Only a few days ago my final college application student for the ‘24-’25 admissions cycle turned in his last essays. I’ll probably sleep for the rest of January (just kidding! I’ll be prepping some ambitious juniors who are starting their process already), but first I wanted to give you a few insights I gained from this year’s college application process:
The students who worked on their applications during the summer had a significantly less stressful experience than those who waited until September or October. I had one student finish her applications in early October, and she got into her first choice Early Decision. I’m so proud of her!
By contrast, my students who wanted to apply to a lot of schools were still working on their applications into early January. They got everything in on time, but I feel for them because they spent their entire holiday break writing. I feel it’s important to mention that none of those students stuck to the benchmark and deadline calendar I gave them in May of last year.
Ivy Leagues are hard to get into. But you can’t win if you don’t play! I had some students who had massively strong applications get rejected from Ivies and Ivy-adjacents,, while others got in Early Decision. As I always say, if you want to apply, you should apply. It’s roulette either way.
My students who did NOT apply Early Decision to one school and instead applied Early Action to many schools already have several acceptance letters and massive scholarship offers, usually for 20-30k per year to each school. In the future, I will encourage any student who doesn’t have a dream school to take this approach because wow, that’s good money.
Beyond my usual ideas that shock students, which include prioritizing authenticity and vulnerability in their application rather than trying to be impressive, throwing out formal academic writing in favor of personal storytelling, and embracing their inner nerd, this year I focused largely on accountability and letting students know when they had told me they would do something and then didn’t. I don’t shame them or get angry, I simply tell them, “you told me you were going to do this and then you didn’t.” It’s simple accountability, but it was one of the most important lessons I ever learned when my ballet teacher said that to me in my early 20s. I hope that my students all understand the value of their word and of keeping their promises.
A few quips from lessons this year that I vividly remember:
“You’re too advanced to use the word ‘things.’”
“How’s your hamster? Is he doing ok with the cancer?”