people who are mad (as u should) abt how you didn’t get into a t20 but someone who cheated their way thru hs got into one shouldn’t be. especially for top colleges, they are going to be eaten alive in job hunting and interviews.

i know someone in my school who just got into MIT and harvard but complained about not getting into stanford and and any other t10. this girl cheated in tests, olympiads, stem competitions, and is the classic example of someone who cheats their way thru life

and i can promise you she is gonna struggle so hard in mit and harvard. you can only cheat for so long until it catches up to you. have fun trying to get a job when you don’t bother learning anything

edit: for the people downvoting we know what kind of person u are. have fun being nothing but a brain dead mediocre loser

update: idk who tf lied to me but shes going to stanford. lmk how hard it is over there

So I’m from Vietnam and don’t have much money to attend a private university in the US, which can cost like $30–40k in tuition alone. But there’s this school called BYU in Utah, and they have a really good accounting program. The tuition is also pretty cheap, arguably even cheaper than some state schools.

The problem is that I’m an atheist. Would it be worth it to convert to Mormonism and pretend to believe for all 4 years of college just to take advantage of this deal?

*this is mostly in regards to elite institutions/T25s

Edit 2: read edit two

Og post: I’ve lurked here for 4 years. I applied to 20 colleges, wrote 43 pages of final essay drafts, and each school went through 15+ pages of revisions and drafts. For every hour I spent writing, I probably spent 3–4 hours scrolling this sub, r/collegeresults, other forums, and school-specific pages.

Bottom line: I’ve studied thousands of profiles. I’ve seen trends with who gets in and who doesn’t. This is not scientific. It’s not calculated. It’s just what I’ve observed.

———

The paradox of college admissions

The biggest trap is the paradox of being genuine.

How can you “do what you’re passionate about” when you only have time to do activities as a resume builder?

How can you write passionately about something you don’t care about?

How can you write interestingly about the small things you actually do care about, when they feel irrelevant?

HOW CAN YOU SHOW A COLLEGE YOU ARE GENUINELY INTERESTING AND PASSIONATE ABOUT THE LIFE YOU LIVE?

This is the question everyone is secretly trying to answer.

And I don’t know the answer. But I have different things to think about.

⸻

Why your 1550 SAT and perfect ECs aren’t enough

Here’s the rundown. At the top level (or whatever tier you’re aiming for, assuming you have realistic expectations — don’t apply to Harvard with an 1100), everyone has similar stats. SAT, GPA, APs, awards, sports. Sorry, but (academically) you’re basically clones with minor differences.

The only things that set you apart are your activities and your writing. And I don’t mean the activities section of the Common App (we are all pretty similar with that too). I mean the stuff you don’t even think to list: eating your grandma’s cookies, fishing with the boys, forging metal, building weird-ass paper airplanes, watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, talking about Star Wars with your dad’s second cousin’s best friend’s mom. Fortnite. That is your life.

Blunt truth: about 70% of people on r/collegeresults with 1550+ SATs who didn’t get in anywhere “good” are boring as fuck. Super smart? Sure. Analytical? Fine. But lifeless. These are the people who go to Dartmouth’s admitted students day and take pictures of squirrels and trees because they’ve never seen them. (Real story. Go outside, guys. Please.)

Meanwhile, the ones who get in — even with lower SATs (again, in regards to elite college admissions), like 1450+ — are always writing with more joy, creativity, and energy (at least from my perspective). The people I’ve met at Yale with “lower” scores have told some of the best stories I’ve ever heard. Their conversational style (and thus their writing) was entertaining and human.

⸻

Colleges want humans, not resumes on legs

Colleges need variety in their communities. At the top you have to be smart and interesting. Yes, they need some supergeniuses. And no, that’s not you. You’d know if it was, because you would’ve known since third grade, and you wouldn’t be on this subreddit in the first place.

Do not rely on academics. Everyone’s been to the science convention. Everyone’s cracked at instruments. Everyone has 9000 volunteer hours.

Your “resume builders” aren’t cool. They aren’t special. What’s special is that you did all that while also learning pottery, lifeguarding with your buddies, building a treehouse for your brother, or becoming a typing-race warrior at 2 a.m. That’s human. That’s dedication and determination to create a life worth living. That’s real.

And here’s the thing: humanity and being real add way more value to a college community than being able to solve calculus problems 5% faster than Johnny. Johnny forages mushrooms on weekends, and still has 95% of your calc skill. Johnny has a cooler life than you.

*the exception here is if you genuinely love math or something or any other academic, in which case you will be able to talk passionately about it. (Like I’m saying you love math for the math, like Johnny loves mushrooms. And I just know someone is going to be like “bUt i LoVe mATh” but has never done it outside of school)

⸻

The bottom line

Stay human. You are advocating to humans on a selection board. Make yourself interestingly passionate about the little things, because those are what ground you. Those are what keep you real. This cannot be faked, so do not try to fake it. If it’s not working, write about something else. Colleges have been figuring this shit out for hundreds of years, they know if you care or not about something.

Colleges are not looking for perfect machines coming in with nothing more than inflated resumes. They are looking for thoughtful, motivated students who bring something alive and human to the campus.

If you take nothing else from this, take this: stop asking about SAT and GPA and other basic stats for the Ivy League. Everyone has that and you aren’t going to get any different answers.

Start asking people if your writing comes across as intelligent, genuine, and real, whether the prompt asks about your life or your academics. Because if your essays make you sound like a machine, you will lose to Johnny the mushroom guy every single time.

Tdlr: At the top schools everyone is smart, so what separates admits from rejects is not numbers but whether you can prove you are a real, alive, and interesting human being worth adding to a community.

Edit: Holy wow some of you guys are dumb and salty as some rocks.

My point was that when applicants all have similar top level academics, the way to differentiate yourself isn’t with more academics, but rather with more interesting things about the life you’ve led.

It’s an obvious point made many times, restated by me

THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS, I literally said that in the 6th sentence.

So grow up you bums

Edit 2:

In case you morons can’t understand this post, here’s another try:

It’s not about being more interesting than someone else. It’s not saying academics aren’t important. It’s simply about advocating about what makes you, you.

Specifically, advocating to an AO who may appreciate bringing your personality and presence to their campus.

IM NOT SAYING ACADEMICS ARE IRRELEVANT IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER

Edit 3:

The point stands for all levels of colleges. If you have average academics, then you will want to stand out from the other students with average academics.

Edit 4:

Be smart, be interesting.

For all the kids in here stressing out about interviews with Princeton or being rejected by your top schools. I went through the same process in late 2002. End up at Michigan State in 2003. Best 4yrs of my life, made lifetime friends and met my wife. If you kids make good sound decisions and work hard, surround urself with good ppl, u will be successful in life regardless of what school u go. I didn't come out of MSU with a high GPA like my wife who got full ride to honors college. But I made good decisions, didn't act like a fool. Now Have a $100k+ salary and my wife is a stay home mom, and we have $1.5mil in the stock market. Everyone in this sub will be fine if u make good decisions. Ivy league, community college, big10, SEC...don't matter. Can't wait for my 6th grade daughter to go through the process in a few years. Texas, A&M, Michigan, Penn State, USC is what I'm hope LoL 😆😆 and I will tell her the same thing I'm telling u kids.

Hey everyone, senior here from a low-income family, and I'm feeling pretty stuck right now. My family can't afford $80k+ per year for college, so I've been wondering if applying to Ivy League is realistic?

Academically, I've tried to make the most of every opportunity. I have a 4.0 UW GPA, SAT 1590, and have taken advanced math and physics courses.I've also been fortunate to participate in the Princeton Math Program, where I was recognized as a Distinguished Student, and MITES, as well as complete a research internship at a university data science lab. I've earned PVSA Gold Award, won a few hackathon, completed 150+ hours of community service, been consistently on the honor roll, and other awards/activities.

My math teacher keeps encouraging me to apply to Ivy League schools. Although I’ve heard that some Ivies offer very generous need-based financial aid, I still worry that other expenses, such as living costs. I wonder whether anyone here has been in a similar situation. I know I can apply and see how it goes, but the whole thing still feels overwhelming. 🤔

Hi! This has been my first time on a2c in a while, and boy… it’s still the same. Not so long ago, I was a high schooler who was the “perfect applicant” - ISEF Finalist, robotics/science Olympiad captain, 1590 SAT, 4.0 GPA, 14 AP classes. Luckily, I got into a couple of top schools, Stanford, Duke, and Columbia, as well as my state school for free, and I ended up getting rejected by Harvard and Yale. I picked Stanford.

This is mostly a response to the people on here who say stuff like “pick the more prestigious school because you will ALWAYS REGRET going to the other one” or “pick the prestigious school because you only live once” or “people will always question you for picking the less prestigious choice.”

Let me start off by saying that I LOVED my college experience and what it gave me… but I think everyone at some point feels regret about their decisions in life. I made my college pick around a decade ago.

For me Stanford felt like a no brainer since I wanted to go into tech and always wanted to live in California. The only issue was the 250k price tag which definitely seemed like a lot, but my parents had the money saved for my college account. All of my friends were going to that state school. Everyone online was telling me how great Stanford was going to be and how many opportunities you get compared to even places like Columbia or Duke. So I came in with the mindset that I was going to have the best college experience in the world.

And I’m going to be honest, I had a great time. I got to take cool classes, connect with smart kids, and live in the nice weather. In my opinion it is the best academic school in the country. Stanford people are great and competitive in the right ways. But it definitely wasn’t the perfect college experience people talk about… the football and basketball games had people at them, but even when our football team was good, people weren’t showing up in big numbers compared to my friends at the state school. The parties were fun, but not as memorable as the ones my friends talk about. I learned the exact same in my classes as those from state schools. People say that HYPSM are known for a “special” college experience, but IMO it was just a little more boring one. Like yes we had speakers come, but you couldn’t really interact with them. The professors and administration were hit and miss. No one was coming to your door with opportunities, I still had to apply to 50 internships just to land one, and rejected by 5 labs for my research assistant position.

In undergrad I did work really hard and definitely felt burnt out towards the end. I did get to do everything I wanted to which was cool, however it seems like everyone at my state school got to do something similar. I got to do cool research and build projects, but my smart friends at my state school got to do that too. The opportunities from Silicon Valley were great, and some were definitely unique to Stanford, but 95% of the tech internships my classmates had also had a kid from Berkeley or even SJSU there. And the 5% that got the exclusive ones… let’s just say that no one reading this post is in that 5%.

The worst part was grad school… I decided to stay for my PhD in a tech field. One of my friends from high school who went to the state school actually ended up at Stanford too. I felt so bad because that friend didn’t spend 350k, got a more traditional and fun college experience, and still ended up in the same spot. Now post grad, both research engineers at the same company, I can’t help but feel envy. My other coworkers graduated from places I haven’t even heard of. And the thing is… for my non finance classmates it’s largely the same story especially for many of my pre-professional ones. It’s been weird coming back to this subreddit and seeing people say that HYPSM gives you sooo many more opportunities than other schools. Like yes, I did get a lot of opportunities that maybe you don’t get at most schools, but the top X% at a state flagship often has access to those same opportunities. And now years out from grad school and undergrad, people largely don’t even care where I went. My most recent employer didn’t even realize I went to Stanford for my bachelors. Even the alumni network doesn’t help too much, although they definitely have a presence especially in Silicon Valley. I know some of my classmates who went into tech, law school, and med school feel the same way. IMHO one of the only benefits I get from going to Stanford NOW is being able to tell people I went to Stanford and getting that 2 seconds of satisfaction.

Now don’t get me wrong because Stanford does open up a lot of doors, but I just wanted to challenge the expectations people have that going to a T5 or T10 will automatically lead to different outcomes. I especially don’t like HATE people receive for saying they chose a place like Columbia or Duke over Stanford or Harvard…like the prestige difference is not going to provide you any differences. Look, I loved Stanford and it gave me a great college experience, but it definitely wasn't traditional or one that was worth 250k over a traditional one and sometimes I regret that. 

I think I just have to get off A2C and back into the real world because half of what is said on here is just straight garbage. No matter where you go, if you work hard enough and are smart enough to get into these types of schools…then you’ll probably be fine.

 I realize that this is just me sort of venting. So I’m sorry. The things that are said in this sub just  kind of irk me.  

I am currently struggling heavily with college decisions, even as I've been super lucky with results so far. For context, through the EA round I have gotten accepted to U Mich (OOS LSA), U Pitt, CU Boulder, UVA (In-State) and Yale (REA).

When I got my yale acceptance, I was pretty sure that's where I was going to end up. My parents make enough to pretty easily put me through debt-free. But two problems have arisen recently. First, is New Haven. I am a black guy, so I'm not sure culturally it'd be such an easy transition and second the winters look rough. And, of course, the nearly 100k per year price tag is almost too much to stomach despite my parents affluence.

I am in-state for UVA. That'd bring the cost to around 35k per year, crazy savings. The weather is nicer, and honestly the academics seem comparable. Another niche plus is that they have the semester-at-sea program, which my dad did and has always been a dream of mine.

But, Yale. The doors it apparently opens are numerous, and if I don't end up wanting to go to law school as I currently plan then it'd set me up better than almost anywhere else.

So, am I crazy to throw away an opportunity I was handed that so many people dream of? pls help.

P.S., if this is the wrong sub for this let me know I'm pretty new to Reddit.

Just got rejected from my dream uni and I don’t have the balls to tell my parents and I was crying alone in my room. I thought telling my parents this shitty news would shatter them as it did to me. My dad just came in to check in on me and saw me crying and saw the rejection letter and told me to come talk to him when I stopped crying.

I cried for a little more and then went to the living room where he was just silent and I’m not even joking he was watching impractical jokers. He said nothing and just started to laugh and I was like wth is happening and just went with it and watched the videos for hours.

Finally when I had forgotten about what I was crying for, he turned off the tv and started talking. He said, how he appreciates me for my hard word that I put in the last few years and how I’ll be fine in the end. He said that because this was my first true rejection in my life and because of that how it will carry the weight of a 100 ton and it will be hard to reflect on. He continued on how life will be full of rejection and the best thing to do is put aside the rejection and work on getting back up because looking back will only make you remember the rejection more and to forget all the effort you put in. He continued how it was easy for him to tell all this because he had already experienced it.

In the end he said, “you won’t be fine, but it will work out in the end”. I cried again and this time it was happy tears.

P.S - This is not what happened to me but I just wanted to write this fire ahh writing just to comfort the students getting rejected. Might not be true story but the message is true🔥🔥🔥

My son is very bright student… Valedictorian, 1570 SAT score, completed all undergraduate math by grade 11, did research for graduate student in statistics for 4 years, on student council, won award at the DECA national championship and Vex robotics national championship. He also published blog about machine learning and self-published 2 textbooks about machine learning… however he was not admitted to top university. He is only admitted to safety schools and New York University, where he study computer science.

My daughter is also accomplished student, but she leans to the social side… she is President of her class and the regional student advisory board. Currently she is rank #2 of 400 students in her class, and scored 1520 on the PSAT 10. She wants to study computer science too. I worry she will be rejected too. I did not attend university in U.S. so I have less ability to help them.

I just started my freshman year and honestly it’s started to give me a completely new perspective on this whole process, so I’d thought I’d take a moment to share those thoughts here. I know this is something I probably wouldn’t have wanted to hear last year, but it would’ve save me a ton of stress if I would’ve just listened.

I had pretty solid stats in high school (3.9UW, 4.6W) and ended up at a really solid, but not necessarily “elite” school. When I got my acceptance letters back I was pretty bummed that I didn’t get into a single one of my reaches, especially since I thought I had a great profile, but at this point I have no doubt I’m happier at my current school than I would be at any of the ones I was rejected from.

Even though the school I go to isn’t generally considered “elite” I’m still surprised in a lot of my classes about just how smart some of my fellow classmates are. I feel academically challenged, while also not feeling entirely overwhelmed and exhausted.

Now, I know a lot of you are pushing yourselves to your mental and physical limit stressing about getting into these top schools, and to those people, I think you should consider one thing: How much are you willing to sacrifice once you get to college?

If you’re someone who struggled with academic stress in high school, that’s not going to magically change once you get to college. In fact, if you end up getting into an elite school, it’s probably only going to get worse.

Maybe you’re someone who’s just naturally insanely smart and you feel fully comfortable in an ultra-intense academic environment with huge curves in classes and cutthroat competition with your peers. In that case, go ahead and get into the best school you can and have a great time next year.

But for the other 99.99% of you, please first consider where you think you’d actually be happiest rather than where you think other people will find impressive. I’m not going to lie to you, committing to an impressive school feels great, but how much sacrifice is that temporary great feeling worth to you?

I’m telling you, really any school below a 30-40% acceptance rate is going to have rigorous enough academics for the vast majority of high academic high school kids. It’s definitely not the end of the world if you don’t get into a school with a 10% acceptance rate, and honestly that may be for the best anyway. I was rejected from UChicago ED1 last year. Looking back on that situation, I would probably slap myself for applying ED there.

I’m not denying that going to a good school will be beneficial for your future career prospects, but are you willing to go somewhere with a slightly better academic reputation for the tradeoff of doing permanent damage to your mental and physical health?

Please, as y’all are finalizing your applications this semester, just consider where you think you’d be happiest rather than where you think other people would find impressive on your school’s instagram commitments page. I’m also definitely not telling anyone to make a serious effort to get into the best school possible, I just want to make sure you all know that a rejection from your reach school isn’t going to kill you and in most situations it’s probably for the best.

My daughter is struggling in HS. She is a senior. She is smart but not an organized kid and misses a lot of homework hence grades are not great.
I don’t think she is a good 4-year college candidate right now (she can’t even get up for school and always late).
If you were that kid or if you are parents of such kid, is there a degree that you/ your child pursued (maybe like a certificate) that worked out great for you?
I am looking for general advice and guidance on how to help my daughter. I do t want her end up with no direction post high school.

We all knew it was coming since the draft opinion leak, but as of a few minutes ago, it actually happened. Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the Supreme Court. I’m not trying to make a political post here, but it is safe to say this is extremely unpopular amongst college age students and something that everyone needs to be aware of if you were not already.

I urge everyone (guys too!) here no matter where you are in the college application process to carefully consider all the schools you are applying to and where they are located. 23 states already have laws in place that ban all/most abortions. Schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, UT Austin, WashU are just a few of the top colleges affected by it, but there are so many more out there.

Use these resources to look it over, but do your own research as well as things are constantly changing.

https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/abortion-stands-state-state-state-breakdown-abortion-laws/story?id=85390463

I'm an Independent Educational Consultant and a former Admissions Counselor. I've read nearly 20,000 Common Apps in my career. Let me share something that might take some pressure off.

An admissions reader often has 15 minutes or less to go through your entire file. That includes your transcript, activity list, essays, recommendation letters, and test scores if you submit them. At many colleges and universities, it's closer to 8-12 minutes. Readers are working through hundreds of files in a season, and they're doing it thoughtfully, but they're doing it quickly.

Most of that time goes to the transcript. The core question is whether you've challenged yourself with the courses available at your school and done well in them. Grades, course rigor, and the trend over time carry the most weight. Everything else adds context to that story.

Here's what students tend to over-stress:

1. Honors and awards. A long list of honors doesn't move the needle the way people think. Readers know that opportunities vary widely from school to school. A couple of meaningful ones are plenty. A local high school award from a teacher can have more value than a national one.

2. Activity list formatting. Nobody is grading your word choice or whether you used the perfect action verb. Be clear, be honest, and show what you actually did and how much time you put in. I don't want to learn what skills you exhibited. I want to learn why this was meaningful and impactful to you.

3. The "flawless" essay. Your essay doesn't need to be a masterpiece or about something dramatic. It needs to sound like you and give the reader a sense of who you are. A small typo won't sink you. A generic essay that could have been written by anyone is the bigger risk. The best essay I ever read described the objects in the student's desk drawer.

So where should your energy go?

- Take the strongest courses you can handle, and do well in them.

- Build relationships with teachers and non-teachers (Other recommenders) who can write about you with real detail.

- Write an essay that's honest and specific to you. It should be something that only you could write.

- Build a college list based on fit, not just rankings.

Applying to college is a lot, but it's more manageable than it looks. Focus on the fundamentals, then breathe

for context, i haven’t had the best application season (11 rejections) but my somewhat close cousin got into an ivy during the ED round where she is committed. During the whole app season, my mom has been pestering me non stop when i applied to the same school and kept saying that i will 100% get in for sure. any other acceptances i got she immediately dismissed and said “you’re getting xyz college anyway right, this isn’t a big deal” time and time again. i got rejected from said school (very expected, it was a very strong reach) and she didn’t react that much to it. fast forward to now i again bought up my graduation and said “u guys are obviously coming right” as it is next month and i have reminded them about this several times before. my mom said she honestly forgot about it and she has some work stuff to do that week so she won’t be able to make it. I immediately asked if she could postpone and she gave some lousy response on how she could but it’s better not to, and i later heard her telling my dad my college results weren’t so good anyway so what’s the use. wtf? i have been srsly distraught about this for the past few days because our relationship isn’t even bad. like i know she’s been saying shit about me during clg decisions to my dad but this was just reallyyy hard for me to hear as i have been thinking about graduation for months and always imagined both my parents to be there sooo advice on how to handle this pls bcs all my friends parents r coming andd this kinda sucks

edit: i wanted to just say thank you guys so so much for all your sweet and helpful comments!! they genuinely mean the world to me and make me sooo happy :)))) i did have a convo with my mom last night about all this stuff and tried to make her come. at first she was a bit concerned that she’s missing it but later on she just got kind of annoyed and indirectly told me her work comes first and just left it at that, so i do not think she will be attending. i will just try not to think about so much and focus on the people who are coming. again thank you guys so so much for your kind words, they are soo helpful !

Hi Everyone! For a bit of context, I am from California and plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering. To be quite honest, I applied to Harvard on a whim, only because my brother had done the same a couple of years back and was waitlisted, so I only wanted to see if I could get in. To my absolute shock, I was admitted, and now that I'm in, I feel like I'd be throwing away such an amazing opportunity by turning down my offer.

The main reason I am debating not accepting is the distance. Like I said earlier, I'm from California, and I'm also very close to my family, so I might struggle emotionally/mentally quite a bit. Also, 'm not sure if Harvard's engineering program is as good as some of my other options.

As of now, I am deciding between Harvard, UC Berkeley, and UCLA (leaning towards UCLA because I loved the campus when I visited).

I would love to hear what you guys think about this haha

Hi everybody! Here is my application that failed to get accepted into 22 colleges I applied to.

• Applying to: NYUAD(ED1), Lafayette(ED2), Rice, Case Western, Amherst, Swarthmore, Georgia Tech, Brown, Union college, Vanderbilt, Bates, Colgate, UBC, Drexel, Nazarbayev University.

• I come from a low income family in Central Asia.

• Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering

Stats:
• GPA: 5.0/5.0 (top 5%)
• SAT: 1540
• IELTS: 7.5
• A-level program.
• Applying for a full ride scholarship.

Awards:
• Silver – Republic Scientific Projects Competition (Engineering/Biomedicine)
• Silver – Republic Astrophysics Tournament
• 2nd Place – Nauryz Meetings (Biomedicine, Engineering & Tech)
• FLEX Exchange Program (U.S. Department of State)
• Civic Education Workshop (Washington D.C.)
• TEDx + National TV guest on youth innovation

Extracurriculars:
• Lead researcher – Hypoallergenic Orthosis (300+ hrs, national medals)
• Founder – IELTS Advance (free English-prep for 300 students, led 15 volunteers)
• Founder – High School Curriculum Website (STEM resource for 22 schools)
• FLEX + Civic leadership programs
• Chess Club President & competitive player (4 yrs)
• national music instrument performer for 2 years.

Essays:
• Common App: described my experience of always getting second place, with realisation of constant growth throughout these moments of “losing”.
• NYUAD: bridge-building experiences in the US when I had to do it in my host family, and later on national level to protect multi-million federally sponsored exchange programs.

P.S. now my life is done as next year I will likely be forced to do the mandatory military service.

The question is where can I apply next year or more importantly this year to avoid military duty?

Title

I recently got into Hamilton thru QB RD with a full ride, but my mom won't let me go. I thought she would let up, but with 2 days until decision day she is still insisting I attend a CUNY, what do I do? Is it so bad if I attend a CUNY?

Edit: Thank you everyone for all the advice. I committed to Hamilton last night, but I haven't told my mom yet. I'm literally so scared. But thank you for your help.

My dad is a lawyer making around 700k a year, I can’t get financial aid when he has that high of a salary. Also I’m a triplet, and FAFSA doesn’t give financial aid even when multiple siblings are going into college at the same time. He won’t help pay for our college because his parents didn’t do it for him, however he was in a whole different situation from me and my siblings, since my grandmother had him in high school. He says I’m not allowed to get a job either, and I should focus on getting scholarships. However, these scholarships are very competitive and I’ve applied to many already (there’s a limited amount for high school juniors). I don’t know what to do, at this point I feel like I can’t go to college, I’d rather not go to a community college either. I wish there was a way to talk to my father about helping us, college is so much more expensive than it used to be. Any advice? (sorry about the rant)

Edit: If you read my title it says he won’t “help” pay for college, I don’t expect him to pay for the whole thing.

Also, I do love my father and I’m grateful for him, he has done so much for me. However, student loans such a huge cost, that I’d rather not have for the rest of my life.

With society progressing and the realm of college apps being more sporadic, I think it's necessary to bring out this topic. You get to see people's true colors during app season and I think one really important thing to minimize the amount of hostility, toxicity and damage is to gatekeep your acceptances. This is a must read post and probably a top banger on this subreddit in a very long time.....

Many of you might say, now why would someone want to gatekeep their acceptances? Well there are many reasons.

1. With so many competitive people applying from your HS to these selective colleges, only a few if any will get in. Many who don't often times shi or criticize the ones who get in
2. Not wanting to be on the radar. This one is really important, you may think telling people that you got into a cracked college is good but deep down it's not. It's a temporarily cope for you to satisfy your desire of attention, when in reality it achieves nothing. Successful people do not flaunt their achievements, they silently portray them. Going around telling people is idiotic, you don't want to be on people's radars especially during this time of the year.
3. Making sure bad actors don't do anything. I'm sure you all heard of the numerous stories on reddit and other forums, but the truth is hs kids are unpredictable and jealous toxic classmates are capable of doing anything. You don't want to take the risk even with false accusations, it's better to not get involved or have to deal with that. Gatekeeping your acceptances prevents such from happening.

The point I'm trying to make is that you can obviously tell people, but BE CAREFUL of who you tell. In my opinion it's best just to reveal on either commitment day or graduation or near the end of the year. Emotions are high the days after acceptances come out and I'm telling you it's going to cause mixed feelings when you announce it. All the cracked people who didn't get in obviously will feel sad (this is a perfectly fine emotion to have but what's not okay is making fun of other people or saying people did not deserve to get in) and at the same time a lot of them will say you are undeserving. Friends will talk behind your back and people you thought you could trust, were simply against you the entire time. A lot of times you may not even find out.

You really can't trust anyone and if you ever think that you need a true reality check. 1/4 of married people end up having an affair, cheating on their partner and breaking that sacred bond of trust. You really think you can trust people who will end up cheating on their partner. You can't trust anyone, even if you've known them for a long time. What makes you think you can trust a simple friend when people cheat on their partners. Parent's and siblings are the only people you can really trust (hopefully)

So save any hassle and issues and just gatekeep your acceptances. If you choose not to or disagree then this post isn't for you and I hope you have a great day. But there are immense benefits in gatekeeping and really if you are the type of person who has a big ego or wants to flex to get aura/attention seeking (kind of like me) just take a deep breath and rethink everything. It may be hard but it's the best decision you will make. Trust me I literally know someone who got in early and a bunch of kids sent fake phone calls/emails to the admissions and now he's in a big situation with the school counselor verifying stuff, you don't want to be in this position at all not to mention just having people wishing on your downfall is something you also want to avoid.

Some tips while gatekeeping:

- If you're a really cracked kid and top of your class and many people won't believe you when you say you didn't get in anywhere I advise already picking a school whether your state school or a random college and say you got in there and will be going. If people don't believe make up a reason why you will be going there. You don't have to justify to anyone. Confidence is key.

- Make sure you don't tell people different things to avoid any confusion or some really sneaky kid in your grade figuring out that you don't want to tell people

- Also make sure you don't tell people things on your app, many kids use stuff that they hear on other people's apps to mention that to college admissions offices after they get in

- Don't actively talk about college that much during school and act like you don't care. This will prevent toxic people from bringing you up

- Make sure your parents and siblings don't leak too much. Many parents like to brag its important to make sure they won't tell people in your area or other parents if you want to gk. This happens more often then you think. You gotta sit down with your parents and explain this, they may not understand that much because they're trapped in the "flex mode" lifestyle.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My final comment is just that most people are jealous and do not wish for your success. This is prevalent throughout society and even history itself. That's just human nature and you gotta understand how to navigate and deal with these situations. Gatekeeping might sound bad for the people who want to know who got in (very nosy???), but it doesn't really matter. It's no one's business where you got in and if people are shi on you for gatekeeping then they're not really your friends. Remember smart people are those who don't flaunt, they don't go out of their way seeking validation, sure it's fine if someone asks if you don't want to gk that much but really you want to be the one who has tabs one everyone and not the one who other people know about. Also one more thing humans are known to just leak stuff. People just can't keep a secret. Don't believe just test it out yourself. It's just human nature, no one can really keep something within themselves they always have the eagerness to tell someone else and then gossip/talk about it.

I'm really doing this to protect everyone. I've seen countless stories, you already see fake posts on reddit and honestly its just so sad how toxic everyone has become during college app season. APPS DO NOT DEFINE YOU AND DO NOT LET A REJECTION IMPACT YOUR LIFE THAT MUCH. Live life there are more things than college decisions. But I've seen people getting bullied about getting in and it's just so disturbing. Gatekeeping is the only way to prevent this. Kids won't change. I'm giving you valuable advice to protect you all and help you have a smooth end of senior year where it won't be a bunch of drama and instead memories you can reflect on after your k-12 education is over.

There is literally no benefit of random people in your grade, classmates or even friends (ur choice i rec not telling anyone tho) knowing you got in. Trust me. Simmer down and think about it, is that artificial congratulation really gonna change your life? Nope. Deep down most people will not be happy you got in. That's the truth and I'm sorry to break it to you. There's no need of people knowing you got in, the decisions have been made and it will have p much 0 impact on anything by you telling, if anything it will just create drama, gossip and people preying on your downfall.

Hope we have a successful gatekeep season this year and for many years to come! I'm already seeing an immense load of gatekeeping than in past years.

Rice is one of my top choices and luckily I got the chance to have an interview.

My interviewer was the COO of a Finance company and I think I might have just blown my chance of getting into Rice, but I'm not quite sure.

The interview started pretty well. They asked me pretty general questions, "Tell me about yourself", "Why Rice", etc. The interview started flowing so well that I felt my interviewer was one of my buddies.

At the end of the interview, they asked me if I had any questions about the school... and I did. I was between two questions: "I'm a big fan of professor X. How are Economics classes with him? (who lectured there for many years)" or... "What was your score on the Rice Purity Test?".

They say taking risks is good, right? I ended up choosing the latter.

If you don't know what the Rice Purity Test is, it's basically a test to measure your "purity" created by Rice students. (http://ricepuritytest.com).

My interviewer said "What?" And I explained to them it was a funny test made by Rice students. They started laughing at first and suggested taking the test together with me. Jesus.

I said, "Ok..." We started taking the test, and after the tensest of questions, we reached the end. The test began really funny, but there is a point that you would never want to be in this position with an older adult, especially, YOUR FREAKING INTERVIEWER.

When we reached the end, the interviewer said to me, "You know that you really f***ed it up, right?" I responded, "Of course not, you're playing with me... right?". They said, "Yes, yes..." Let's hope they weren't being ironic.

Guys, what do you think? Do I still have a chance? I believe the interviewer kind of felt comfortable taking the test, but I'm not sure.

Edit: I know I'm screwed when I see that some people think it's so absurd, it can't possibly be true.😭

Edit 2: Lots of people are asking me about their score, it was a 24 lol.

Hi all, I am debating between the two for ED. My major would be law-adjacent. I really just want to ensure I get a good GPA because I am aiming to get into Law School (not really interested in UChicago or Cornell Law though, just looking at them for undergrad). I would also like to know which school is more “prestigious” to the average person since I would like to factor that in. My Cornell pros are that it’s an Ivy League and has a beautiful large campus, my Cornell cons is the location, Ithaca (I will note I love cold, rainy, and snowy weather so otherwise it’s all good to me). My UChicago pros is that it also has a beautiful campus and it is similarly prestigious, my UChicago cons is that I don’t love the city of Chicago that much (but maybe it would still be better than Ithaca?) and it’s farther from home. Thanks in advance!

—

\*Please do* not bring the Cornell 7 into your deliberations if you choose to assist me in my deliberations. I understand everything that has happened with the Cornell 7, but at this moment I’m trying to keep an open mind and just compare programs because as incredibly horrific as it is every top school seems to have scandals like this (ex. Columbia’s mattress rape case, Harvard’s John Comaroff case and Amanda Nguyen case, Dartmouth’s Kyle Clampitt case and the Psychology Department case, etc.) and often they are even worse as in the case of Dartmouth’s two rape-related scandals. Ultimately it seems to me more of a systemic issue with society than anything else (I am also a woman, by the way, so I’m speaking as someone who would be on the more vulnerable end of any of these attacks). Thanks for your understanding—if you absolutely cannot stand not mentioning them in your deliberations, however, please feel free to simply click off. I am not here to cause conflict, I just want honest opinions about which college I should ED to.

Never really been a fan of beautiful campuses. Let's say we have a ratio of campus ugliness:academic reputation. What is the top institution following this ratio?

edit: er, academic reputation:campus beauty

if you didn’t get in anywhere you should have probably partied more. developed a bit more personality.

work hard. play hard.

So my Mom and my stepdad (my primary household) make 230k a year. I‘m in my Junior year of High School right now and I’m starting to stress about college application. My mom has mentioned in passing that she will not help with college, but she graduated debt free because my grandma paid for her college. I don’t know how to start this conversation or what might even be reasonable to ask for? I‘ve asked in passing if she’s saved anything in a 529 account but she kind of just brushed it off so I’m not sure if she has anything saved. How do I start this conversation?