Ivy League Admission
The Ivy Coach College Admissions Blog

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 And even if you do get in and get away with it for now, there’s always the chance that your admission decision can be rescinded at a later time.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.

Including college application extra material is always a risk. From time to time, parents send us these big books filled with accomplishments of their child. Sometimes, these books even have glitter on the covers. Sometimes they’re filled with news clippings, photocopies of awards, photographs of trophies and ribbons, and other accomplishments. Once, we even got a book that included a copy of every award and report card the kid earned since kindergarten.

Don't send unnecessary extra materials with your college application. Elle Woods didn't really get into Harvard Law.

Would you be surprised to learn that some applicants send such weird things along with their applications? Why would anyone think that sending such accomplishments and weird “extra material” would help one’s case for college admission? Why would a parent think that an article about winning a scavenger hunt as a ten year-old would push a student over the edge? Or a cute photo of the applicant at nine in a pirate outfit? Oy vey. These materials would definitely not help! In fact, it would only hurt one’s chances! The student would be regarded as weird in a bad way! A very bad way.

Don’t ever send such superfluous material that has utterly zero relevance to your chances for college admission! If you otherwise have an outstanding application and you include a book like this, we promise your chances for admission will be severely hurt. No question about it. So don’t submit weird extra material with your college application. “Legally Blonde” was a movie, as we’ve previously stated in our newsletter on college essays. Don’t submit your activity sheet on pink paper (even though it’s submitted electronically so this would be rather rough!). Don’t include glitter. This is not the way to stand out. Well, you might stand out…but not in a good way! Just take our advice on this one. We promise we’re right. And seriously — no glitter!

Ivy League applications have bucked the college admissions trend of the last several years by falling this admissions cycle. Among Ivy League colleges this year, only Dartmouth, Yale, and Cornell actually experienced a growth in their respective applicant pools. That means that Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, and Penn didn’t have quite the numbers that they had last year. This is one of those years when the PR spinsters can’t even claim it’s the “most competitive class ever.” If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know that line isn’t true anyway.

Applications were down this year to 5 of the 8 Ivy League colleges. Only Dartmouth, Cornell, and Yale experienced growth.

According to “The Dartmouth” article on Ivy League applications, “The decline in application growth has a variety of causes, including the shrinking population of college-age students and continued economic uncertainty, as well as the reintroduction of early action programs at Harvard and Princeton that reduce the need for students to apply to a large number of schools, according to Parish.”

We happen to agree that Harvard and Princeton’s reinstatement of their Early policies did impact applications to other Ivy League schools this admissions cycle. But is the bad economy really to blame for the fall in applicants to Ivy League colleges this year? We doubt it. For students who are going to be paying for college (or paying off loans for college), the application fee to Ivy League colleges isn’t exactly consequential in comparison. As for the “shrinking population of college-aged students,” we have checked out census data and can confirm that this population is indeed shrinking. And it will continue to do so over the next few years.

While you’re here, check out our comprehensive Ivy League Admissions Statistics.

“The Daily Pennsylvanian,” the newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania, ran an article today in which we’re quoted that discusses the frustration students have with the Common Application word limit. In recent years, on the Common App’s personal statement, for instance, there hasn’t been a word limit. But last spring, the Common Application implemented a change by declaring a 250-500-word limit on the personal statement. Many students, parents, and guidance counselors were upset by this. We weren’t. Word limits are a good thing.

Do not exceed the word limits on college essays. The Common Application has a personal statement word limit for a reason. Even Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The West Wing" has to stick to hard outs.

When you don’t have a word limit in place, students tend to be all over the place. They think more is better when in fact, the truth of it is, less is often better. As the University of Pennsylvania Dean of Admissions Eric Furda stated to “The Daily Pennsylvanian,” “There are a number of risks if the essay is too long. We might not read the whole essay…That doesn’t mean that you’re not admitted, but you’re running a risk that’s probably not necessary.” While the Common Application doesn’t have the mechanism to reject personal statements that are submitted that exceed the word limit, we strongly urge applicants to abide by the Common Application word limit. It’s there, after all, for a reason.

No matter how gripping your college essay is, it can be said in 500 words. Would you say Aaron Sorkin, the creator of “The West Wing” and the writer of “The Social Network” is a pretty good writer? Each episode of “The West Wing” had a hard out. Same with David Chase in “The Sopranos.” They, too, abide by word limits (although, admittedly, Sorkin’s “Studio 60″ did often run about a minute long which put NBC brass in a predicament). But you’re not Aaron Sorkin. You’re a high school senior.

Tell the truth in college admissions. Don't lie on your application. If you're an athlete, don't lie on your athletic profile. For instance, you don't think a swim coach can check your times online? They can through USA Swimming.

Telling the truth in college admissions is something that most people know they should do but so many choose not to. Maybe it’s that award you claim to have won on your varsity track team or maybe it’s an activity you claimed to have done 30 hours each week when in fact you only spent two hours a week. These kinds of lies can severely damage your chances for admission to highly selective colleges.

Some universities such as MIT actually check up on a random selection of applicants to ensure that what they put on their application is the truth. They do this in the hope of not only deterring people from lying but in the hope of catching applicants once they lie so that these students will not become members of their incoming class of admitted students. So if you’re foolish enough to lie, rest assured that there’s a decent chance you’ll get caught. And even if you do get in, if the college learns of lies on your application during your college years, they can certainly expel you for your dishonesty.

Tell the truth on your college application. Tell the truth when you share your athletic profile with college coaches. If you tell a college swim coach that you go a :54 in your 100 breastroke and then you show up unable to break a minute once you’re admitted, that college coach is going to be fuming mad. Granted, the coach should have done his homework by checking your times online (where they’re all available through USA Swimming) but he’s not going to take this easily. Maybe he’ll contact your high school or the admissions office. Your fellow swimmers will invariably know about your deceit. Is that the way you want to start off your college career? We don’t think so.

Check out this post on Lying in College Admissions.

If you’re a student who applied Early Decision or Early Action to a certain college, it’s quite possible that you’ve made the choice to sit and wait until you hear back from the college(s) to which you applied. You’re doing nothing. Maybe you’re focusing on your schoolwork or working hard at improving your swim times. Alright — so you’re not doing nothing. But if you’re a student who applied Early Decision or Early Action and hasn’t yet completed your other applications, you’re going to be under quite a lot of stress should you not get admitted to your first choice college. And a good portion of applicants indeed won’t get admitted to their first choice college!

Don't put yourself in a time crunch. Complete your Regular Decision applications while you wait for the verdict on your Early application.

Our students at The Ivy Coach typically apply through an Early program. After all, why not use one of the best cards a student has in the highly selective college admissions process? But does that mean that our students sit back and watch “One Tree Hill” while they wait to hear back if they earned a spot at Yale? No. Absolutely not. And if your guidance counselor, teachers, or anyone else suggests that you do this, you might want to seek advice elsewhere.

Why would you want to put yourself in the bind of having to write all of your supplemental college essays after you find out that you didn’t get into your Early school? Why would you want to put that kind of time constraint on yourself? Why not prepare in advance on the off chance that you don’t get in? What’s the harm in being over-prepared? You write some extra essays? Big deal. Sunk cost. Do the extra work by completing your Regular Decision college applications now. It’ll be well worth it. We promise.

Lying on college applications is a really bad idea. It’s morally wrong. It severely jeopardizes your chances for admission. And, if you get caught, you risk not only not getting in, you risk going to jail. Just ask Adam Wheeler from Delaware, a young man who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in addition to ten years of probation for lying on his application to Harvard. Was it really worth it? Of course not! And guess what? He’s done it again!

Don't lie on your college application. You'll get caught. Just ask one Harvard applicant.

According to CBS News’ piece on the Harvard faker, after serving out his sentence, he now must undergo psychiatric evaluation for claiming he went to Harvard on his resume – a violation of his parole. And why’d he go to prison in the first place? Because he received federal financial aid funds after lying about even the high school he attended. He claimed to have attended Andover and even MIT (it’s unclear if he applied to Harvard as a transfer student but how else could he have even theoretically attended MIT if he wasn’t applying to Harvard as a transfer?).

If you’ve ever considered lying on your college application, think again. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Not in the least. If this story doesn’t sufficiently deter you, check out this post on lying on college applications along with a video of our founder, Bev Taylor, on FOX News discussing another student who lied to get into an Ivy League college.

College admission counselors don’t like thick files. In fact, there’s an old saying in college admissions that predates submitting applications online. Yes, there really was a time when students mailed in their applications via snail mail! That old college admissions saying is: “The thicker the file, the thicker the student.” But what does that mean, you ask?

For college admission counselors, the thicker the file...the thicker the student.

It means that college admission counselors don’t want to read the extra letter of recommendation from your local congressman. They don’t want to watch the DVD of you hitting a flat on the piano when you should have hit a sharp. They don’t want to receive a book that you wrote as a precocious third grader. They don’t want to watch you play tennis in a forty-five minute video. Rather, college admissions counselors will think if you’re so good, how come you’re not on the coach’s radar?

In college admissions, stick to the real estate you are given. If you’re given 500 words in a supplement, don’t try to put in 800. If an essay prompt asks for five adjectives to describe you, don’t give them nine! The playing field is even when you are given 500 words max so don’t try to give yourself an advantage by writing more. It will do just the opposite to your candidacy. Less is more. Be precise. Succinct. Terse. Add whatever SAT word you want here but make sure you stick to the real estate afforded to you. You’d be amazed how many people don’t seem to get this.

The Common App activity essay should showcase your creativity -- just like in the personal statement.

The Common App activity essay is the place within your college application to write about your most meaningful extracurricular activity. This is an activity that should absolutely appear among your other extracurricular pursuits on the application. Too often, we hear from students who want to focus on an activity that they don’t list among their other activities in an effort to highlight an aspect of themselves that admissions counselors wouldn’t otherwise know. While it’s great to highlight an aspect of yourself that an admissions counselor wouldn’t otherwise know, this activity should still be listed among your activities. It should, after all, be your most significant one.

In the Common App activity essay, it’s important to be different — just like in the personal statement and supplements. Don’t just list your accomplishments. That will come across as bragging. Don’t just tell admissions counselors how frequently you participate in the activity. They can ascertain this information outside of this essay prompt. This is your chance to showcase to admissions counselors how meaningful an activity is to you, how you’ve fully immersed yourself in this activity, and how you intend to continue to pursue this passion.

For more information on the Common App activity essay, check out our blog Extracurricular Activities as well as our related video Common Mistakes on the Activity Sheet.

There was an article in “Financial Times” this past weekend that discussed how business schools often share stories of admitted students that are so exceptional as to make potential applicants feel inadequate. If you’re a prospective student applying to MBA programs, you probably started getting these brochures after you took your GMAT.

MBA programs love to share stories of applicants who have accomplished incredible things. But don't let this intimidate you as an applicant. Find a compelling, truthful way to share your own personal narrative.

There’s the story of the admitted student who took his/her startup public or sold it for many millions to a big corporation. There’s the story of Olympic badminton players. Or soldiers with Bronze Stars for their intrepid gallantry on the field of battle in Iraq or Afghanistan. Or of the violinist who plays at Carnegie Hall.

But don’t let these kinds of stories scare you. Business schools are sharing the stories that are exceptional. Most applicants haven’t earned Bronze Stars. Most applicants haven’t founded Facebook. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be applying to business school in the first place!

There is, however, a valuable lesson to learn from the stories. MBA programs are in search of great narratives. The same is absolutely true in college admissions. Students applying to MBA programs must find a compelling (though truthful) way of sharing their personal story so that they can stand out from the pack as admissions rates to top MBA programs continue to get tougher in this rough economy.

Check out our related blogs: GMAT and MBA Admission as well as Harvard MBA Admission.