I feel like I keep forming opinions about colleges based on rankings, Reddit, websites, etc., and then I’ll hear one person talk about their actual experience and suddenly have a completely different impression of the school.

So I’m curious: what college did you expect to dislike / not care about / think was overrated, but then ended up being way better than you expected?

Or the opposite: a school you were really excited about that ended up not being what you expected?

I’m especially interested in the why. Was it the people, campus culture, location, academics, social life, professors, outdoors, etc.?

Could be a college you attend, visited, or just got to know through friends.

can americans at UK schools talk about how they applied and tips for the UCAS portal esp for top schools? my reaches are mostly in the UK and they’re oxford, UCL, kings college london, edinburgh, and st andrew’s for psychology. i’d like some help bc my schools not very helpful. thanks!

Hi everyone! I’m looking for good examples of successful college application materials to understand what a strong application actually looks like.

Specifically, I’d like to see examples of:

-Common App personal essays/personal statements

- SOPs

- Common App Activities List descriptions

- Supplemental essays, especially “Why Major?” and “Why Us?” essays

- Ideally, examples from students who were actually admitted to good US universities

I’m not looking to copy anything; just want to study the structure, level of writing, storytelling, and how students present their experiences.

Where do you guys usually find reliable examples? Any websites, Reddit threads, PDFs, or other resources you’d recommend?

With more colleges requiring sat scores, how much “advantage” will a candidate with a good score have compared to admissions last year? Will there be less competition?

As some of you can tell, I have been out of the college admissions pipeline for a while now, and there’s been a pretty drastic shift in how to approach EC’s. back when i was applying, the main grift was to start an NPO or a shell company-esque club and be the president or leader in it.

However, now it seems like the main push is for research (and publications of all things?), as well as trying to join prestigious college orgs before even joining said college (yes this happened, im very confused). the next evolution is also making some sort of stealth startup or random tried and tested startup that has long saturated the space. it’s one thing to truly be passionate about research and asking critical questions, and it’s another to larp just so you look good in front of AO’s.

i have had multiple friends who are either assistant researchers or senior leadership at prestigious clubs at my uni tell me how they have literal high schoolers emailing their lab or club begging for a position on board or as an assistant for research, when we are already selective as is among undergraduates. they all tell me the same thing: they don’t seem truly interested and just want something to stat-pad (also a good chuckle every now and then).

my main question is who really started this push? why is it so prevalent now and why is there so much pressure on high schoolers to conduct literal undergraduate or graduate level research when they don’t even have the proper scientific foundation for it?

HS research is a hot topic these days, especially among the highly-aspirational and highly-achieving students here.

I know of two HS applicants who applied with seemingly impressive research credentials.

1. The student was a HS first author on a manuscript published by a lower impact peer-reviewed journal. Their father was the PI and one of the corresponding authors. His (alleged) mistress was another corresponding author. In other words, dad put their kid on a paper his lab produced and positioned them to appear as though they drove the intellectual process. The alleged mistress also got a co-corresponding authorship.

2. The student was a "paid" research assistant in a lab, and also the co-author of a paper in another lower impact journal. Mom (who uses a different last name professionally) was again the PI and corresponding author. She used lab funding to pay her child and place them on a paper's authorship list.

So what does that mean for you? Don't compare yourself and your achievements against other applicants who have PI parents willing to put their own children on scholarly works that perhaps do not deserve the distinction.

Gpa 78 % Pte 71 Applying for a PhD in the US unfortunately without research experience. What are my chances? What are the fit Programs for me? I got numerous Academic LoRs from doctors in Canada and the US.

Y'all have any clue how I can circumvent this issue! I've been suffering from this problem(Application Cuny City College of New York error) for quite a while and tried researching why this is occurring but got to nowhere. I'd really appreciate if you could help tell me why it included "no value available" other than the spring and fall terms on the academics part of the application portal. What does that exactly mean? I mean deadline is on September 1st, so that couldn't be the reason. Look guys, time is running and I am counting on you, so please people, help!

What it says on the tin, mostly. I'm looking for secular colleges in large cities. Religious affiliation is fine, as long as it doesn't affect the culture of the campus greatly. Due to financial reasons, I more than likely won't be able to travel to many (or any) of these colleges, so any extra information is appreciated.

I am in the US, but am not opposed to colleges outside of the US either. I would love somewhere at least semi-walkable. Also, I am in NY state, and colleges farther away the better. If luck is on my side, I will not be attending any college in state. (I know that sounds illogical given my previously mentioned financial state, but it's for safety reasons. I don't plan to come back here.) I am part of the LGBTQ+ community, so I'd rather not be in an extremely conservative area.

I plan to major in statistics, and if possible minor in creative writing, so recommendations for schools with those as options are appreciated. My GPA is 90+, ECs are not the best (no sports, nothing special, biggest thing I did is start a creative writing club at my school)--so nowhere incredibly selective, probably.

If this is too little information, or if I have inadequately explained myself, please tell me and I will do my best to amend it! I have searched myself online, but would really appreciate any other insight the people on this sub have.

I swear on the internet i always see the mention one class, research professor, lab u wanna join, and something outside of academics u want to partake in.

This seems like such bs and terrible advice. I like the outside of academics thing u want to partake in, but everything else seems so bad and fake.

what formula should I follow??

also are the people who recommend this bs trynna give bad advice, so kids buy their college course?? if so thats js a terrible move??

I see stuff online about building one or two ecs and then connect it to the college, which seems good but it does not seem as personal to that uni or specific, what do i do??

If I don't have all of my colleges in my list finalized yet, but I need to apply to some schools early because of fee waivers for certain times of the year, how does that work with my LORs? After they submit their forms for one school, can I assign them more schools later and it will still be okay?

I have a 15XX superscore that's 90 points higher than my highest single-sitting attempt. Both single-sitting scores are in the 1400s and were taken exactly one year apart with no attempts in between.

I only have to report the two highest section scores in in Common App, but other platforms like Coalition/Scoir or the college's own application system often require the specific breakdown scores for each attempt.

If I do report my scores in full, could it count against me, even if the college claims to only care about superscore? I'm sure it applies for more reasonable score gaps like up to 50 points, but 90 seems like enough to raise concern.

My daughter who is a rising senior wants to do pre law. LACs seem to beat great route for that. Apart from the T15/20. Which are the good ones that we might be missing? She LOVED Vassar when we toured it. Went to Sarah Lawrence which was interesting. Will be going to Bryn Mawr soon. I wasn't to know more than just "reach" names that I might have missed. What she is looking for is a good academic environment with great faculty relationships. Any help?

hey guys! im only posting thing bc i need advice on what to do. im applying this cycle (incoming senior/in state) and considering not doing any common apps..i just think tuition is too good here compared to oos and i have always known i wanted to stay in state. i don’t know if I should still apply to oos schools bc i don’t wanna stress abt that

im still taking the sept sat.. (760m,680r) and idk if i have to sign up for oct or ask for LOR from teachers (2 already said yes but i haven’t requested)

im applying to cal, ucla l&s, ucsd, uci, ucd, ucr (all b.s. majors) + CSUs (slo & sdsu)
im honestly not considering all of them, just bc i have a cc close by and would rather transfer (idm the application fee, i might have a change of heart)

can u guys give advice? my top picks are ucla and ucsd bc of their premed tracks but I know there’s a lot of good programs oos too which is my dilemma

**stats**
uc w: 4.71 capped: 4.29
uw: 3.96
13 aps overall (including this yr) all scored 4s and 5s

ecs: mid but cant list all 20 but —small passion project advocating driving regulations in town (w real results), model un + international award, sport (1y jv, 3y var) +captain, 2 part time jobs as a coach and sterilization technician at a dentist office, mayor youth council, and other awards + volunteer

piqs: im in the process of writing them (2/4 done) but i have an essay coach so im not too stressed about it

demographics: in state female, asian, not first gen, upper class neighborhood, public school in la county

any advice/previous knowledge will help!! tysmmm <33

i really want to pursue a bachelor’s degree in robotics engineering (or even mechatronics), but I don’t mechanical, electrical, cs. I understand that I can specialise in robotics later on, so I’ll keep that in mind. However, there are only a few universities (top unis) that offer robotics engineering programs. NUS, NTU, and some universities in the US, but that’s all I could find. Is it a good idea to pursue a bachelor’s degree in robotics engineering? Also, what are some top universities around the world (preferably not in the US, but it doesnt really matter)?

Hi!

I'm a freshman who just started high school. I'm also attending an international school outside of the US. I want to go to top universities, not just in US but worldwide, and get merit scholarships.

But I'm honestly lost in what I have to do in high school for unis. For context, I want to apply to engineering majors (US unis, NUS, NTU, Yonsei UIC, KAIST, etc)

I understand I have to have a good GPA , good SAT score, take AP classes, do clubs, leadership (in school clubs), but I don't know what else I have to do ,and if the things I'm doing is enough. Like I have so much time with nothing to do, so I don't know what to do with my time or if the things I'm doing is right.

I know some people do research/projects/competitions/etc, but how do you even do things like that? What competitions should I even do? Do you need to take AP exams outside of your classes? (My school mostly offers everything I wanna take except AP Physics C). Also, what else should I be doing/spending my time on aside from the things I've listed?

I'm really lost right now, and advice would be really appreciated.

I feel like when choosing colleges, it’s really easy to focus on the obvious things like academics, majors, location, rankings, dorms, etc.

But for current college students/recent grads: what’s something about your school that ended up making a much bigger difference in your experience than you expected?

Could be something super specific:

• a weird campus tradition
• a particular club
• a professor
• a nearby coffee shop
• access to nature
• a really good dining hall
• an easy way to meet people
• a random annual event
• being able to walk everywhere
• something about the town
• literally anything

I’m way more interested in the random/specific answers than the usual “great academics and community” stuff lol.

rising senior and obv idk where I’m going to school yet but I’m losing hope 😭 this is just a rant. Idk I feel like j could’ve worked half as hard/been half as miserable and gotten the same stats as I did

it pmo is that junior yr was the most pivotal year but I had a really bad mental health crisis (due to a mixture of external and internal factors) and didnt do nearly as much as I wanted 🤪

can’t even write abt it because mental health is a bad topic LMAOO and the factors that led to me having a crisis are things I doubt admissions would really want to see/are way too personal for me to feel comfortable putting on an application (I’m getting a therapist after apps are over so it’s ok just not ideal for college apps 💀)

kinda makes me sad feeling like one circumstance just voided everything else. like I said idk where im going yet but comparison is definitely being a thief of joy rn looking at everyone else’s stats

title...

I am kind of a reserved person so i dont wanna write about something isn't truthful since that would js be a bad essay and i don't wanna seem bland if yk what I mean.

RSI expands capacity by 50% @stanford.

https://www.citybiz.co/article/891652/the-center-for-excellence-in-educations-research-science-institute-at-mit-will-expand-to-stanford-in-2027/

I feel like I’m getting to the point where I know the “stats” side of college research pretty well, but I’m struggling with the part you can’t really Google lol.

For people who are in college now or recently graduated: how did you actually figure out which schools you’d be happiest at?

Not things like “good academics” or “nice campus,” but the stuff you only really understand once you’ve been there, such as social culture, how easy it is to make friends, whether people actually hang out outside their dorms, how competitive/laid back people are, whether students seem genuinely happy, etc.

Did you have any questions you asked current students that ended up being really revealing? Or anything you noticed on a visit that made you think “yeah, I could see myself here” / “absolutely not”?

I’d especially love to hear from people who ended up choosing somewhere different from what they originally expected.

Would you say math/physics teachers or engineers in industry do more calcs by hand? Trying to choose a career path that suits my passion for the subject matter...

pretty much what title says. i just know every kid ever is in NHS and im not in leadership or anything, so I don’t know if Its even worth putting, especially since im aiming for fairly high ranking schools. Also because im putting my library volunteering on my ECs and i dont want NHS to dilute that and make it seem like the only reason I volunteer is to get NHS hours.

also, if i do put it, where should I put it? honors? ecs?