NeedHelpB4School
Iron
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- Jul 29, 2024
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Yes I know a bunch of yall are freshman and juniors this is why I made this thread. Read it and hopefully you can make your parents proud for the first time but most of yall mfs will comment "DNR+will spend my studying time slaying instead"
- What they are:
Competitive universities are universities that are incredibly difficult to get into. Most notably, they are Ivy Leagues, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, and others. However, it is not only just the top 10 most famous universities in the world. There are other private and state universities that are also equally difficult to get into such as NYU, NEU, UMICH, and more.
These competitive universities (shortened to uni's) are also called "reach" uni's. This is because, in your college application, you will have a list of uni's. "Reach" uni's are uni's you probably won't get into bc they are difficult, "expectation" uni's are uni's you will have a very reasonable chance of getting accepted into, and "backup/safety" uni's are uni's that pretty much accept everyone.
The definition of a reach uni generally differs depending on who you are talking to. Imo, a reach uni is any uni with an acceptance rate below 20% but this number can vary from 20-30% again depending on who you talk to.
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Why are they competitive:
Competitive universities are competitive and hard to get into for a reason. The more famous ones also carry a lot of prestige to their titles and degrees. This is because they either:
Offer a high quality education with very educated professors to an incredible standard
Conduct spectacular and groundbreaking research and research opportunities
Provide exceptional programs such as co-op programs
Are old as fuck and therefore have a lot of prestige and reputation to their name
Have connections with big brands so their students can get a leg up in the industry
Have resources: a rich, giant university is gonna have some amazing libraries, campuses, and state-of-the-art facilities that a state uni might not necessarily be able to offer
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What does it cost:
Competitive universities are exceptionally expensive. I'm talking $60,000 USD or higher tuition per year and this is not including housing, food, books, and other expenses for college. And you might be thinking, well I can just get a scholarship. NO. Scholarships are not that easy to come by, especially full-ride scholarships. Remember, you will be competing against some incredibly smart people who will likely get a merit scholarship before you. In fact, Ivy Leagues don't even offer any merit (or athletic either) scholarship. It was part of a collective agreement in the 1950's bc they believed everyone admitted was worthy of one and they didn't want to start bidding wars between the universities. Now, that really only applies to Ivy Leagues, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and some other universities out there. But that doesn't mean they are any less easier to get at any other private, competitive university.
This also does not mean that they don't offer need-based scholarships of course. These large uni's like to brag about how much need-based scholarships they give out, however, I, like many, have that one parent who's income disqualifies them from all that but is not in fact high enough to actually cover any of the tuition. So your next best bet is to apply either EA or ED (will get into later) so that you will be prioritized when being considered for merit based scholarships. And of course, you must have the "merit" or academics to back it up.
What do you need (credits):
First above all else, check the universities common data set. Different uni's require different amounts of high school credit to accept you. The most common issue with this is that some uni's require 3+ years of language while a lot of students only take 2. They will also usually list the "recommended" amount of credits they want which can also give you a bit of a leg up.
What do you need:
Ok, this is the part that you've all been waiting for and the reason for why I created this thread. What do you
need to be accepted to a top university? A lot. Which I shall list here:
Rigorous academics. Take as many AP's, IB, cambridge, a-levels, duel-enrollment, honors, or whatever is available to you as possible. These uni's want to see that you are a hard-worker and smart.
Straight A's. While you're taking these incredibly difficult classes, you must have straight A's while doing so.
4.0 unweighted GPA. Or close to it, I'd say a 3.9 is also acceptable just not completely ideal. GPA is your "grade point average" so it's the average grade you had across all 4 years of high school (or more accurately, all 3 years of high school but I'll get to that later). Which means you cannot screw up in your freshman year or maybe even 8th grade.
High standardized test scores. This means SAT/ACT. You need to have high scores. For the SAT, an ivy league would need probs at least a 1550+ (out of 1600) and for the ACT, an ivy league would need probs at least a 34 (out of 36). No, the SAT is not better or worse than the ACT. You can take both if you want (i think it helps with getting scholarships if you do so) but uni's weight them the same in admissions.
Extracurriculars. This is being really heavily stressed as of late and for good reason. Uni's use "holistic" methods of acceptance, which means they look at more than just your test scores and grades. They wanna see that you are a good person with character. So, this means volunteer and help your community. Join a business club like FBLA if that's your passion so the university knows what you're passionate about. And don't just join as many ec's as you can. Prefer high-quality over quantity. By high-quality, I mean don't just join a club, become a part of that club and get a leadership position as president. These uni's are looking for leadership. Better yet, make your own club. That shows initiative. So being president of 1 club is better than joining 3 clubs. Varsity sports are also greatly appreciated bc it shows well-roundedness as well.
Work Experience. This one is overlooked a lot purely bc it's a bit unachievable for a lot of people. But work experience would be like an internship, research, or published work. This published work are usually published research papers but it can be any published work in a journal, book, website, etc so long as you are listed as an author
Legacy. Not all universities consider this but a fair bit of them do. So keep in mind. A legacy student is someone who at least one of their parents is an alumni of the school they are applying to. An alumni is someone who graduated from that school. An alma mater is the first university someone graduated from. So, you would be a legacy child if your dad went to Harvard and you are also applying to Harvard. This can be considered in admissions and you'll have a tiny edge on your application.
Letters of recommendation. This is extremely important and y'know who's gonna be writing it? your teacher. So be nice to your teacher, they won't write a nice letter for you if you've been an ass to them this past year and disrupting their class. This is usually very important to a university and competitive universities require 2 of them. So, preferably, get a letter from a teacher who taught you in your junior year (11th) and who taught a class that relates to your major. Even better if you've had that teacher before previously in a different grade level. You want a teacher that knows you inside out and knows you're a good kid.
Application essay. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. This can get you accepted despite having questionable grades. Now, there's a lot that goes into essays so I'm not gonna go into it here. But you can check out college-guidance and they can tell you all about it. Just know, that you do not wanna skimp out on your essay.
Level of Interest. Do a campus visit, online virtual meeting, and apply early. Some uni's also look at your level of interest in applications and this will all show them that you are very interested
- How do you apply:
This section has some stuff that I kinda hinted at before. Now, a lot of people don't actually know when to apply to college. Which is fair. People don't actually tell you that stuff. But I'm here to let you know. Forewarning, some uni’s don’t offer all of these or any besides RD at all (cough cough UW) So, there's 3 different ways you can apply:
Early Decision (ED): This is a binding contract. What that means is if you apply ED and you get accepted then you must automatically retract all your other applications to other universities and you must legally attend the university that bound you and accepted you. Now, there are some ways to get out of this binding agreement but it is definitely not recommended for many reasons. Because it is binding, it is also highly not recommended that you apply to more than one university ED. There are benefits to ED tho, especially with competitive uni's. It shows that you actually want to go to there school, level of interest, which can also be considered during admissions although that really depends on the university and it gives you priority when deciding who gets merit scholarships.
Early Action (EA): This is a nonbinding application. This is basically Early Decision but not as good and not binding. Meaning, you aren't forced to go to that university specifically if you get accepted EA. So, if it's not as good as ED then why do EA applications at all? Well, it's not as good but it's better than RD, you will still be given a bit of priority during merit scholarship consideration, you still show high levels of interest (it's understandable if you don't want to be bound), you will get your decision letter earlier, and it still looks good. Essentially, you've got nothing to lose so apply EA if at all possible. In fact, some uni's only offer EA and not ED at all.
Regular Decision (RD): This is when most people apply to university. The deadline for this is usually in January whereas ED deadlines are usually in October or November and EA deadlines are usually in November or December. This doesn't really give you any additional benefits other than "hey! I applied!" lol. It's fine if you do apply RD, most students do, but for competitive universities, it'll give you an edge in applications if you apply ED or EA instead.
Now, have you noticed the deadlines? November-January. You usually apply in your senior year. So, you're applying before first semester of senior year ends. This means, uni's will not see your senior grades at all. That's why I said earlier that your GPA is really only 3 years, bc uni's won't see your GPA affected by your senior year
It is for that exact reason that senior year is considered to be a "slack-off" year. Seniors slack off bc they know it doesn't rly matter
Summary:
But it also means that it's extra important for you to rly focus on your grades from 9th-11th because that's what all uni's will be seeing on your transcript. SO, if you want any chance at all to get accepted to a top university, then you will start preparing very early on.
And keep in mind, that there are a lot of competitive kids out there who are a lot better than you. There are some rich kids and families who will literally hire consultants when their kid is still in 8th grade so they know what their kid needs to do. These same families will put their child into feeder/magnet/stem/private schools which will also all give their kid a leg up in admissions. There are also just some mini geniuses out there from India and China, trust me you'll meet one and know that you don't really stand a chance against them
So, your chances will still be very slim. You could even be an overqualified student and still not get in. You could however inversely, be an extremely underqualified student and get accepted. These uni's aren't necessarily looking for smart asses. They want people who they think will change the future and make them look good. To do that, you need to have certain qualities as well as smarts.
