Stanford attracts future engineers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, neuroscientists, Olympic athletes, activists, writers, and people who aren't entirely sure what they want to do yet but are convinced they're going to do something interesting.
Inside Admissions: How UChicago Admission Process Actually Works
Inside Admissions: How Yale Admission Process Actually Works
Yale is a serious school, but it doesn feel sterile. Students are ambitious, but they're also deeply involved in theater, music, publications, debate societies, and campus traditions. It has all the resources of a world-class research institution, yet much of student life revolves around smaller communities and close relationships.
An Analysis of How to Get into University of California Berkeley 2026-2027
The University of California Berkeley is the #1 public university in the country, and they say in the world. That ranking doesn really mean much, though, when held up against the more objectively measurable markers of impressiveness that UCBerkeley holds claim to. Across 15 colleges and schools, and serving 40,000 students, UCBerkeley has leading academics, Nobel Prize recipients, Guggenheim Fellowship Award recipients, and a multitude of other highly-prestigious awards. Students at Berkeley have been shaping academic and youth culture for a century, and what happens in Berkeley is felt nation-wide even if you don know that where it started. They receive more than 120,000 first-year applications each year. The acceptance rate for the first-year class entering 2025 was . This is misleading for out-of-state applicants, who face a significantly lower acceptance rate than for residents of California.
An Analysis of How to Get into Ƶ College of Letters and Science 2026-2027
Ƶ is an outstanding major research university that also happens to be part of the University of California system of schools. That means that you are exceptionally lucky if you love Ƶ and live in California, as 80% of Ƶ students are from California. If you don live in California, which makes up of any first-year class, things get a little trickier. As a state school, Ƶ prioritizes students from California. That doesn mean getting in is easy, but it a whole lot easier than getting in if you are from, say, New York. In recent years, they have received over 145,000 first-year applications (the highest number of any university, private or public, in the United States), and admitted overall. The acceptance rate for the College of Letters and Science for the fall of 2025 was 11%.
An Analysis of How to Get into USC Dornsife 2026-2027
USC Dornsife is the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences of the University of Southern California. USC is an iconic California university where you could study nearly anything, and Dornsife, the liberal arts college of the university, is widely respected as one of the best in the nation. There are about 7,800 undergraduate students, or 38% of the USC undergraduate population. The top five majors are Psychology, Economics, Human Biology, Political Science, and Biological Sciences. The acceptance rate is about .
Inside Admissions: How Duke Admission Process Actually Works
Duke is the epitome of work-hard, play-hard culture. Aside from all the top-tier academics and research opportunities, Duke wants students who will seamlessly fit into their culture and vibe. They want academically inclined students, of course, but they also want leaders, collaborators, creators, researchers, athletes, artists, and students who seem genuinely excited to get involved in everything Duke has to offer.
Inside Admissions: How Columbia Admission Process Actually Works
An Analysis of How to Get into Amherst 2026-2027
Amherst is a college but enormous in impact. Located in Amherst, Massachusetts, students are immersed in an intellectual environment that prizes making an impact. For most of Amherst modern existence, it flew quietly under the radar, attracting mostly east coast students who prized the educational environment and community Amherst offered. Twenty years ago, the acceptance rate was a (then) record low for the college at . A lot has changed in the past two decades, though. Word about a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts spread far and wide, and the acceptance rate plummeted. Most recently, for the Class of 2030, Amherst reported another record low acceptance rate of only .
Inside Admissions: How Cornell Admission Process Actually Works
Cornell is one of the most misunderstood schools in the Ivy League. People know the agriculture and hotel schools, but don always recognize the strength of their engineering, business, or liberal arts colleges. It combines the resources of a large major research university with the close-knit academic vibe people expect from an Ivy. That complexity shows up in their admissions, too.
Inside Admissions: How MIT Admission Process Actually Works
MIT has a very specific reputation in the college admissions world. For some students, it basically the holy grail of STEM education. For others, it sounds vaguely terrifying a place where everyone casually solves differential equations for fun while building satellites in their dorm room. And to be fair, there are definitely students at MIT who do that.
An Analysis of How to Get into the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts 2026-2027
The University of Texas at Austin is one of those rare public universities that is as well-known and respected outside of Texas as it is within the state. Over the past 10 years, the number of applicants has doubled, and that isn because the population of Texas has grown by two-fold. Instead, the majority of the growth comes from far away from Texas as students in places like New York and California rank UT Austin on par with top-tier private universities. As a result, the acceptance rate has shrunk. Today, the acceptance rate sits at a very misleading , as that includes both in-state applicants and out-of-state applicants.
An Analysis of How to Get into Duke Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2026-2027
Duke is a top tier private research university in North Carolina with a ton of exceptional programs, but the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences goes truly beyond the expected. This plays out in the numbers. The university reports that of undergraduates explore beyond their major, and more than half of undergraduates take part in faculty-mentored research. That isn just STEM research, either, but includes impressive humanities initiatives. The acceptance rate for undergraduate first-years was for the Class of 2029. A year later, only of applicants were admitted for the Class of 2030.
Inside Admissions: How Princeton Admission Process Actually Works
Princeton. The name conjures up visions of its most famous alumni: Michelle Obama, Jeff Bezos, and, of course, 30 Rock own Jack Donaghy. It a famously hard school, and famously hard schools are famously, well, hard to get into. Princeton certainly attracts some of the most academically accomplished students in the world, but the admissions process is more nuanced than simply identifying who has the highest GPA or the most impressive resume.
An Analysis of How to Get into Carnegie Mellon Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences 2026-2027
Carnegie Mellon University is a fantastic school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a strong focus in both STEM and the fine arts. Like most mid-sized universities, you can study almost anything there, but what CMU are the research opportunities and the emphasis on hands-on learning. From leading classical musicians on faculty to cutting-edge technologies being developed on campus, CMU empowers students by surrounding them with the best. It should come as no surprise, then, that Carnegie Mellon is hard to get into. The acceptance rate is only about
Restrictive Early Action Strategy for Stanford 2026-2027
Inside Admissions: How Dartmouth Admission Process Actually Works
Dartmouth occupies a unique place in the Ivy League conversation. It incredibly prestigious, wildly selective, and academically intense, yet somehow still feels more personal and community-oriented than many of its peer schools. Dartmouth is not just looking for students who can survive rigorous academics. They are looking for students who will actively contribute to a tight-knit campus culture where people actually know each other, professors are accessible, and students are expected to engage both inside and outside the classroom.
An Analysis of How to Get into the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts 2026-2027
The University of Michigan is one of the most famous public state universities in the country, and famed globally for offering an exceptional academic experience. There are 10 different undergraduate colleges at Michigan that first-year applicants can apply to focused on everything from architecture and engineering to dance and pharmacy. Most students, , attend the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, or LSA, and it offers the most academically diverse opportunities.
Inside Admissions: How Penn Admission Process Actually Works
A lot of students hear UPenn and immediately think one thing: Wharton. Finance bros. Pre-professional energy. Future consultants mysteriously appearing in Patagonia vests at age nineteen. And while some of those stereotypes exist for a reason, they also dramatically oversimplify what Penn actually is, because Penn is not just a business school attached to an Ivy League campus.
An Analysis of How to Get into MIT 2026-2027
Getting into MIT is crazy hard. Obviously, if youre here, you probably already know this. But while it hard, it not impossible because, obviously, MIT is graduating full classes every single year. Your internal monologue around getting into extremely selective schools like MIT needs to change from Can I get in? to What do I need to do to get in? Because, look, getting into MIT isn something you can just decide you want to do in your junior year, you need to spend your high school career working towards this goal.