The college application process is competitive and daunting. Each year, nearly two million students apply to United States colleges. Among those applicants are more than 20,000 valedictorians and approximately six thousand 2300+ SAT scorers. With admit rates to schools like Harvard in the single digits, the likelihood of receiving a "thick envelope" in the springtime can be awfully thin. This blog will help you chart the path to (your) Harvard. (Veritas Tutors has no affiliation with Harvard University.)
Background photo by Justin Schmauser (http://schmauserphoto.com/home)
Background photo by Justin Schmauser (http://schmauserphoto.com/home)
"These activities must be evaluated in terms of your personal context. If you go to a high school of 200 students, there won’t be 50 clubs for you to choose from. If you are the oldest of six kids and have to help out around the house, you will not have time to be president of six clubs. But all successful applicants will have proven themselves in some extracurricular arena. How you define that arena is up to you."
A Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
"You can fool an adult into thinking he’s reading profundities by sprinkling your prose with purple passages. But with a kid you can’t get away with that. Two sentences in a children’s book is the equivalent of two chapters in an adult book. For a 60-page book I’ll probably write 500 pages. I think that’s why it works."
Dr. Seuss on writing from “Dr. Seuss’s Green-Eggs-and-Ham World,” Judith Frutig, The Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 1978.
(The same quote could just as easily have been said about drafting essays for college admissions officers.)
Thursday, August 23, 2012
"In reading letters of recommendation, we again consider context. Does this student go to a rural school where teachers typically do not write letters of recommendation for college-bound students? Does this student go to an inner-city public school where the guidance counselor has 500 advisees, instead of 50? Often context explains a short letter of recommendation or one that is poorly written."
A Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
"At the end of the day, these decisions are being made by a group of five to six individuals trying to do their jobs, just like you try to do your job as a student. Decisions are not value judgments on who you are a person. Rather, these decisions are based on institutional interests and being affirmative for the university’s desires. While getting into your Harvard would be a dream come true, it is a dream for thousands of seniors, like yourself, every year. Remember, just to apply to your Harvard is an accomplishment. You have worked hard, won the respect of your local community along the way, and learned much in this process. An admissions acceptance or denial is neither an affirmation nor a rejection of everything you have accomplished as an individual."
A Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Reading about Admissions
- A review of Admission: Jean Hanff Korelitz’s fictional account of life as a Princeton Admissions Officer.
“I was struck by the protagonist’s struggle with the divergence between the two meanings of admissions: first, acts of admitting or entrance (such as accepting a student into the inner circle of a prestigious institution), and second, confessions or truths (like the release of an inner secret once held close to the heart).”
- College admissions books on the NYT’s Choice blog.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
"In reading between the lines of the letters of recommendation, admissions officers are looking for buzz words and phrases: ‘best student in 20-year career,’ ‘most diligent of her class,’ ‘his leadership ranks in the top 3% of students I have taught in the past 5 years.’ We are not looking for you just to be good. We are looking for teachers to separate you from the rest of the pack."
A Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
