My 5-year-old son has decided that his dream is to attend UPenn Wharton and break into quant finance. As his mother, I want to raise him to be able to fulfill his dreams. That is why my question to any Ivy League students on this sub is: how did your parents raise such smart and capable individuals? And how can my son get admitted to UPenn and make his dreams come true? I appreciate your help and insights in this matter.

Is a 1470 SAT enough for McDonalds? How many burgers could I get? 40 pieces? I’m really hungry. Does Harvard have a McDonalds? Which schools have the most McDonald’s on campus? Also, is a 4.0 unweighted enough for McDonald’s? Will they accept me even though it’s unweighted? Should I try to make it weighted so they will let me in? I am really stressing about getting into McDonalds. Has anyone ever gotten into McDonald’s with less than a 1500?

Which colleges/universities previously had a negative reputation but are now looked at positive overall? Any that you can see shifting in the future?

Sigh after almost 6 months being on the waitlist

Is a 1520 enough for the leagues? I only took 14 AP classes and got all 5s but also a 4 in Calc :,) I'm applying to UPenn, Princeton, and MIT. Although I only have 1 IMO Silver and 2 IPhO Golds, I think being published at Wall Street and having my own business will make up for it. Itzhak Perlman also lent me one of his violins, the guy told me he's never heard anyone play with so much clarity as me.

To those who got in for "less", what's ur secret 😳🤞

got an email saying its closed for co 2026 ggs

I think a lot of students convince themselves they don’t have an interesting story because they haven’t overcome some huge obstacle.

Some of the strongest essays I’ve read are about ordinary moments that reveal something meaningful about the writer.

Agree or disagree?

UNDISPUTED OFFICIAL RANKINGS OPEN TO CHANGE

1️⃣ Hogwarts
2️⃣ Monsters University
3️⃣ Greendale Community College
4️⃣ Harvard
5️⃣ Oxford
6️⃣ Stanford
7️⃣ MIT
8️⃣ Caltech
9️⃣ UC Berkeley
🔟 Columbia
11. Yale
12. Dartmouth
13. Princeton
14. Penn
15. NYU
16. UCLA
17. Brown
18. Notre Dame
19. Xavier’s School
20. Duke
21. Jujutsu High
22. Northwestern
23. Cornell
24. UChicago
25. JHU
26. University of Mumbai

my school didn't let me take ap physics 1 because too many students requested the class, so i had to take physics honors and self study the ap exam instead. is there somewhere i can mention this on my commonapp?

THE MOST UNBIASED OBJECTIVE RANKING IN HISTORY /s

(Think it’s relatively accurate but obviously tell me any changes you think I should make!)

1. Duke
2. UCLA
3. UMICH
4. Vanderbilt
5. Notre Dame
6. UPenn
7. Dartmouth
8. Stanford
9. Northwestern
10. Yale
11. Brown
12. UC Berkeley
13. Harvard
14. Princeton
15. MIT
16. Columbia
17. JHU
18. Cornell
19. CMU
20. UChicago

I have been doing a little bit of research as Im a rising senior and what I’ve found is that a lot of people have very very very similar ecs. Like tutoring nonprofit is one I see a lot and then of course, speech and debate and other common school clubs maybe a few leadership positions. I think all of these are pretty great but what is that distinguishing factor in the end? Ik ppl are going to say essays but can essays be the only thing that differentiates you in these higher levels? People I’ve seen getting into t20s this past admission cycle and posting their stats online often don’t have crazy ecs but a coherent narrative that ties it together. I even saw this girl on yt getting into like Stanford and Harvard and mit for class of 2030 but she said herself that her ecs weren’t anything crazy (not going to post link cuz of privacy reasons but feel free to look up). Not saying this in a bad way, she deserved to get into those schools and they chose her for a reason, but I want to figure out what is the most important aspect of a college application. Conversely, I have been seeing ppl on subreddits posting college results with insane ecs and awards but not getting into the schools they wanted. Has any one else observed this recently. Curious as to hear what are your thoughts?

Hi yall,

I'm an international currently attending a UWC high school. I need to narrow down my list of preferred colleges to 10 for the fall intake in '27. As someone passionate about social sciences, arts, philosophy and such, and enjoys the counter-culture/artsy socially engaged, welcoming to introverts vibe, which colleges would be a good fit for me? It is also quite important (but not non-negotiable) to be situated in a considerably sized city, or at least have a good access to culture and social life outside of campus. I also would appreciate a flexible curriculum and great access to opportunities. I'm currently predicted 43/45 in IB and had a 3.82 GPA prior to IB, and will be taking SAT this August (hoping for 1500+). Would love college recommendations which meet full need, however I'm not too worried as most T-100 colleges are UWC Davis partners anyway and meet full need for students most of the time. A great perk is also that due to the Davis partnership and rigour of the UWC life, getting accepted becomes a tad bit easier.

Currently, I'm really interested in Brown, Wesleyan, Macalester, however, I don't have a complete understanding of these schools yet. I'm also conflicted on whether I should apply ED, mainly to Brown, however it's a different question if I want to do that purely because of the prestige or because it's a great fit. Please do let me know what you think.

I'm confused between this 4

Cyber security

AI

Data science

Creative computing

like for example is my berkeley, cmu, or cornell AO going to know the difference between ftc awards? r they gonna know that qualifying for worlds is tuff?

will they know what ieee is. or do they only know the big ones like AIME or jmo

I just totaled my hours for my junior year ECs (including hobbies)... and it's 3,400😭

I believe it's because I only had 3 hours of in-person school each day so I had extra time for hobbies and my extracurriculars

will AOs think I'm lying?? I'm genuinely worried

I'm an east asian female trying to develop an idea for my diversity essay, and I really want to talk about my heritage and how that's important to me. The thing is, I feel like AOs will roll their eyes when they hear another story about an upper middle class asian girl going to her parent's home country during the summer and/or something along those lines. Any advice?

Hey!
I’m a dual major at community college (biotech and biology) in New Mexico
I’m looking to finish summer of 2027 and transfer to a four year college get my bachelor and then get my masters and possibly phd
I love research and animals!
I met with a career advisor yesterday and we couldn’t find anything bio related stuff in the state at all
I had mentioned maybe going to El Paso and studying at state for the animal sciences stuff
She kept pushing for UNM but I was told it’s super biomed focused with a lot to do with cancer research that’s also highly competitive which doesn’t seem to be calling me
She recommended California and Massachusetts
Possibly to do a RUE at a school and then transfer there afterwards
I saw that UC schools were good and that MIT was good but I wanted some actual insight into what made them good from real people
I’m looking to actually move out, and put a down payment on a condo or a mobile home or some land for a mobile home and I don’t think I would ever be able to afford a actual house but I would still like to own where I live
I’m pretty openly queer and would like to go somewhere that’s accepting
I’d prefer if tuition was affordable and that if there was grants or other forms of tuition assistance

Any help is appreciated!
Thank you

TLDR
I’m moving next year and hoping to go to a good biology school
Looking to get masters and maybe phd
Looking to also settle down wherever I go to school (condo or mobile home)
Low tuition or good financial aid is a must
I’m mostly interested in things to do with animals and not super medicine focused
I’m looking for low cost institutions in a city that’s queer friendly

Edit:
I posted this to another subreddit and someone suggest nmsu which was my original choice before yesterday

If you had a bad experience with Elise or her company, lmk everything.

I’m a class of 28’ and I’m wondering if I can receive a full ride with my moms income and asset. This is for mainly top 20-30 majoring in business. My mom makes around $60k and it’s a single income household with 3 people including me, my brother, and my mom. We own our house and bought it outright with cash and its current value is around $400k. She paid over $550k when she bought it. Her investment is around $50k~. Is it possible for me to receive a full ride including housing, tuition, and etc?

I’m a competitive applicant to Princeton and u Chicago. My family makes 115k with NON TYPICAL ASSETS. 250k value in land that’s not our home. (Would ED depending on which one I apply to) I present you guys with two options. On one hand, princetons financial aid calculator shows that I will pay 13k per year. UChicago is not updated to their new initiative yet, so I don’t know what I would get. But the difference between their two statements is that UChicago gives full ride at 125 and Princeton at 150. attended a summer program at UChicago so I get 5k scholarship and a guaranteed internship. So I guess what I’m asking is the difference between UChicago and Princeton financial aid going to make up for the 5k scholarship? Would they be about even?? What’s the play?

Serious question. I want to apply as a computer engineer and robotics is my main extra curricular (very common i know). I make roblox games in my free time and one of them recently blew up. Would this be a good extra curricular to put showing diversity of skills and dedication?

hi im a rising senior and is planning to apply for bio / public health major

my main EC is built around something pretty unusual its personal to me and connects to my major, but its prob not something AOs have seen before. i also have normal research so its not only that

i submitted a project on it to a competition and didnt place, and my teacher said the topic was "probably too specific." thats been stuck in my head since

so is a niche EC actually an advantage cause its clearly authentic? or do AOs like stuff they can immediately categorize (hospital volunteering, research, HOSA etc) better

not asking if i should drop it, just wondering if "too niche" is a real thing or only a science fair problem

im also planning to write my personal essay around this too

My parents are kind of freaking out that I haven’t been visiting schools or drafting my essay out yet, which I guess is understandable given their lofty expectations for me. But to be honest, I’m somewhat weary of the whole process already.

As a likely Nat’l Merit Finalist, I’ve done my due diligence (so to speak) on schools like the University of Alabama, which give a full ride to such students. And the thing is, I really like Bama’s programs and opportunities, which has me feeling somewhat apathetic about other more selective schools.

Would it be smart/fair to just apply there and save myself the stress (and tuition costs)? Or should I go about the application process like everyone else does to appease my parents?