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?

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?

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

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 😳🤞

Sigh after almost 6 months being on the waitlist

got an email saying its closed for co 2026 ggs

I am going into my junior year and I have been thinking about college applications and about a realistic location. I am a relatively good student around a 3.9 UW with basically all honors and APs. I haven't taken the official ACT but I have taken the pre-ACT and got a 28 (34 Math, 34 Reading, 17 English) but I am also getting tutored and my English is likely going to be higher, shooting for a 34 composite but I am worried I may get lower. I also have done 2 sports for my entire time as well as being a captain on the chess team, and I also participate in Model UN but I have not done anything significant. What midwestern engineering schools should I apply to that are realistic, as well as what improvements can I make to make me a more appealing candidate?

You aren’t US News (hopefully) so be as unique or standard as you want

I’m a rising senior who is interested in mechanical engineering and a minor in economics. I have strong academics and my ECs are decent.

I want to be able to gain real world experience because I am heavily interested in the engineering field. Given that, I see many people saying that doing things like research in high school is kind of pointless as most people don’t do anything mind blowing while in that position.

Should I try and land an internship at a company? Would a company even hire a high schooler? I have the technical skills (CAD, python), but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to be able to apply myself and gain real world experience.

If anyone could help I’d greatly appreciate it.

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

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

I‘m considering a topic for my Common App personal statement but I can’t figure out how to structure my thoughts into an essay. Any help on how I can expand on my ideas and transition from one idea to another smoothly would be helpful! Or anything else I can add. Or let me know if it’s not a good topic and I should think of something else!

Here’s the topic:

I’ve always had a sort of non-traditional way of holding a pencil. My mom tried hard to change it when I was young, but it was never fully fixed. However, the first thing people comment about me is how neat my penmanship is. Throughout my school years, people have referred to me as “the girl with the good handwriting” and everyone oohs and ahhs over my writing. I want to connect this to the idea that the conventional way of doing things doesn‘t equate to the correct way, how different doesn’t always mean wrong. I also want to relate it back to my passion for STEM and how I want to major in biology, but how I’ve always dreamed of being a lawyer and my plans to go to law school. When I tell people I want to be a bio major but also pre-law, they give me the same confused look that I used to get as a child when they watched me write with a pencil. Following my passions isn’t going to lead me on the path that society expects from me, but I know I’ll turn out okay any way.

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?

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

Hey guys, I’m wondering which colleges I should research abt if applying for neuroscience and film studies in the future! (double major or major and minor depending by on college)

I am in the US and don’t want to go to any schools in Texas or Louisiana.

Thanks!

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?

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?

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?

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.

Hello everyone, i am an immigrant who’s gonna be joining high school senior year this August and I am still not done with my SAT cuz its in august. I am really confused about the premed colleges cuz idk how to choose one.
My preferences are obv a good college thats out of katy somewhere in the cities like NYU, Columbia, Rice and etc where i can experience an enjoyable life. Prestige does matter to me but not more than strong med school advising, good research opportunities, and clinical shadowing and Off-course the COST of studying. Can somebody help me out by suggesting the best college for me and what should i do to get in there and everything like that.

I'm confused between this 4

Cyber security

AI

Data science

Creative computing

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