Common App welcomes over 30 new colleges and universities for the application season March 25, 8/20/ · The Common Application can make applying to colleges significantly easier for students, allowing them to compile the information all their schools want to know in one place. Hundreds of colleges use and accept the Common Application, so thousands of high school students, transfer students and those returning to college use it each year My Complete Common Application, Page by Page. To set the stage, I applied Early Action to Harvard early in senior year, and this is the application I used to get in early. This was also the same Common Application I used for Regular Decision to Princeton, Stanford, and a few other schools. Let's start with the Common Application, which will form the bulk of the application. Then we'll go into the Harvard supplemental application
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Other High SchoolCollege AdmissionsLetters of RecommendationExtracurricularsCollege Essays. InI applied to college and got into every school I applied to, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. I decided to attend Harvard. In this guide, I'll show you the entire college application that got me into Harvard—page by page, word for word. In my complete analysis, I'll take you through my Common Application, Harvard supplemental application, personal statements and essays, extracurricular activities, common app application, teachers' letters of recommendation, counselor recommendation, common app application, complete high school transcript, and more.
I'll also give you in-depth commentary on every part of my application. To my knowledge, a college application analysis like this has never been done before. This is the application guide I wished I had when I was in high school. If you're common app application to top schools like the Ivy Leagues, you'll see firsthand what a successful application to Harvard and Princeton looks like. You'll learn the strategies I used to build a compelling application.
You'll see what items were critical in getting me admitted, and what didn't end up helping much at all. Reading this guide from beginning to end will be well worth your time—you might completely change your college application strategy as a result. I was so thrilled when I got this letter. It validated many years of hard work, and I was excited to take my next step into college and work even harder.
I received similar successful letters from every college I applied to: Princeton, Stanford, common app application, and MIT. After getting into Harvard early, I decided not to apply to Yale, Columbia, UChicago, UPenn, and other Ivy League-level schools, since I already knew I would rather go to Harvard. The application that got me admitted everywhere is the subject of this guide. You're going to see everything that the admissions officers saw.
If you're hoping to see an acceptance letter like this in your academic future, I highly recommend you read this entire article. I'll start first with an introduction to this guide common app application important disclaimers. Then I'll share the 1 question you need to be thinking about as you construct your application. Finally, we'll spend a lot of time going through every page of my college application, both the Common App and the Harvard Supplemental App. Important Note: the foundational principles of my application are explored in detail in my How to Get Into Harvard guide.
In this popular guide, I explain:. If you have the time and are committed to maximizing your college application success, I recommend you read through my Harvard guide first, then come back to this one.
From my common app application records, common app application, I was able to retrieve the COMPLETE original application I submitted to Harvard. Page by page, common app application, word for word, common app application see everything exactly as I presented it : extracurricular activities, awards and honors, personal statements and essays, and more.
In addition to all this detail, there are two special parts of this college application breakdown that I haven't seen anywhere else :. For every piece of my application, I'll provide commentary on what made it so effective and my strategies behind creating it. You'll learn what it takes to build a compelling overall application. Importantly, even though my application was strong, it wasn't perfect.
I'll point out mistakes I made that I could have corrected to build an even stronger application. Here's a complete table of contents for what we'll be covering.
Each link goes directly to that section, although I'd recommend you read this from beginning to end on your first go, common app application. In revealing my teenage self, some parts of my application will be pretty embarrassing you'll see why below.
But my mission through my company PrepScholar is to give the world the most helpful resources possible, so I'm publishing it. One last thing before we dive in—I'm going to anticipate some common concerns beforehand and talk through important disclaimers so that you'll get the most out of this guide. My biggest caveat for you when reading this guide: thousands of students get into Harvard and Ivy League schools every year.
This guide tells a story about one person and presents one archetype of a strong applicant. As you'll see, I had a huge academic focus, especially in science this was my Spike. I'm also irreverent and have a strong, direct personality. What you see in this guide is NOT what YOU need to do to get into Harvardespecially if you don't match my interests and personality at all.
As I explain in my Harvard guideI believe I fit into one archetype of a strong applicant—the "academic superstar" humor me for a second, I know calling myself this sounds obnoxious. There are other distinct ways to impress, like:. Therefore, DON'T worry about copying my approach one-for-one. Don't worry if you're taking a different number of AP courses or have lower test scores or do different extracurriculars or write totally different personal statements.
This is what schools like Stanford and Yale want to see—a diversity in the student population! The point of this guide is to use my application as a vehicle to discuss common app application top colleges are looking for in strong applicants.
Even though common app application specific details of what you'll do are different from what I did, the principles are the same. What makes a candidate truly stand out is the same, common app application, at a high level. What makes for a super strong recommendation letter is the same.
The strategies on how to build a cohesive, compelling application are the same. There's a final reason you shouldn't worry about replicating my work—the application game has probably changed quite a bit since Technology is much more pervasive, the social issues teens care about are different, the extracurricular activities that are truly noteworthy have probably gotten even more advanced.
What I did might not be as impressive as it used to be. So focus on my general points, not the specifics, and think about how you can take what you learn here to achieve something even greater than I ever did. This is what I believe will be most helpful for you. I hope you don't misinterpret this as bragging about my accomplishments. I'm here to show you what it took for me to get into Harvard and other Ivy League schools, not to ask for your admiration.
So if you read this guide and are tempted to dismiss my advice because you think I'm boasting, take a step back and focus on the big picture—how you'll improve yourself, common app application. A sample list of schools that fit into this: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, UChicago, Duke, UPenn, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Brown. The top in that list are especially looking for the absolute best students in the countrysince they have the pick of the litter.
For less selective schools, having an overall strong, well-rounded application is sufficient common app application getting in. In particular, having an above average GPA and test scores goes the majority of the way toward getting you admission to those schools. The higher the admission rate, the more emphasis will be placed on your scores.
The other pieces I'll present below—personal statements, extracurriculars, recommendations—will matter less. Still, it doesn't hurt to aim for a stronger application, common app application. To state the obvious, an application strong enough to get you Common app application will get you into UCLA handily. In my application, I've redacted pieces of my application for privacy reasons, and one supplementary recommendation letter at the request of the letter writer.
Everything else is unaltered, common app application. Throughout my application, we can see marks made by the admissions officer highlighting and circling things of note you'll see the first example on the very first page. I don't have any other applications to compare these to, so I'm going to interpret these marks as best I can. For the most part, I assume that whatever he underlines or circles is especially important and noteworthy —points that he'll bring up later in committee discussions.
It could also be that the reader got bored and just started highlighting things, but I doubt this. Finally, I co-founded and run a company called PrepScholar. I common app application to emphasize that you do NOT need to buy a prep program to get a great scorecommon app application, and the advice in this guide has little to do with my company.
If you stepped into an elevator with Yale's Dean of Admissions and you had ten seconds to describe yourself and why you're interesting, what would you say? This is what I call your PERSONAL NARRATIVE.
These are the three main points that represent who you are and what you're about. This is the story that you tell through your application, over and over again. This is how an admissions officer should understand you common app application just glancing through your application.
This is how your admissions officer will present you to the admissions committee to advocate for why they should accept you. The more unique and noteworthy your Personal Narrative is, the better.
This is how you'll stand apart from the tens of thousands of other applicants to your top choice school. This is why I recommend so strongly that you develop a Spike to show deep interest and achievement. A common app application Spike is the core of your Personal Narrative. Well-rounded applications do NOT form compelling Personal Narratives, because "I'm a well-rounded person who's decent at everything" is common app application exact same thing every other well-rounded person tries to say, common app application.
Everything in your application should support your Personal Narrativefrom your course selection and extracurricular activities to your personal statements and recommendation letters. You are a movie director, and your application is your way to tell a compelling, cohesive story through supporting evidence. Yes, this is overly simplistic and reductionist. It does not represent all your complexities and your 17 years of existence. But admissions offices don't have the time to understand this for all their applicants.
Your PERSONAL NARRATIVE is what they will latch onto. Here's what I would consider my Personal Narrative humor me since I'm peacocking here :. These three elements were the core to my application. Together they tell a relatively unique Personal Narrative that distinguishes me from many other strong applicants. You get a surprisingly clear picture of what I'm about. There's no common app application that my work in science was my "Spike" and was the strongest piece of my application, but my Personal Narrative included other supporting elements, especially a description of my personality.
How to Guide to the Common Application (2019-2020) - Tutorial
, time: 7:12My Successful Harvard Application (Complete Common App + Supplement)
Common App welcomes over 30 new colleges and universities for the application season March 25, Common App is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to access, equity and integrity in the college admission process. We support a centralized or "common" online application system for more than colleges and universities worldwide that enables more than 1 million students - a third of whom are first generation - to apply to college Common Black College Application The Common Black College Application allows students to submit a single application to all of our Participating Member Institutions for $20, interact with
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