Ivy League Admission
The Ivy Coach College Admissions Blog

Work and college admissions success (as in employment during high school or over high school summers), contrary to popular belief, are not inversely related. It is not by any means whatsoever looked down upon! There’s an all-too-common misconception out there that students should attend fancy, expensive summer programs to improve their odds of getting into highly selective colleges. This simply isn’t true. Do you think that Harvard is going to admit your child because he attended a summer program? No. They’ll gladly take your money for the program but that doesn’t in any way mean that it’ll improve his odds of getting into the university when he applies. The fact is that expensive summer programs are entirely overrated and not necessary to gain admission to highly selective colleges.

Contrary to popular belief, summer employment can be beneficial to an applicant in the highly selective college admissions process. And so can conducting research!

There are a number of things a high school student can do in lieu of going to a fancy summer program at a prestigious university. For instance, they can work. Yes, you read that right. Work. Maybe it means lifeguarding and saving lives. Maybe it means flipping burgers. Maybe it means starting an entrepreneurial endeavor that the student will continue even after the summer ends. Maybe it means doing science research and conducting experiments. Maybe it means researching the life and times of Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte. There are tons of options!

The point is, parents, stop worrying about financing these expensive summer programs. Will your child learn some good things through these programs? Probably. But they can also learn some good things by reading a book in between shifts at a job over the summer. They can also learn some good things trying to start a business endeavor. They can also learn some good things right in their neighborhood. They don’t have to spend the summer away from home! There are indeed other options.

If you spend three hours a week playing the flute, don't say you spend ten hours a week playing the flute. It's that simple.

Your college application activities should be truthful ones. Take a lesson from Richard Vos, the former VP of admission and financial aid at Claremont McKenna College who fudged admissions statistics to boost the school’s “US News & World Report” ranking. Don’t fudge information on your college application! That means don’t lie in your college essays. That means don’t lie on your activity sheet. That means don’t lie in your college interviews.

On your activity sheet, there’s plenty of room to fudge the number of hours you spend in a given activity. Don’t do it. If you spend three hours building houses for the homeless, don’t write that you spend four hours. It’s not like the additional hour is going to get you into college and lying isn’t right. Not to mention — it can very easily backfire on you! What if the teacher who is writing one of your letters of recommendation is also your club supervisor? What if they write that you spend three hours a week doing an activity when you wrote a number quite different on your activity sheet.

It’s never worth it to lie on your college application. There’s a good chance you’ll get caught. And even if you do get in and get away with it for now, there’s always the chance that your admission decision can be rescinded at a later time. Do you really want to have to worry about this? We don’t think so. Be honest in every component of your college application.

Check out this video focusing on mistakes on the Common App activity sheet.

Don't spend your high school summers surfing or watching TV. That won't give you a college admissions edge.

Summer is just around the corner and, if you’re a high school freshman, sophomore, or junior, it’s time to start planning out what you’re going to be doing this summer. If you wait too long, you might just end up watching TV all summer long. Not only would that not be fun, but it certainly would not be productive. And it would put you at a serious disadvantage as you seek to earn admission to your dream colleges. So as you finish up your coursework for the year and start preparing for final exams just around the corner, start planning your summer plans!

If you think you need to attend a fancy, expensive summer program at a university to gain admission to the college of your dreams, you’d be wrong. Sometimes, the best high school summer plans are right in your neighborhood. It could be taking a job at the local deli or working as a lifeguard at your local beach. Maybe it’s volunteering at something you’re very passionate about. Maybe it’s conducting science research at the local college, research that you’ll later present at science fairs around the country.

Colleges want to see a focused commitment and a depth of commitment in a specific area. Your high school summer plans are a perfect opportunity to really delve into your passion and explore it in a way you simply don’t have time for during the academic year. So capitalize on this distinct opportunity. Don’t let other students gain an advantage that you won’t have. Start planning your summer plans right now.

We’re nearing summer and many high school sophomore and juniors are figuring out what they plan to do when school’s out. In the past, we’ve written about what you can do to distinguish yourself in the college admissions process through your summer plans. It can be taking a course or multiple courses. It can be developing your skills and unique talents. It can be getting involved in community service. It can be reading books — and lots of them. Or it can be getting a job. In this post, we want to focus on getting a job.

Don't get some fancy internship this summer. It won't help your case for college admission. Get a real job.

In college admissions, many applicants and their parents think that admissions officers will be impressed by fancy internships. Maybe you just landed an internship at Morgan Stanley on Wall Street or at “Good Morning America” at ABC News. Maybe your dad just got you a sweet gig as the special assistant to a United States senator. And all of this is well and good…but it’s not going to help your college admissions chances. It might just do the opposite.

What do you think a college admissions officer at a highly selective college thinks when she reads that you interned at Morgan Stanley? She thinks daddy got you a cush summer gig. She thinks you’re entitled. She thinks she may not have had such a wonderful opportunity when she was your age. She thinks you’ve had quite an advantaged life, that your SAT scores should be even higher since you probably had a whole lot of private SAT tutoring, and that you’re another wealthy kid who could stand a reality check with a denial!

So don’t take a fancy internship that daddy got you. Take a job for minimum wage. Learn what working is all about. Work at CVS. Make burgers at In ‘N Out. Start a small business. Anything but getting a fancy internship that’s going to lead college admissions officers to dislike you and want to reject you for it!

While you’re here, check out this post on Summers and College Admission.

With the Early Action / Early Decision round at a close, we’ve been receiving those exciting phone calls from our students and their parents. Oh, how we love this time of year! One student just showed up at our office dressed as a Brown bear, bearing a gift of a Brown University hoodie. When such a small percentage of applicants are accepted at their dream school, it’s no wonder that these students are very special.

See what the Tufts Dean of Admission has to say about his talented admitted students.

Yes, of course applicants must have taken the most rigorous courses and have excelled in those courses. Of course applicants must have SAT or ACT scores that are in line with the college’s mean. But courses, grades, and standardized test scores are just the basics. The applicant’s personality, one that shines through essays, extracurricular involvements, and letters of recommendation, reveals the rest of the story.

A few years ago, we wrote a blog about Talent and College Admissions in which we highlighted the accomplishments of Barnard College’s accepted class. Today, Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions at Tufts University, was kind enough to let the world know about the unique talents of Tufts’ Early Decision accepted students for the Class of 2016. He calls these talents his “Sweet Sixteen” and we’d like to share some of what he wrote with you.

“To highlight a few of the personalities heading our way next September, the ED class features a nationally-ranked Scrabble player from suburban Boston, a professional guitarist from New Haven, New Mexico’s ‘We the People’ state champ, the founder and president of the lumberjack club at a high school in Northern Virginia, a participant in Occupy Louisville, an equestrian from LA who competes in extreme cowboy racing and a blogger for Huffington Post. That’s quite a bunch!”

Coffin goes on in his blog post on the topic of his talented admitted students to write, “We’ll watch out for the Singaporean who’s been trained as a field medic as well as ‘counter-improvised explosive services’ techniques (he just finished his compulsory military service) as well as the community health student from Westchester County who reported ‘I am a ferocious, fearless and phenomenal skinny dipper.’ Indeed.”

Are you starting to get a sense of what it means to be a “talented” college applicant?

Don't just do an activity because you love it. That's not the key to admission to a highly selective school. Do an activity that you love that you also happen to be quite good at! If you're 5'3, you're probably not the next great college basketball star. Muggsy Bogues was an exception.

There’s an old say: “Do what you love.” In your college admissions activities, that’s not, however, necessarily the case. If you love tennis and you’re great at it to the point where you’re on the radar of college coaches, then by all means do it. If you love designing websites for volunteer organizations and you’re great at designing websites, then by all means do it. If you love science research and you have a shot at being an Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist, then by all means do it. But if you love video games (and have no discernible talents at designing video games), then don’t play video games. Video games aren’t going to get you into a highly selective college!

So many people do what they love and they’re just not very good at what they love. Many people love playing basketball. But only a select few are good at basketball. Maybe you can’t jump high enough. Maybe you have no court sense. Maybe you’re the height of Muggsy Bogues (hey, Muggsy was the exception to the rule, not the rule). In the highly selective college admissions process, we encourage you not simply to do what you love but rather to do what you love that you also happen to be good at!

If you’re only somewhat decent at swimming and you happen to love it, sure you can stick it out. Or, you can immerse yourself in an entirely new activity that you’re actually quite good at. We don’t suggest that you jump from activity to activity. Far from it. You don’t want to be an activity jumper. You don’t want to be a well-rounded candidate, contrary to what so many college applicants think. You want to be super talented in one specific area of focus. And that’s why you’ve got to do something you love that you also happen to be remarkable at! The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive It’s just that simple in the game of highly selective college admissions.

Got questions? Ask us by posting below! And check out this video on the Activity Sheet in College Admissions.

Volunteering an hour a week cleaning up graffiti is not the key to admission to the Ivy League.

There’s an article up on the very pink “Impact” section of “The Huffington Post” about Ivy League admission and volunteering. The article correctly discusses how college admissions counselors aren’t impressed by students who volunteer an hour here and an hour there in a ton of volunteer activities. An hour serving food to the homeless, while nice and good for humanity, won’t get you into college. As we are quoted in this month’s issue of “Worth” magazine, flying to Guatemala in first class to build houses for the impoverished only to then fly back a week later in that same first class seat not only won’t help you in the Ivy League admissions process, it could even hurt. It makes you appear not to be genuine.

In fact, it makes you appear like a rich kid who knows community service helps you get into college so you’re doing as mommy and daddy says. In this case, mommy and daddy couldn’t be more wrong. And in the Ivy League admissions process, the advice of mommy and daddy is quite often wrong! We hear it every day when parents call us telling us how their child is the smartest and most talented person in the world and how they just got back from a soup kitchen where they served soup for a half hour this year. In addition to picking up garbage on the beach for twenty minutes one Tuesday every other month and painting over graffiti one weekend every third of a decade.

Don’t fall into the trap of being that parent…or that child. Ivy League admissions counselors know that students think volunteering in a plethora of activities without getting really involved in those activities is the key to admission to the Ivy League. And Ivy League admissions counselors know – as you should – that such thinking is 100% incorrect.

Check out this post on Volunteering and College Admissions.

Volunteering and Ivy League admission are inextricably linked. The vast majority of students who gain admission to the Ivy League volunteer. Does this mean this is their primary activity? No, not necessarily. If they’re a baseball player on an Ivy League baseball coach’s radar, chances are high baseball is the priority. But college admissions counselors want to know that you give back, they want to know you’ve got a big heart. So what’s the trick? Do some volunteering. And start volunteering at the beginning of high school — not right before you send in your applications to Ivy League colleges.

Volunteering and Ivy League admission isn't about working with Habitat for Humanity one hour every other week. That won't do.

College admissions counselors are no dummies. When they see that you started volunteering with Key Club the Tuesday before you sent in your application, they know why you did this. And it’s not going to work. College admissions isn’t about volunteering in a number of activities and doing little to nothing in these activities. It’s about finding a couple of activities and really putting your full efforts into them. So get involved early. If you’re really passionate about volunteering in a specific area and your school or community doesn’t offer anything of the sort, start your own organization. Show your entrepreneurial skills. Get fellow students involved who are just as passionate.

That’s the kind of student Ivy League admissions counselors seek. They don’t want the kid who performs one hour a week of community service with Key Club and two hours every other week with Habitat for Humanity. And don’t just volunteer to get into college. Volunteer because you actually want to make the world a better place. That, after all, is the point. While you’re here, check out this post on Volunteering and College Admission.

Volunteering and college admissions. So many students and parents think that volunteering is going to get them (or their children) into college. And so many of these students and parents are wrong. Think about it like this. Do you think that college admissions officers reserve a spot in the incoming class for a homeless shelter volunteer? Do you think they reserve a spot for a kid who spends a couple of hours each week volunteering with Habitat for Humanity? The answer is an unqualified no.

College admissions officers don't reserve spots in the incoming class for students who volunteer in soup kitchens.

Is it good to volunteer? Of course it is! Volunteering makes the world a better place. Everyone should absolutely give back in their own way. If that means coaching swimming in an impoverished neighborhood to kids who wouldn’t otherwise know how to swim, then volunteer coaching swimming! If that means serving soup to the homeless in a shelter, then serve soup to the homeless!

But don’t just volunteer in the hope of getting admitted to college. College admissions officers can see right through that. They weren’t born yesterday. And if you’re going to volunteer, do something original. Do something that stands out.

Don’t just volunteer in a soup kitchen. That makes college admissions officers want to fall over snoring. Don’t just build houses a couple of hours a week for Habitat for Humanity. Be entrepreneurial. If you love swimming, coach swimming. Start a swim team. Start a learn to swim organization targeted to African American and Latino children. March to the beat of your own drummer! Start your own organization that works to help a cause close to your heart!

For more information, check out our blog on Community Service and College Admissions or on Summer Plans for College Applicants.

Ivy League a cappella groups tend to be among some of the most well known college a cappella groups across the nation. From the Yale Whiffenpoofs to the Penn Chord on Blues to the Cornell Absolute A Cappella to the Princeton Roaring 20, Ivy League college a cappella groups often compete against one another in a cappella competitions throughout the year.

The Dartmouth Aires a cappella group will be appearing on NBC's "The Sing-Off" this fall.

If you don’t happen to know what an a cappella group is, it’s basically a group of people who sing with no instrumental accompaniment (and typically dress ridiculously). Often, a group will have a solo performer backed up by the entire group of twelve or so in chorus. And if you’re a first-year student at an Ivy League school, chances are your first week of college will be filled with more a cappella performances than you’ve ever seen in your life.

One particular Ivy League a cappella group will be gaining some national publicity this fall when the Dartmouth Aires compete on NBC’s “The Sing-Off.”  The Aires are one of Dartmouth’s most respected a cappella groups but we’ll see how they do on the national stage. Although the show hasn’t aired yet this season, we suspect they’re going to make a very nice run!