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The Ivy Coach College Admissions Blog

Summer Activities and College Admission

May 23, 2013
Summer and College Admission, Summers and University Admission, Summer Plans and Ivy League

Don’t do fancy-pants activities over the summer in the hope of getting into a highly selective college. Instead, do something meaningful. As an example, you can get a job (photo credit: Wouter van Erve).

Summer activities matter for highly selective college admission. There are many folks — and we’d even argue a majority of folks — who believe that there are certain things that high school students should do over the summer months to improve their odds of getting into highly selective colleges. The problem is that what the vast majority of these folks believe doesn’t match with reality. Such is often the case in the world of highly selective college admissions. What many parents and students believe is that students should be doing activities we hereby call “fancy-pants activities” to get into the colleges of their dreams. By this definition, fancy-pants activities may consist of any of the following: going on a service trip in a third-world country, traveling around Europe to learn about art and architecture, and attending a summer program at a highly selective college.

You don’t need to be doing these fancy-pants activities in order to get into the colleges of your dreams! In fact, these fancy-pants activities can often hurt your odds. What do you think that it says to an admissions officer when you spent your summer afternoons observing the Mona Lisa in The Louvre and strolling around Josephine Bonaparte’s rose gardens? It says you’re extremely well off and quite privileged. Do you tend to root for people who are privileged? Or do you root for the underdog? Because, from what we at The Ivy Coach know, America roots for the underdog. We rooted for the underdog when a group of feisty college students upstaged the Russians in what would be known as The Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympic Games — and ultimately turned the tide of the Cold War. We rooted for the underdog when George Mason advanced to the Final Four and Butler to the Finals of the NCAA Tournament. People root for underdogs. It’s just a fact of life…a good fact of life.

So don’t feel like you need to do fancy-pants activities to impress college admissions officers. These activities will not impress them. They’re by no means original. And you’re setting yourself up to stink of privilege. Wouldn’t you rather be an underdog? Wouldn’t you rather have the fire in your belly of an underdog? Who wouldn’t.

Categories: College Admissions, Extracurricular Activities Tags: , , , ,
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Community Service and Admissions

May 22, 2013

Many folks believe that performing community service is essential in order to gain admission to highly selective colleges. These folks are just plain wrong. Don’t get us wrong — it’s nice to perform community service. By serving soup in soup kitchens, by building houses for the homeless, by walking charity races for a great cause — you are making this world a better place. That’s an incredible thing and you should be proud of yourself. But will these actions help you gain admission to a highly selective college? Probably not.

Community Service in Admissions, University Admission and Community Service, Ivy League and Community Service

One should not seek college admissions advice from Girl Scouts troop leaders. Hillary Clinton is not a Girl Scouts troop leader, but this is the only photo we can find of Girl Scouts that is in the Public Domain.

Highly selective colleges don’t seek out students who do ordinary community service. Serving soup in a soup kitchen is ordinary at best. But wonderful, of course. Not everyone in this world volunteers at soup kitchens — it shows you’ve got heart. Or it can show that you think it’ll help your case to get into a highly selective college. It won’t. There’s even an article in a local newspaper in Michigan today (“Monroe News”) entitled “Service Can Pump Up College Application” in which the writer, Paula Wethington, states, “Do you want one tip that will help your high school student be the best possible candidate for college acceptance and scholarship awards? It’s all in the timing of what you can put on the student resumes. Know when those applications are likely to be due and set a goal to have as many community service and leadership accomplishments as possible completed before that point.”

Talk about quantity over quality! Highly selective colleges don’t care if students are involved in a hundred activities. No, we take that back. They do care. They won’t admit such a student. What top colleges are looking for is depth of involvement in activities — activities that set students apart from the plethora of other applicants. At The Ivy Coach, we aim to correct college admissions misconceptions and the advice put forward in this “Monroe News” article is just, well, incorrect. This advice apparently came from a “Girl Scouts troop leader.” Perhaps one shouldn’t be getting advice on college admissions from Girl Scouts troop leaders? Just maybe?

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Harvard Z-List

May 21, 2013
Harvard Waitlist, Z-List at Harvard, Harvard University Waitlist

Do you think that the Harvard Z-List is unethical (photo credit: Jacob Rus – 2004).

Ever heard of the Harvard Z-List? You probably haven’t so we’ll fill you in. The Harvard admissions office is encouraging of students who wish to take a year off between high school and college to do something else. Harvard students are typically (a.k.a. always) extremely ambitious and to avoid burn-out, a year of doing something completely different from schooling could be a good thing (though this year should certainly be educational and fulfilling — it shouldn’t consist of sitting on the couch watching television). Anyhow, for about 20 of the 50 students who deferred their admission last year, as “The Harvard Crimson” states, “deferring is not an option, but a requirement.”

That’s right. These students didn’t have a choice but to defer a year. And why’s that? Because these students were pulled off of Harvard’s waitlist on the condition that they defer their admission by a year because Harvard simply doesn’t have enough beds for them. But, more interestingly than this is the fact that these 20 students have something in common besides having been plucked off of Harvard’s waitlist. What’s that, you ask? They are the children of alumni. That’s right — they’re legacies.

According to “The Harvard Crimson” article on the Harvard Z-List, “The Crimson obtained information about the legacy status of 36 of the approximately 80 Z-list students at Harvard in 2001-02. Though McGrath Lewis insists the Z-list is ‘not a legacy list,’ 26—or 72 percent of the 36-student sample—were legacies, compared with 12 to 14 percent of the class as a whole. Even if none of the remaining 44 or so Z-list students were legacies, 33 percent of the 80 students would be legacies—still well above the proportion of legacies in the class as a whole.”

We at The Ivy Coach have known for quite a while about the Harvard Z-List. We haven’t written about it because, well, we surely don’t share the vast majority of our secrets on our college admissions blog since we are a business at the end of the day. But now that it’s getting some more press (it has gotten some press before), we felt the need to let our readers know about this admissions practice. What do you think about the Harvard Z-List? Is it unfair? Should it be done away with? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting below!

Categories: College Admissions, Ivy League Tags: , , , ,
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Harvard Yield Statistics

May 20, 2013
Harvard Yield Data, Statistics on Harvard Yield, Harvard Yield

We’ve got information on Harvard yield statistics for you.

We’ve got the Harvard yield statistics for you for the Class of 2017. The yield for some highly selective colleges can be 40% or 50%, sometimes more and sometimes less. But one university’s yield statistics are ridiculously high and this distinction belongs to Harvard University. Students who are admitted to Harvard tend to matriculate. It’s just how it is. And this year, that will be no different. For the Class of 2017, 82% of students admitted to Harvard University will indeed matriculate to the school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This yield statistic marks the highest yield for Harvard in quite a number of years — since 1973 in fact. That’s a long time and a significant achievement for the Harvard admissions office this year.

Guess the cancellation of Visitas (a program for newly admitted students that showcases what the Harvard University undergraduate experience is all about) wasn’t that significant since Harvard can now boast its highest yield in decades. Isn’t that ironic? If you were wondering, Visitas was canceled this year because of the security lockdown in place after the tragic terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. Admitted students rightly did not allow this event to impact their decision to attend one of America’s finest institutions.

The fact that Harvard boasts an 82% yield (in spite of the lockdown during the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings) is all the more impressive when you consider that they don’t even have an Early Decision policy in place for Early applicants. They have an Early Action policy — meaning students are free to matriculate to other universities that they’re admitted to. So don’t you think their yield statistic is pretty amazing? Because we do.

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Reading and Ivy League Admissions

May 19, 2013
Reading for Ivy League Admission, Ivy League and Reading, Reading and Ivy League Admits

Read for pleasure if you hope to get into an Ivy League university. It helps a great deal. Reading “The Great Gatsby” (this photo is the estate if you were wondering) is not reading for pleasure. This book is required reading at just about every high school in the country.

Ever hear that “reading is fundamental”? If you’ve ever watched an NBA game, chances are that you have. We at The Ivy Coach agree. Reading is fundamental. So why do so few high school students write about books that they’ve read for pleasure in their college essays? We have no clue. But what we do know in our many years of helping students gain admission to highly selective colleges is that the vast majority of applicants to highly selective colleges don’t in fact read for pleasure. Sure, they’ve read “The Great Gatsby,” “The Pearl,” “The Color of Water,” and “To Kill A Mockingbird,” but so has everybody else. These books are considered American classics. They are required reading at most high schools. Reading F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James McBride, and all of these notable American authors will not set you apart from the pack of other applicants to highly selective colleges.

If you’re a high school student, read for pleasure before you fall asleep at night. Read for pleasure when you wake up. Read for pleasure when you don’t feel like studying for your chemistry test anymore. Read for pleasure when you want to escape from your annoying younger sibling who keeps changing the channel without your consent. Read for pleasure as much as you can and this will show not only in how you write but also in what you write about.

Highly selective colleges want to admit students who just plain love to learn. It’s quite simple. They don’t want to admit students who learn just to achieve great grades. Who wants to be around those types of students? Not university professors at top schools in America. College admissions counselors at top colleges want interesting student bodies. Students who love to read for pleasure are inherently more interesting than those students who don’t. It’s really quite simple.

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The Harvard Waitlist

May 18, 2013
Harvard University Waiting List, Harvard Waiting List, The Harvard Waiting List

Harvard needs to stop putting students who were deferred in Early Action on the waitlist. It’s just plain wrong (photo credit: chensiyuan).

We’d like to raise a concern that we at The Ivy Coach have with the Harvard waitlist. There is absolutely nothing wrong with placing students on waitlists. Sure, it can be unsatisfying to students who have been waiting throughout much of their high school senior years to find out that they have to wait even longer to know their fates. But, hey, you’re applying to one of the finest universities in the land — deal with it. There are only so many beds, only so many seats in classrooms. Harvard needs to know their yield data, they need to know the number of students who will be deferring their admission, etc. before they go to their waitlist. In this way, Harvard is just like most other highly selective colleges (with exception to the fact that Harvard has a ridiculously high yield as the vast majority of students accepted to Harvard choose to matriculate).

But we do take issue with Harvard placing students who applied Early Action to the university only to be deferred to Regular Admission…and then find out that they’re on the waitlist. Seriously? These students applied months and months ago. Harvard really needs more time to decide their fate? That’s just plain not right. These students were mature enough to get their applications in to Harvard for the Early round. They waited. And then they heard that they were deferred. Disappointing of course. But it happens. However, these students should not have to wait longer after the Regular Decision round. Harvard should not need more time. It’s absolutely absurd.

The act of Harvard University putting deferred Early Action applicants on the waitlist must end. It’s wrong. It shows a lack of empathy to stressed out high school students. To the Harvard University office of admission, we await your response. We hope this response will be an end to this practice.

Categories: College Admissions, Ivy League Tags: , , , ,
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Best Graduation Speeches

May 17, 2013

Since it’s commencement season and around this time every year we always share with you the best graduation speeches being given across the country, we just have to share with you a remix of a commencement speech that went viral (just in case you haven’t seen it yet). It’s not a commencement speech from this year but rather a speech from a few years back by a famous author, David Foster Wallace, who has since committed suicide. The actual commencement speech, given to Kenyon College graduates on May 21, 2005 was quite a bit longer but this remix is really something that is incredible to watch. While it doesn’t beat out Conan O’Brien’s commencement speech given to Dartmouth College — which we rate as the funniest commencement speech given to date — it’s certainly moving.

In the speech, David Foster Wallace discusses how adulthood can be, well, banal at times. He discusses standing in line at the grocery store, watching people pick their noses, cough, complain, and sigh. He discusses sitting in traffic to go to work only to sit in traffic on the way back from work. He talks about routine and how boring routine can be. He talks about all of the things that graduation speeches aren’t usually about. They’re usually about changing the world and hope. But, in between changing the world, you have to stand in line at the grocery store on occasion, right?

We think this is a phenomenal remix of a great graduation speech and kudos to the filmmakers for turning this speech into something very special that touched people all over the world. We hope you enjoy watching “This Is Water.”

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2017 Ivy League Admissions Statistics

May 16, 2013
Ivy League Admissions Stats, 2017 Ivy League Admissions Stats, 2017 Ivy League Statistics

We’ve got the most comprehensive analysis of the 2017 Ivy League Admissions Statistics on the web.

Looking for the most comprehensive 2017 Ivy League Admissions Statistics on the web replete with analysis for each of the eight institutions? We’ve got this for you. Curious which of the eight universities had the highest number of Early applications? That would be Harvard University with 4,856 Early Action applications, edging out the University of Pennsylvania which had 4,812 Early Decision applications. Curious which of the Ancient Eight universities received the highest number of total applications? That distinction does not belong to Harvard University but rather to Cornell University. Cornell had 40,006 applications this year for the Class of 2017. Harvard had 35,023, placing second in this particular category.

And which university among the Ivies received the highest number of Regular Decision applications? The winner is…Cornell University again with 35,813 applications. Finishing second to Cornell in this category is Columbia University, with 30,405 applications received. Columbia edged out Harvard, which received 30,167 Regular Decision applications. Curious which university had the largest chunk of their admitted class filled in the Early round? That would be (of course)…the University of Pennsylvania. If you want to go to Penn, it’s always best to apply Early Decision. They want to be loved. Penn filled 49.4% of its class through Early Decision. Columbia filled 43.2% of its class through Early Decision. And Dartmouth College filled 41.4% of its class through Early Decision.

Have a question for us on the 2017 Ivy League Admissions Statistics? Want to know more about the breakdown of the admitted Ivy League classes? Check out our Ivy League Statistics pages or send us your questions by writing a comment below. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Asian American Parents and Ivy League

May 15, 2013
Asians and Ivy League, Asian Parents and College Admission, Asian American Parents and College Admissions

Asian American parents are, quite often, obsessed with the Ivy League colleges, Stanford, MIT, and a couple of other universities (photo credit: Jawed Karim).

Asian and Asian American parents have a special affinity for the Ivy League. If you’re a regular reader of our college admissions blog, you know that we’re often very critical of statements and articles about the highly selective college admissions process in the press. We’re critical because there is an enormity of inaccurate information out there about this process and we aim to correct this. Today, we came across an article by lawyer and author Allison Singh (who also notes that she was a rejected college applicant in spite of the fact that she ended up attending one of the finest — if not the finest — university in the nation) that is not in the least inaccurate. While this may come as a surprise to many, we have only praise for this May 14th piece on “The Huffington Post” entitled “College Admissions and the Asian-American Parent.”

In the piece, Ms. Singh discusses how Asian American parents are all basically culprits of using “The List.” “The List” consists of “The Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley. Maybe Duke, if all else fails…maybe.” We would add a couple of other schools (have you ever walked around UCLA?) but Ms. Singh is spot on. Chinese American parents — and even more so parents in China whose children will be attending university in the United States, rarely stray from “The List.” They are obsessed with brand recognition and they consider the “US News & World Report” rankings “The Bible.” It’s all about status, as Ms. Singh writes.

Are there Asian and Asian American students at highly selective liberal arts colleges like Williams College, Amherst College, and Wesleyan University? Sure. But these universities aren’t on the same playing field for this group of parents, unfortunately. Amherst College — in spite of offering one of the greatest educations in the world — just doesn’t make “The List.” It’s not Harvard. It’s not MIT. The fact is that brand recognition matters. Universities invest millions to build their brands. They employ folks just to bolster their brands. The day that Asian and Asian American parents stray from “The List” is a day we don’t foresee happening anytime soon, though our Asian and Asian American clients always stray a little (though they quite often also apply to “The List” schools too).

Categories: College Admissions, Ivy League, Parents Tags: , , , ,
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Recruiting Unqualified College Applicants

May 14, 2013

There is an article in “The Chronicle of Higher Education” by Jon Boeckenstedt, the associate vice president for enrollment management at De Paul University, entitled “Let’s Bring Clarity to Undergraduate Admissions” which discusses how the current college admissions system is broken and in need of a fix. What we found most interesting in Mr. Boeckenstedt’s article is the following comment on colleges recruiting unqualified college applicants: “Occasionally colleges knowingly send materials to students who have almost no chance of being admitted. In what can only be called a disgrace to higher education, the students serve an important role in catering to the sub-industry that creates rewards and incentives for rejecting the largest percentage of applicants.”

Recruiting Unqualified University Applicants, Unqualified University Applicants, Recruiting College Applicants

Highly selective universities need to stop recruiting unqualified college applicants. This practice is unethical.

Well said, Mr. Boeckenstedt. It’s something we’ve been writing about for years and the more folks in the college admissions community that put this in writing, the better. The only thing we would correct in this statement is the usage of the word “occasionally.” Mr. Boeckenstedt is being too nice. Highly selective colleges don’t “occasionally” send recruiting materials to students who have zero shot of ever gaining admission (simply to boost their application numbers and thereby lower their admission rate). They do it every year in droves. Highly selective colleges send brochures to students whose SAT scores fall well below their mean SAT score, knowing full well that student has no shot of getting in. They do this only to boost their “US News & World Report” ranking. It’s ridiculous. A few colleges have taken a stand and said we’re not doing this anymore. We’ve highlighted a couple of these colleges in the past, but these colleges are the exception to the rule, not the rule.

Highly selective colleges need to show more empathy to seventeen year-old high school students going through a very stressful time in their lives. They shouldn’t be getting the hopes up of these students who, in reality, have no shot of ever getting in to their institution. It’s wrong. It’s unethical. Thank you to Mr. Boeckenstedt for drawing attention to this practice. And remember, just because you receive brochures from a college, that doesn’t mean that college actually thinks you can get in. It merely means they want you to apply. They want anyone to apply. Heck, they even get an application fee with each application. It’s a business with a bottom line.

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