissions announced an update to its standardized testing policy. Starting in the 2026-2027 application cycle, all first-year applicants will be required to submit either an ACT or SAT score, and AP/IB scores cannot be substituted to meet this testing requirement. This policy change reverses the test-optional and test-flexible policies […]
Choosing a college is one of the biggest decisions a student will make, and too often, students approach it from a place of limited information. In the vast pool of thousands of colleges and universities across the country, there is a small handful of schools that have the most name recognition, familiarity, and notoriety. Doing […]
I recently finished the book 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People by David Yeager and was struck by how relevant the content is to my work with students. I found myself highlighting so many quotes, page after page. While the book isn’t about college admissions, it could have been. Much of my […]
Every now and then when I hop onto Instagram, I’ll veer away from my usual feed featuring posts from Upworthy and interior designers to check out “decision accounts” at various high schools. If you’re not familiar with these already, they are typically named something similar to “schoolnamedecisionsclassyear” or as an example “bellairehigh26decisions.” As I scroll […]
The Senior Year Roadmap
Every deadline from August to May – test dates, applications. decisions – in one place. Signup to download the full 9-page Senior Year Roadmap (PDF)