What Are Columbia’s New Questions for International Students

Based on reporting by Columbia’s , we have a good look inside the process at Columbia. While college officials are not always willing to answer our calls or questions, they tend to be much more available to students at their schools, and student newspapers often do excellent reporting work. 

What specifically happened is that Columbia reached a settlement with the Department of Justice; like with many legal settlements, this had many separate components. One of these was to launch a comprehensive review of their admissions process for international students, and ask them why they want to study in the US. In order to comply with this, Columbia has now completed their review, and added this question to all applications for international students. 

Students have fifty words to respond to this prompt. It isn’t an essay response like Columbia’s other questions, but still must be answered carefully and deliberately. Here is the exact phrasing of the question: 

• Students can pursue a vast array of educational options all over the world. Given these choices, please share why you are interested in continuing your education at a university in the United States. 

Interestingly, while only international students were included in the deal, domestic applicants to Columbia are also asked to answer this question; we’ll cover how you should answer it later in this article. 

We are a bit late to the party noticing this, but Columbia has avoided publicizing it. It wasn’t listed on their collection of , nor does it show up on the page for .

At root for this new question is a mandate that Columbia reduce its financial dependence on international students. Columbia is the Ivy League school with the highest international student population by percentage; many of these are graduate students rather than undergrads, but it is likely why they are the ones dealing with this currently. The mandate to reduce financial reliance on international students is unfunded, but Columbia does appear to be trying to follow it. 

How to Answer Columbia’s International Student Question

If you are an international student, this is likely something you have already had to think about. This question exactly parallels one asked in visa interviews, and is something you should be able to speak to. This does raise the question of why it’s important you be asked this question twice, but we’ll explore that later. 

When answering this question, you want to be able to point to tangible benefits studying in the US will give you that you can’t get at home, but which don’t point to a deeper desire to emigrate to the US (even if that is among your goals). You don’t have to elaborate; with only fifty words to respond they aren’t really expecting you to. 

Your answer should highlight what about US colleges and the college experience specifically will be beneficial for you. There are many possible answers to give; for Colubia especially highlighting the liberal arts learning experience is always viable, since most other university systems globally do not take this approach. 

Interestingly, domestic students must also answer this question. This is likely to be easier for you, but you should still emphasize what’s particular about education in the US that appeals to you, from opportunities presented by the colleges themselves to simply wanting to stay a bit closer to home. 

What This Question Means for International Applicants

There has been an increase in uncertainty for international applicants to US colleges, with delays in visa processing, an increase in rejections, and the occasional ban on visas for students from entire countries. This question, while small, feels like part of a much larger pattern designed to discourage international applicants from attending US colleges. 

As this question has just been introduced by Columbia, we do not yet know how it will impact their admissions decisions, or if it will impact them at all. Indeed, this looks a lot like Columbia is checking a box that they have to, rather than eagerly implementing a new policy they stand behind. 

In terms of specific impacts for students applying to Columbia, we anticipate this having few effects. There may be a slight curtail in the number of applicants, but we don’t anticipate Columbia rejecting students over this question. So long as you give a reasonable and considered answer, it’s just another piece of paperwork to fill out while applying. 

The Broader Implications of this Question

A more interesting, and more concerning aspect of this question is that its inclusion in applications was part of Columbia’s deal with the federal government in the first place. This implies a continued federal interest in international applicants, and a desire to reduce or restrict the number of applicants attending US universities. This becomes all the more explicit with the mandate that Columbia reduce its financial reliance on international students. 

This is very off putting for many international students, which may be part of the intent. It is uncertain whether or not these questions will spread to other colleges, but we would not be surprised if these kinds of deals are repeated, especially as the federal government continues issuing investigations into top universities. 

What This Question Means for You

Where you choose to attend college is a highly personal choice, and a very important and weighty decision for many students. Policies like this, questions like this, can make international students feel particularly called out; as if they exist in a different class from all other students. One that, by all appearances, must justify their very existence. 

This isn’t a good feeling, and we can fully understand if this makes you wish to reconsider applying to Columbia or other colleges which ask questions like this. Columbia does still actively recruit and seek out international students and talent; they were not the originators of this policy, but they did agree to implement it, and they are asking the question on their application.

If you are applying to US universities as an international student, you have likely already thought long and hard about why you want to attend college in the US. Indeed, you’ll have to answer this same question again when you do a visa interview. We can understand if it turns you off a particular university, but a great many colleges in the US highly value international students.

This is part of why we encourage students to do a lot of research on colleges when building their college list. A university’s culture and values can have a major impact on your time and experience there, for both good and ill. Asking a question like this doesn’t necessarily mean a school won’t be a good fit for you culturally, but it is still worth being aware of, and taking into consideration.

Final Thoughts

Applying to US colleges is always harder for international students; while most colleges don’t have official quotas, they do always admit more domestic students, and have higher barriers of entry for international applicants. On top of that, application requirements are not geared towards international students; everything from the SATs to English proficiency is another thing to keep track of, another box to check. This question is another thing on the pile, just one more piece to keep track of and paperwork to deal with for international students. 

If you are looking for help finding the right US universities to welcome you as an international student, or guidance navigating an often overly-complex application process, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Our mentors are experts in every aspect of college applications, and we love helping students from all over the globe find the right college to support their needs. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can help you.

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In this article, we’re going to go over how Harvard interviews applicants. We’ll cover the questions they ask, how they score your answers, and what you should and shouldn’t discuss at your Harvard interview. Our goal is to give you all the information you need to enter this interview with confidence, to put your best foot forward when you present yourself. Let’s see how this all works.

Who Will Your Harvard Interviewer Be?

All Harvard interviews are conducted by alumni of the school. These alumni are recruited and organized through local alumni associations. Some of these require interviewers to have attended Harvard college, but most allow graduate alumni to act as interviewers as well. These people are all volunteers, doing so because they enjoyed their time at Harvard, and wanting to contribute to the next generation at the school. 

There are limits on who is not allowed to be an interviewer for Harvard as well, designed to prevent conflicts of interest. These are: 

• If a sibling or child is applying to Harvard this admissions cycle
• If you are also conducting alumni interviews for another college
• If you work (for pay or as a volunteer) helping students apply to colleges, even colleges that aren’t Harvard

Interviewers are also vetted for other concerns, such as if they’re a teacher at a secondary school, have a criminal record, or if their online presence is a matter of note. Harvard’s goal is to make sure that all students are able to be comfortable in their interviews, and interview with someone who is able to evaluate them without bias. 

Getting an Interviewer

Interviews are arranged through an online system. When you sign up for an interview, this request is processed by the admissions office at Harvard, and then sent out to the regional office in your area. From here, they pick one of the alumni who have signed up to act as interviewers, and request one of them to conduct your interview. The number of interviews each interviewer holds depends on their personal schedule.

It is somewhat random who your interviewer is. The assumption is that all are equally qualified, and you will have an equivalent experience regardless of who they are. This isn’t entirely true (as we’ll discuss later), but there’s no way to change who your interviewer is, and the entire system is designed to be impartial. 

The interviewer will reach out to you; they have email templates they use. You may be invited to interview in-person or via Zoom. Interviews are meant to proceed in the same fashion regardless of venue. Interviews are going to take place in a public or semi-public space if in person, but with enough privacy to be comfortable. 

What Questions Will Your Harvard Interviewer Ask?

Interviewers have their own guidelines and script. This is not mandated, but there is a structure they are expected to follow. Interviews should last at least half an hour, but not go on for more than an hour. These interviews are not recorded; your interviewer may take notes, but in general they simply speak with you and then write up a report of their impressions of you afterwards. 

The interviewer has some topics they are supposed to bring up. These are given to them in the form of questions; they may ask these exactly, or may ask variations of these which are meant to glean the same information. These questions are sorted by category, as there are different aspects of you and your experiences they wish to discuss. 

Introductory Questions

• How is your school year going?
• How do you spend your time when you’re not in class?
• Tell me about your hometown. What are your favorite things to do in your area?
• Tell me about your high school, how do you think it has prepared you for the transition to college?
• Tell me one thing you are excited about and one challenge you foresee transitioning to college.

These questions are all meant to get the conversation flowing, to put you at ease and help break the ice. Interviews are stressful for students; while Harvard does try to make these as painless as possible, they know most students will be quite antsy when the interview begins. These questions are meant to offset that, to help you relax and get into the flow of conversation. 

When answering these questions, you want to try and get into the rhythm of it; don’t just answer directly and stop dead. Conversations have a flow to them; you don’t need to go into major detail about your accomplishments yet, but you do want to start getting into a relaxed state. 

Community Contribution

• What sort of college community do you hope to be a part of?
• What qualities would you like in a roommate, which of these qualities do you possess?
• How would your family or close friends describe you?
• If you and your roommate disagreed about something, big or small, (the time the lights go out, how late friends can stay in the dorm room, politics, religion, etc.), what do you do?
• Can you describe a time when you failed or did not achieve what you were attempting to achieve? How did you handle it?

The point of these questions is to get a sense of how you’ll interact with the community you’ll meet at college, the kind of friend and roommate and classmate you’ll become. You may not be asked these exact questions, but they very much do want to get a sense of this, since you will be joining a community of students if you are admitted. 

When answering these questions, you want to come across as earnest, rather than rehearsed, portraying who you are as a person by describing how you’ve interacted with disparate groups in the past. There are no perfect answers they’re looking for, so try to portray the best version of yourself, the kind of person who makes for a good friend or roommate.

Intellectual Qualities

• What is your favorite class in high school? What do you love about it?
• What classes are you most interested in taking in college?
• Have you ever changed your mind about an issue, topic or person? Why and how?
• Have you ever taught yourself something new? Pursued outside academic courses or projects?

Harvard is an elite academic institution, and so it makes sense that they ask at least a few questions about your own academic interests. You do not need to prove you’re a genius, or share your grades or test scores. What they want is to see genuine academic passion and curiosity from you. The topics that genuinely excite your interest, and what you love to explore for the sake of learning itself. 

In this, you want to be authentic. Don’t be afraid to geek out a little bit and really share and showcase the academic fields that excite you. Your interviewer may or may not be able to follow the technical detail, so be careful of getting too jargony, but you do want your enthusiasm to be evident. 

Extracurricular Activities

• What do you feel have been your biggest contributions to your activities within your high school, family or communities?
• What extracurriculars are you interested in exploring at Harvard?
• Are you a leader of an organization or activity? How do you lead your members and promote dialogue across differences?
• What initiatives have you been involved in implementing? What would you have done differently?

These questions cover two distinct but related ideas; both what you spend your time on outside of academic pursuits, and how you have demonstrated leadership and responsibility. Even if you haven’t been directly in charge of something, they are looking for students who have taken the initiative, who have stepped up and shown responsibility. While there are limited opportunities for this in the classroom, extracurriculars are a fertile field for such endeavors. 

Which extracurriculars you have taken part in matters less than why you’ve done them, and your interest in them. They don’t want cynical resume-filling; interviewers want to see what you’re passionate about, and how these passions have driven you to explore. Anecdotes are your friend when answering these questions, concrete examples of how you have stepped up, and what you have done in the past. These also make for more interesting conversations to have.

Overall

• Take a second to brag: What has been a highlight of your high school career thus far or what is the thing that makes you most proud?
• If you had a free day, what would you use that time on?
• Do you have any questions for me?
• Is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you feel is important for Harvard to know?

An interview can’t cover every possible topic, or be tailored to every conceivable student experience. These questions are meant to allow you to cover anything important to you and your experiences that the interview hasn’t wandered onto as of yet. These are a gift to you, a chance to truly show off what you have done thus far in your high school career. 

What Your Harvard Interview Won’t Ask

The interview won’t follow a set script, but the following section should have given you a good sense of what the interviewer will ask and want to talk about. In addition, however, Harvard interviewers are given a set of topics which they should avoid bringing up in an interview. Some of these are for sake of politeness, but others are things which Harvard can’t consider, or which they don’t want to color the interviewer’s perception of you. 

Race and Ethnicity

The biggest topic that interviewers cannot ask about, nor report to Harvard, is anything related to your race or ethnic identity. Harvard lost the Supreme Court case, and so they’re being remarkably cautious when it comes to any mention of or consideration of race or ethnicity in applications as a whole. 

This means that you won’t have any questions coming at you about your race or ethnic background. More importantly, it means that answers you give or anecdotes you share with your interviewer that are heavily couched in or reliant on your ethnic identity are not something they can transmit to Harvard in their evaluation of you. This is perhaps an over-correction on their part, but is an unsurprising one. 

You can speak about your race, especially if it’s core to your identity, but this can create issues for your interviewer when they try to detail your conversation. In many cases, they will have to extrapolate to vaguer terms. Some will go to this effort, others won’t (we’ll go over these reports more in the next section). We advise going over your responses before interviewing. 

You can speak about your background, but you should make sure it isn’t load-bearing, and that you have responses that don’t involve it. This can and will disadvantage certain applicants; if many of your activities are connected to your identity then you may have more difficulty discussing them in a way Harvard will accept. This isn’t fair, but being aware of this ahead of time means you can formulate answers which will sidestep these issues as possible. 

Grades and Test Scores

Your Harvard interviewer is unconnected to the admissions office save through the interview process. They won’t see any of the rest of your application, and they are instructed not to ask about your grades or test scores, either in general or specific terms, during your interview. 

You can bring these up if you want, but we don’t recommend it. Your answers should focus on what you care about, what your passions are, and how you have expended your effort. Your grades and resume will show up in other aspects of your application; they aren’t what’s being looked for here. 

Background and Demographic Information

Your interviewer isn’t going to ask about your political opinions, what your parents do, whether your parents went to college, whether Harvard is your first choice, where else you’re applying, or your religious affiliation. You may volunteer this information, especially if it’s relevant to an answer you’re giving. 

The purpose of these rules for interviewers is to prevent the interviewer from drawing premature conclusions about who you are. If you think this information is pertinent to who you are and what you’ve done, then of course you can bring it up. The point of the interview is for you to express what you have done, and what matters to you. 

How Harvard Interviewers Grade You

Once your interview is complete, your interviewer composes a report which they send to admissions officers. This report is attached to your application, and is one of the many things read and considered by admissions officers when they evaluate you. Admissions officers don’t talk to interviewers directly, and interviewers have no impact on admissions decisions beyond the report they submit. 

This report is fairly straightforward; Harvard asks the interviewer specific questions about you, and then provides a space for them to respond. How much each interviewer writes is up to them. Some are more diligent about this than others. While you can’t affect this, you can ensure your answers to their questions give them plenty of material to work with. 

Interviewers evaluate you in the following categories (which you will notice parallel the questions it is suggested they ask you): 

Community Contribution

Harvard wants to know how you will contribute to the community if you end up on campus. They want to know what benefits you may have brought to communities in the past, and how the interviewer sees you benefiting them in the future. This includes challenges overcome, your future plans, and your actions and impacts both within and outside the classroom.

Extracurricular Involvements

The questions Harvard asks here are less concerned with what activities you did, but your relationship with those activities. They specifically ask: Does the person appear to have a genuine commitment to activities or does the participation appear to be perfunctory or “for the resume?”

They care about why you have done what you’ve done, whether your activities bring you joy, and the impacts you have made through your involvement with these activities. They are also curious which activities you are interested in continuing once you arrive at Harvard. Here you want to formulate your responses to showcase your genuine enthusiasm for the activities you are engaged with. What activities you are engaged with don’t matter much (for the interview at least). How you feel about them, and your authenticity, does.

Intellectual Qualities

They specifically aren’t interested in your grades or test scores here (as they note, they already have those), but rather those intellectual qualities which are difficult to capture on paper. They are looking for evidence of your genuine intellectual curiosity and excitement, and your fit for a liberal arts education. They also ask whether economic factors may have contributed to your academic pursuits.

In your interview, you want to showcase your genuine excitement for and interest in academic topics. Both broad curiosity and narrow focus are good, but showcasing how you are fit for the liberal arts model, the broad base of knowledge and curiosity, is ideal. They are looking for a love for learning itself. 

Local Context

Interviews are done regionally, so this is a chance for the interviewer to give any context they have about the local area (if applicable). They are asked about your high school, neighborhood, access to resources, or other local factors. Interviewers are specifically told not to discuss your race or ethnicity in any way in their response. 

This context isn’t something you need to consider when giving your interview answers, save for the ban on any mentions of race or ethnic background. While you can mention these, you should do so sparingly, so that your interviewer has an easy way to describe what you have done. 

Overall Rating

This is a chance for the interviewer to share their overall impression of you, and other traits they think may be relevant. This is where they share their genuine impression of you. While they won’t be insulting in this, they may not recommend you for admission. They are not precisely judging you on your personability, but that will factor into their overall impression of you, that’s inevitable. Across all your answers, you want to give a good impression of yourself, and showcase genuine passion and interest, regardless of what you’re discussing.

Final Thoughts

A Harvard interview generally won’t make or break your application, but it can move the needle, especially if your application is on the edge. The best interviews confirm what admissions officers already know or assume from reading your application and essays, another data point in a larger story. An interview isn’t something to panic over, but we do advise students do them if possible, because it can give you that extra little push, and with Harvard’s acceptance rate as low as it is, you want every advantage possible. 

Not every college offers interviews, but many of them do. If you want help preparing for a Harvard interview specifically, or for any other college on your list, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Our mentors understand how admissions officers think, and many have acted as alumni interviewers before coming to work with us. If you want help preparing for your interview, or any other aspect of your Harvard application, then schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you. We always love talking with students about their applications.

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This requirement often creates a great deal of concern or consternation for students, as it is so different from the supplemental essays other colleges ask for. The biggest problem is often one of choice paralysis, which of the essays you’ve done is the best, and best shows off your potential to admissions officers? In this article, we’re going to go through why colleges ask for these essays, how you should pick one to send, and what makes for a good writing sample. Let’s jump right in!

Why do Colleges Ask for Writing Samples?

This is not the most common practice; is the only school which requires it outright, though others allow it or offer it for special programs (Amherst allows it in place of a supplemental essay, for example, and requires a graded paper in place of a supplemental). That said, the schools who do employ it seem to find it quite valuable when it comes to assessing a student’s potential. 

We’ll focus on Princeton here, though with some notes on the University of Houston’s Honors Program as well. The goal of Princeton’s requirement is to assess the student’s skill as an argumentative academic writer. Indeed, they specifically point to this paper requirement as a replacement for the writing section on the SAT and ACT. 

Colleges, especially liberal arts college programs like Princeton, require a lot of writing from their students. This is a core part of the liberal arts educational model, and it makes sense that when considering students for admissions, they would want to make sure that students are comfortable with this requirement, and adroit at producing the written word.

This also explains why an Honors Program like the one at the University of Houston asks for it. These honors programs are designed to mimic the liberal arts model exemplified by schools like Princeton, so they too want to be sure the students they admit are comfortable with written language. These essays take a different form from standard supplements, and showcase a different set of writing skills. 

Choosing Which Essay to Submit to Princeton

Princeton is at the very least specific about what they want from a graded paper, but there’s a lot of wiggle room left in their specifications. Your paper:

• Should come from an English, Social Studies, or History class
• Have been written in the last three years of high school
• Should be expository writing, not creative writing
• Be one to two pages in length
• Should include the instructor’s grade along with any comments they made

The University of Houston’s Honors College is slightly more exacting; they want a literary analysis essay, while this can come from any class, generally only English courses require literary analysis papers. For Princeton, though, you are likely to have a significant number of papers to choose from, which brings up the important question of which essay best represents your academic skills. 

This doesn’t necessarily have to be the essay which got the best grade (though of course we advise against submitting one which failed). You should submit a paper that you wrote recently, and which shows off your skill for argumentation and evidence, your ability to craft the written word into interesting argumentative forms. This can be a paper from a test or a homework paper, but you should choose one that is well polished and refined. 

Note that you should absolutely not choose a paper which you used AI to help you write, even if your high school didn’t catch it (or didn’t penalize you if they did). Princeton is a school with a very strict , and any violation of it in this essay, if detected, will be a major negative on your application, likely resulting in it being discarded outright. 

If you, for some reason, have no essays from a Social Studies, English, or History class, then you are allowed to submit one from another class. The on Princeton’s site goes over other edge cases like this as well, especially for non-traditional students. 

If you come down to several papers, all of which fit the requirements, read them again, and try to determine what the writing shows about you. Not your beliefs, but how you construct and evidence an argument, how you structure your thoughts and prove a point rhetorically. This is really what Princeton is looking for, how you are able to express yourself fluently through the written word. 

Creating a Good Writing Sample for Princeton

If you know ahead of time that you’re going to apply to Princeton, then congrats, you get to do something very clever, and produce your writing sample intentionally ahead of time. You can look over upcoming assignments and essay-based tests and pick one that best suits your writing style and skills. 

If you are considering doing this, we recommend picking an essay where several drafts are done or encouraged, so you have a chance to work through and improve your writing several times. You can also discuss your intentions with your teacher; indeed, we advise doing this, attending any extra study or preparation sessions the teacher offers to help draft and polish your essay.

Note that the actual topic of the essay does not matter to Princeton (so long as you aren’t doing something like arguing for cannibalism or other outre topics). This can be from any of the classes they prefer, we advise one where you have a good relationship with the teacher, and a strong understanding of the subject matter, as this will help you in writing a well-reasoned essay. 

When writing this essay, we recommend following a full and in-depth planning and writing process, even if the class doesn’t require it. Decide what you are arguing, and the structure the essay will follow. Each paragraph should contribute its own piece to the broader argument, and each point should be evidenced. They don’t need a super-long research paper (and likely don’t have time to read one), but do want to see the absolute peak of your writing abilities. 

Teacher feedback matters, but that exists in large part as a verification that this is an essay you wrote for class and turned in, a way to ensure that this is a typical representation of your work. You do not need to ask your teacher to heap effusive praise on this essay; asking for honest feedback on earlier drafts and working hard to implement it is a much better way to get good comments on a final draft. 

As a final note, and one we’ve brought up before, don’t use AI in crafting this paper. It can be tempting, especially if you are pressed for time or worried about the strength of your writing, but it is counterproductive. Your high school teachers want to read your own words and ideas, and admissions officers are the same. Submitting something drafted with AI will not produce a good writing sample. 

Our Experience With Writing Samples

At our core, łÔąĎąŮÍř excels at helping students write essays. We help with every aspect of college preparation and admissions, but each year, it is the essays which take the most time, and which students are most worried about. We bring this experience to bear on the writing samples as well, especially when students are getting started early. 

We don’t write essays for you of course, but we help with drafting and polishing, coaching you through the process of drafting an essay. Creating an argument through text is a skill, one which high schools endeavor to teach, but are not always able to with the time and resources allotted to them. By working one-on-one with students, we are much better able to help them craft solid pieces. 

Not all of our students want to apply to Princeton of course, but over the past few years, our acceptance rate to Princeton has been about twice the average; there is variance year to year of course, but we have been quite pleased as to how well our students have performed. 

Final Thoughts

Colleges want to understand who you are, as both a person and a student, and have only the narrow window the application provides to examine you through. Princeton, with its strong focus on academic rigor and character, makes sense as a school that cares about your past writing, and wants to focus on admitting students who will be able to handle the coursework requirements of the school. While most colleges don’t require this kind of writing sample, we hope that this article has helped you understand the ones that do, and what they’re looking for from it.

If you are looking for help with your own application to Princeton, or aren’t quite confident in your own writing skills as of yet, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Our mentors are all expert writers, with long experience guiding students through the process of turning ideas into tangible, excellent writing. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more, we’re always happy to hear from you. 

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Inside the Yale Report

The Yale report has three key findings, all of which are currently damaging the public perception of and trust in higher education: 

1. That there is a sense that college has gotten too expensive, and that what students are paying for is no longer worth the money.
2. That the admissions system is too opaque, and that it is perceived to be unfair, with too many questions around who gets in and why.
3. That there are concerns about the potential for bias on college campuses, both for what is taught, and for self-censorship. 

In addition to these external concerns, the report also found growing disquiet within academia itself, surrounding the role of technology in the classroom, grade inflation, and the ever expanding bureaucracy associated with higher education. 

They go into great detail on all of these, but their findings in many ways echo concerns we hear from students and parents every day in our work as counselors. College is very expensive, admissions doesn’t make much sense (indeed, our job is to help explain it), and there are growing stories about what can and can’t be said on campuses, though how much is reality and how much is political bloviating is another concern. At the same time, we understand the collegiate concerns, we too are seeing the disruptive effects of technology, and the perils of grade inflation. 

Yale has also identified what they believe is the core cause of all of these issues, the underlying fault: that colleges are trying to be all things to all people, and in trying to do so, are portraying themselves in all ways at once, creating a fundamental uncertainty in what their mission actually is and what they’re trying to do. 

While this problem isn’t unique to higher education, it is a unique vulnerability for them. The reason a Harvard degree matters so much is that everyone believes it does. Once you stop believing in it, then it isn’t, even if nothing else at the school changes. As the report explores, however, there are no easy solutions to the problems they have identified.

How to Restore Trust in Colleges

This problem is multi-pronged, and the report represents this by proposing twenty interlocked by separate solutions. Some of these are concrete policy changes, while others are a shift in meaning or values, changes to the way things are done or emphasized on campus. Of course, a problem like this isn’t going to have easy solutions, and you should beware anyone who says it will; this opens the question of what colleges are going to do about it however. 

The proposals in the Yale report boil down to three key planks: 

1. Increase institutional transparency. A lot of the problems boil down to people being wary of what they don’t know or don’t understand, and by enabling this understanding, Yale can begin mending this trust. 
2. Refocus on the academic mission. Colleges exist to create and share knowledge, all else is secondary. As time has passed, however, those secondary concerns have grown in importance; the report suggests recentering the core mission, and making sure the university is in line with what it set out to do originally. 
3. Emphasize the freedom of speech, expression, dialogue, and academic exploration. This is the most ambitious and most challenging, as all sides report concerns for freedom on campuses. This must be addressed, however, for the public trust to be restored.

These are hardly highly prescriptive, with few real ideas on what specifically universities can or will change. They are also looking primarily at Yale (though the affairs of higher education as a whole are considered), a school which stands apart from its fellows in any number of ways, big and small. 

So What’s Going to Change?

These are just suggestions, and are aimed at only a single school. That said, Yale is a somewhat influential school, and you can be sure other Ivy League schools are monitoring the situation closely, to see if the changes implemented by Yale may also be beneficial for them to enact. 

While we aren’t able to know for sure what actual changes Yale is going to make, here’s the ones we expect, and some thoughts on how effective they will be.

The first change is going to be one of cost transparency. This is a very big problem for most colleges, as the convoluted financial aid practices mean that the sticker price isn’t paid by many students at all, but still creates a big shock and turnoff for parents and students. Now, Yale has very generous financial aid already, so this is likely just going to be a messaging change, something theoretically simple, but difficult to make sure it is heard and interpreted in the right way. As this is something colleges have been trying to do for some time, unless Yale strikes upon a bold new strategy, we doubt anything will change. 

The next change is admissions transparency. This has been a hot talking point for some time, between the Supreme Court case which ended affirmative action, and the ongoing concerns over how colleges actually evaluate applicants. Now, colleges are always going to be opaque about this to some degree; it’s impolite to students to publish a list of exactly why each rejected student was rejected. Instead, they’ll likely try to be clearer about what they look for in applicants, and emphasize the traits they look for in students. 

Finally, we anticipate a further emphasis on free speech protections. Now, Yale has been a major supporter of free speech for some time, and it is hardly alone in this. The issue here, as with so many others, is not the actual policies Yale has in place, but the perception, both within and without, that Yale does not protect free speech on campus. We expect a number of bold but vacuous statements from Yale’s administration affirming their support for free speech, along with some minor policy changes. 

The commonality of all of these is that Yale is likely to change very little in terms of actual practices, but instead focus on messaging. This is unsurprising, as the major problem they’re having is one of perception. It matters little what the reality of the situation is if everyone perceives the same thing to be true. The success of this messaging, of course, remains to be seen. 

How Will This Impact You?

Overall, this report, and any changes it inspires, is likely to have only a limited impact on students. The biggest possible change, and biggest benefit for applicants, is an increase in transparency. The questions we get from students the most all reflect the fact that college admissions is opaque, confusing, and ill-explained by colleges themselves. Any steps taken by colleges to elucidate this, even if they are small, will be quite helpful for students.

The same goes for financial aid, though the impacts of this are going to be limited. The number of colleges that can give out the kinds of aid packages that Yale does are extremely limited. Many colleges that make their financial aid obscure do so purposefully, to hide just how much you’ll be paying, or to make the aid look more generous than it is. While greater clarity at some schools will be helpful, we do expect overall aid packages to remain byzantine. 

The worry of the report, and those who commissioned it, is that collapsing trust in higher education will eventually harm the institution as a whole. This may indeed be a problem in the long term, but we do not foresee it in the near future for schools like Yale, and we believe that it will remain as competitive as ever for admissions.

After all, top schools have seen scandals before, often rather embarrassing. Columbia, just recently, was caught blatantly cheating on their placement in the rankings. In response to this, the acceptance rate…barely varied at all. While there may be long term pressures on universities that this report seeks to address, there are unlikely to be major near term consequences to consider.

Final Thoughts

There are many issues with higher education; we run into these every day. It’s unsurprising that colleges themselves have noticed these as well. While this report has generated a lot of notice, diagnosing the problems with education is often the easiest step. It remains to be seen what changes, if any, will be implemented, either by Yale or their peers. 

If you’re looking for help navigating the often complicated admissions process, or any other aspect of dealing with colleges and preparing for them, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Our mentors have a deep understanding of the admissions process, and what officers want to see from students. If you’re looking for advice on any of this, then schedule a free consultation today, we’re always happy to hear from you.

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Understanding Brown’s Waitlist

Brown releases both more and less information than its peers about how its waitlist works. On the positive side, they release a detailed account in the form of about how their waitlist operates, which is more than many of their peer schools do. This does not answer every conceivable question, and we will go over some that it does not, but this is an excellent starting place. 

What Brown does not release, however, is granular data on their waitlist acceptances. To clarify, they release how many students were admitted from the waitlist each year, but not how many were placed on it, thus making any assessment of actual odds of waitlist acceptance impossible.

They do describe these numbers in broad terms, saying that around 1,000-1,500 students accept places on their waitlist each year.This is a somewhat broad range, and makes any close analysis impossible. There are, however, a few things we can say with a degree of certainty. 

The first is that Brown always admits at least a few students off of their waitlist. Never a massive number, but always some, at least in the years for which data is available. The next is that there is neither consistency or predictability in this data from year to year; the number of students who get in is above zero, but little else is certain. 

This makes sense from what we know about how waitlists work. Brown only admits students off the waitlist if students who were admitted to Brown choose to attend other schools instead; this happens to every college, even elite schools like Brown. Brown more than others, perhaps because they admit fewer purposefully and turn to the waitlist to meet the gaps (though this is just conjecture). 

They do not rank their waitlist (they say as much explicitly),which means that students are likely admitted off of it in the same manner they generally are for Brown; that is, through holistic review. This makes sense; when Brown builds a class each student is admitted as part of a larger whole, when one of those students leaves, they’ll look for similar (albeit not identical) students to fill the gap. After all, Brown doesn’t want to end up with a class of nothing but students interested in computer science.

This review may or may not begin before May 1, but acceptances off the waitlist come after that date. How long the review process takes seems variable, but they give a terminal date of the end of the summer; as students who were accepted and committed may be admitted off the waitlists of other schools, opening up new holes in Brown’s class.

Increasing Your Chances of Waitlist Acceptance at Brown

While it is unclear what exactly your waitlist acceptance chances are exactly, they certainly do exist, though they may not be high (but then, neither is Brown’s overall acceptance rate). This leads to the most common question we get from students: How can you improve your chances of getting in off of Brown’s waitlist?

The single most useful thing you can do is officially accept your place on the list; Brown won’t even continue considering you for admission unless you do that. This is quick and easy, and may be done through Brown’s student portal. We advise doing this promptly after you are waitlisted so it doesn’t slip your mind. You may do this after March 30; we advise doing so by mid-April.

After this, you can send Brown a letter of continued interest. This is a letter which tells Brown you are still interested, and updates them on what you’ve accomplished since you applied initially. Brown does accept these letters, but they discourage them. Specifically, they only want to hear updates from you (or your recommenders) if there’s something to add to your application that wasn’t included before, and thus not discussed in the initial round of applications. 

In most cases, this means they want to hear about things you’ve been up to in the time since you applied (though if you did leave some major accomplishment off your application the first time, you should definitely rectify that mistake). These should also be achievements significant enough to warrant a new look at your application, to showcase new heights of your potential to contribute to Brown’s campus. 

What this specifically is can be as varied as the students who apply to Brown, here are some examples (though by no means an exhaustive list): 

• Winning a major competition, be it academic like Science Olympiad, or non, like a debate tournament
• Completing a significant research project (outside of school and not part of your coursework) and submitting it for publication
• Taking on new responsibilities, beginning new projects, or gaining new titles at a job or internship

These can take on many forms, depending on the nature of your extracurriculars, everything from submitting a film to festivals to being awarded a major scholarship (such as Coca Cola Scholars) can count as of interest to admissions officers. Note that things like regular high grades in your courses should not be included here; high academic performance is expected of you. 

In your letter, try to tie each of these to a specific opportunity offered by Brown. The goal in this is to concretely demonstrate why Brown is your top choice, and also make Brown seem like the next logical step of your journey. This, in addition to stating clearly that Brown is your top choice school, illustrates to admissions officers that you will attend if admitted off the waitlist. This isn’t the only thing they look for of course, but is considered.

Additional Letters of Recommendation

Brown does accept these as updates, but these should only be sent in due to exceptional circumstances, where you have accomplished something that was not included on your application before, and want a third party to discuss it. We generally only recommend these come from research mentors if you have completed a significant new project, though there are other circumstances where they may be warranted.

Admissions officers have a lot of reading to do, and they take their jobs very seriously. They will read materials if you send them in, but you don’t want to add to their work needlessly; only include materials in your updates that substantially add to your application. 

Final Thoughts

Brown is an excellent college, and is properly regarded as such by students across the US. This high regard contributes to an equally low acceptance rate, with many more students applying than possible seats. We hope that this article has given you new insight into how Brown considers these applicants, and the process they go through when deciding which to admit, and what to do with those they place on the waitlist. 

College applications are complicated, unlike anything else you’ve done before or will do after. This can be stressful indeed, especially with acceptance rates at top colleges like Brown being so low. That’s where łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Our mentors are masters of simplifying the admissions process, making it more approachable and manageable for students and families. If you want help with your own Brown applications, or advice on any other aspect of the admissions process, schedule a free consultation today, we’re always happy to hear from you.

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What Yale’s Podcast Is

The podcast is hosted by two Yale Admissions staffers, who share various insights into Yale’s process, and sometimes interview their coworkers from the admissions office about specific topics. These generally cover three different branches of information, though different episodes can vary: 

1. General advice about approaching college admissions. This is usually fairly good advice, though is hardly unique.
2. Specific information about Yale, but not anything surprising, the same information you can find on their website.
3. Information about the workings and motivations of the admissions office. These are the rarest pieces, but by far the most interesting. 

One thing this podcast never does, and likely cannot do, is give specific prescriptive advice on what to do to get into Yale. They can give you general tips, illustrate trends, show you what and how and why certain things in an application appeal to them, but there is no silver bullet, no one way to guarantee your acceptance to Yale. This is what many students look for in this podcast, and leave disappointed when they can’t find it. 

This is because of how top universities admit students in general. The holistic review process means there is no single thing an admissions office looks for, no silver bullet to guarantee your acceptance. What this podcast does contain, however, are a few select nuggets of information that are interesting, and that help clarify how Yale’s admissions works and prioritizes students. 

They are not going to give away all of their secrets, and they are going to portray themselves in the best light, but if you have specific questions about how Yale looks at different aspects of the application, or how officers review applications, then this can be quite useful. 

What We Can Learn from the Yale Admissions Podcast

Now, the podcast is not quite as prolific as some others out there; these conversations aren’t nearly as long as those by some other podcasts. They do, however, put out a fair bit of material, more than may be easy for students to review all of. To help you out, we’re going to go over some of the top insights we’ve gleaned from this podcast, both in what’s said, and in what isn’t. 

Yale’s Essay Questions

Yale asks a lot of essay questions, and students often have a hard time answering these. Many students feel like these are designed specifically to trip them up, but this isn’t the case. Indeed, the opposite is true: 

And one of the most common reasons why we edit or we drop a question is because we found that a lot of applicants didn’t quite pick up on what we were looking for or if we found that the questions sort of tend to lead to some unhelpful responses. We all kind of sit around and remember instances in the committee where we kind of groaned or said, oh, no. Like the student didn’t quite get what the application question was for. And we tend to say, that was on us. (Mark, Episode 33, Application Update 2023-2024)

Now, looking at how much students tend to struggle answering these questions, you may question the efficacy of their process, but they really do have the best intentions. That said, Yale does admit students with less than stellar essays; as they say in Episode 4. This is surprising to many students, but the moral they want to come away with is this: writing a great essay can boost your Yale application dramatically, but students with strong candidacy can get in without a stellar essay.

As for what they want to see most, that’s the same advice admissions officers always give: they want to know who you are, and what’s important to you specifically. They are reticent to give any specific advice on topics to discuss; they know that if they do, they’ll be swamped by essays of that sort, when many students could write better essays about different events. 

Their final points are about wanting to hear your authentic voice. This is again commonly repeated, but remains good advice. They also give some general advice on approaching college essays, much of which we’ve written about on this very blog. 

Standardized Tests

Yale has a somewhat unique test flexible policy, one that has sometimes vexed students, who aren’t certain exactly what they want (a common theme). They devoted Episode 38-40 of their podcast to elucidating this; let’s explore what we can learn from this, and what they really want from your test scores. 

Much of their initial advice is generic, the kind you find on any site discussing what colleges want to see from students. The answer is simple, they want to know if you can do the work. They check your test scores and transcripts, and if it looks like you can, then great; they move on to the rest of the application. As they put it: 

(…) we have no reservations in admitting students from the exact same school group with lower testing if all the other parts of their application file are compelling and interesting and we really feel like they’re the student who’s going to contribute the most to our community. Again, the testing is a simple binary question at the onset of the application review. (Jeremiah Quinlan, Episode 38 Standardized Tests – The Big Picture)

Note that this is not true of every school. They go on to clarify that Yale’s approach to test scores is not shared by all colleges, and at some schools it very much does matter whether or not your scores meet certain benchmarks. Yale, though, cares only that you show yourself to be a capable student. 

This is why they switched to their more complicated test flexible policy. They saw students spend far too much time and energy fretting about higher test scores, and neglecting other aspects of the application that Yale cares about more (such as extracurriculars). The idea was that students could choose particular scores that showed them in the best light, and not need to fret about them so much anymore. This instead just created more confusion for students, but we will give them points for making the effort. 

How Decisions Are Made

If you’re only going to listen to a single episode of the podcast, we recommend Episode 30. In this episode, they break down in detail the review process for applications, and how each is read and evaluated. They may not go into as much detail as you would like, but this is still an incredible resource to understand the Yale admissions process. 

The most notable thing in this episode is that Yale has added a new step to their admissions review process, the first major change in how they review applications in some time, due to the number of applicants they are receiving. In this, every file is first reviewed by a senior admissions officer to make sure applicants meet Yale’s basic requirements; academic competence, command of English; the very basic fundamentals that indicate a student is capable of succeeding at Yale. 

If the student doesn’t, they mark the file as such. These files do not then receive a full review by initial readers. The reason they have added this is simple: 

I’ll say it very plainly. We have more uncompetitive and sort of unqualified applicants in our first-year admissions process now than we did not even all that long ago. (Mark, Episode 30: Reading Reloaded)

As more and more students apply to these schools, there is less self-selection in the pools. This means that more students who do not have a realistic shot at acceptance apply. Now, these students may still be bright and talented, but they have not indicated that in their applications, and with 50,000 files to review, Yale needs to streamline somewhere. 

The students who do meet basic competence requirements are then reviewed in full by their area readers. This actually helps these students, as it means area readers are more willing to dive deep into these applications, looking for reasons to admit a student. They do not give some specific ratings, but primarily rely on notes on what a student has done and accomplished: 

So I actually went back and found a tagline for a student who applied years ago that I thought was a good example of a typical sort of thing that I might write out for a case that I’m excited to present to committee. I said, “I find his part impressively mature and reflective. This is a consistent file for a compassionate and self-aware young man who stands out as a value-added community member.” That was my in-the-moment take, and then, when I presented it to committee, I read exactly those words. (Mark, Episode 30: Reading Reloaded)

This is interesting, but means understanding exactly what makes any one applicant likely to get admitted over another difficult to parse; they even specifically go over how the numerical rankings are used, and how different reviewers use them differently. A student who scores higher than another may still be rejected, while the lower scoring one is accepted. There is no easy answer. There is no one secret to learn or trick to do that will get you admitted to Yale. They will review all that you give them, and then deliberate on how you fit into their idea of the university. 

Final Thoughts

This podcast sometimes lacks the specificity we would like to see, but offers a frequently unique set of insights into how admissions officers think about and approach applications. It may be a bit much for students to listen to all of, but does contain a lot of genuinely useful general advice for college applications as a whole. If Yale is your top choice school, then we do recommend checking this podcast out. If you would prefer to read them, you can find the transcripts ; that’s where we sourced the quotes we used. 

If you are nervous about your own applications, or have questions about how to improve the odds of you standing out in this byzantine process, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. We work with students to make them the sort of applicants that colleges love to admit, and help them tell their stories in unique and interesting ways. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can help you.

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Understanding Princeton’s Waitlist

Princeton, as with most universities, is somewhat opaque on the inner workings of their waitlist process, as they tend to be for admissions generally. There are some things we can glean however, based on what information they do make available. The first key piece of data they give us is that their waitlist is unranked. 

This means that there is no immediate preference for which students are admitted off the waitlist; theoretically, all waitlisted students begin on an even playing field. This makes sense; Princeton uses holistic admissions for their admissions already, and they will likely do the same for waitlisted students, seeing which will fit best into the particular holes which open up in their incoming class. 

Princeton is trying to build a whole greater than the sum of its parts when admitting students. When those students choose to attend other institutions instead, that leaves holes in this image. Admissions officers turn to the waitlist to fill these gaps. For example, if all of their admitted computer science students chose to attend MIT instead, Princeton would turn to the waitlist and admit a bunch of CS students to fill those empty seats. It is, of course, rarely this straightforward, but that is the logic admissions officers employ when deciding who to admit off of the waitlist.

Your Chances of Acceptance Off of Princeton’s Waitlist

This same logic makes determining how likely you are to get accepted off of Princeton’s waitlist rather challenging. Nobody, not us, not even Princeton, can precisely predict how many admitted students will choose to attend other schools. For this reason, there’s no way of knowing how many seats will be available, and how much Princeton will need to turn to the waitlist. 

To illustrate this more clearly, let’s look at data from past years on how many students Princeton admitted off of the waitlist. This information comes to us from the , a set of statistics that Princeton releases each year. 

These numbers vary quite a bit year to year, with no noticeable pattern. Overall acceptance rates tend to be a bit more predictable, if variable in their own right, but acceptances off of the waitlist are far more finicky, and much harder to predict. This means knowing your own chance of acceptance off of this list is almost impossible. To further illustrate this, and for ease of reading, here’s a graph of the same information, as those are often easier to parse. 

This graph shows starkly how variable waitlist acceptances can be. What is interesting is how much the number of students Princeton puts on the waitlist fluctuates each year, especially compared to some other schools. Many colleges place the same number on the waitlist each year (or close), but Princeton showed a high degree of volatility in this over the past few years. 

Notably, the number of students who were waitlisted by Princeton showed no correlation to the number of waitlisted students eventually admitted by Princeton. This indicates that admissions officers at Princeton are no better at predicting the number of waitlist acceptances than the rest of us, even with all the information we don’t see. The one thing we can say for sure, is that getting in off of the waitlist at Princeton is always going to be competitive.

How to Get Admitted Off of Princeton’s Waitlist

There is no way to guarantee admittance off of Princeton’s waitlist, just as there is no way to guarantee acceptance when you originally apply. There are, however, definitely ways to improve your odds. The first, and most important thing to do is accept your spot on Princeton’s waitlist. 

We don’t know exactly when Princeton begins looking at students on their waitlist, but we do advise responding promptly if you do find yourself waitlisted. This prevents you from forgetting, and must be done if you want a chance of getting in off of the waitlist at all. 

The other thing you can and should do is send Princeton a letter of continued interest. They do not actively welcome or encourage these like some schools, but they do accept them, and they can improve your chances of getting in off of the waitlist if they are done well. These letters should be sent to your regional admissions officer, as they are the ones who will be most familiar with your application. 

The purpose of these letters is twofold: first to express your continued desire to attend Princeton, and second to update admissions officers on everything you’ve been up to since you submitted your original application.

On the first point, you want to begin your letter first with standard pleasantries, and then by directly stating that Princeton remains your top choice, and that you will attend if you are admitted (even if this isn’t necessarily true). You don’t need to fill this with over the top praise, but you want to be clear on this point. Schools want students who want them, and the only way they know for sure how interested you are in attending is if you say so directly. 

Once you have done this, you should update admissions officers on any major developments to your candidacy. This isn’t the place to highlight every stellar grade; that is what’s expected of you already. Instead, you should focus on what you have done in your extracurriculars and other activities, new milestones reached and accomplishments that showcase the heights of your abilities. 

You should focus on a few high-impact accomplishments; a major award or scholarship won, a new research project, new responsibilities at a job or the completion of a major undertaking at an internship. The goal is to showcase both that you are still actively involved in pursuing your interests and passions, and to highlight the heights of your achievement, things which can help differentiate your application from the others in the waitlisted pool. 

Each of these accomplishments should further be tied to an opportunity at Princeton. If you won a debate tournament, for example, you should then also discuss how you want to join a particular debate club or society at Princeton. This helps solidify your desire to attend the school, and showcases how you will benefit campus by your presence. 

Final Thoughts

Princeton is a great college, and like all great colleges, it is increasingly difficult to get into, seemingly more competitive every year. This can make it feel impossible to get in, and getting waitlisted, being so close and yet so far, can feel terribly crushing. We hope this article has brought new insight into how the waitlist process works, and what your odds of acceptance are if you find yourself waitlisted by Princeton.

There are many intricacies and oddities in the admissions process, which confound students every year. We hope this article has helped resolve one of these; one of our goals is to help students approach the application process with confidence. If you are dealing with questions or stress in your application process, or want advice on your Princeton application, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can make your life easier.

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How Yale’s Waitlist Works

Yale doesn’t release a ton of information about their waitlist or how it works, but there are some things we know for certain. The first, and most important, is that their waitlist is unranked. That is to say that all students on the waitlist are judged the same, and there isn’t a set order in which they are admitted off of the waitlist. 

Thai makes sense; Yale uses holistic admissions, judging each student as an individual, and weighing how they will fit into and contribute to the class they are building. They do the same when evaluating students on the waitlist. We don’t know exactly how these reviews go, but we’re fairly certain they parallel the process Yale uses throughout admissions. 

When admitting students off the waitlist, Yale is looking to fill holes in their incoming class based on students choosing to attend elsewhere. Thus, if all the engineering students they admitted picked other schools, they would turn to the waitlist to admit a new crop. It is rarely this focused, but that’s the essence of how the process works. 

Yale generally only sends out waitlist acceptances after May 1, though we believe they begin assessing students before that. They do request admitted students reply early with whether or not they are attending out of concern for those students who are waitlisted, which does indicate that they begin thinking about this early. That said, if you are waitlisted, do not expect to hear back before May 1. How late waitlist acceptances come out is also uncertain, though we do know they try and get them out in a timely fashion. 

As part of this, if you have decided which college you are going to enroll in, we encourage you to withdraw your applications to the other schools which admitted you but which you will not attend. They might not be your number one choice, but they likely have plenty of students on their own waitlist, eager to hear back about their own futures. 

Your Chances of Acceptance off of Yale’s Waitlist

The most common, and most reasonable, question we get from waitlisted students is what their chances are of getting into the school which waitlisted them. There are some issues with answering this question, however, primarily just how volatile and variable waitlist acceptance rates are. 

Colleges generally have fairly stable overall acceptance rates; they admit a similar number of students each year, even as they have been dropping steadily, there are rarely major shakeups (barring things like Covid, which made everything far too chaotic). Waitlists, on the other hand, depend on the choices of hundreds of individual students deciding to attend a school or not, and are thus harder to prognosticate. 

To illustrate this, here is a chart showing the waitlist acceptances Yale has had over the past few years. This information comes from Yale’s , which they release each year. 

What this table shows is both the high debris of variability in how many students are waitlisted and admitted, and that getting in off the waitlist at Yale is often a very long shot. Of course, parsing a table like this can be difficult, so here’s that same information displayed on a graph: 

This shows starkly just how variable and how competitive admissions off of Yale’s waitlist can be. It isn’t impossible necessarily, but chances are often quite low, even compared to Yale’s already staggeringly low acceptance rate. Thai is because Yale has a very high yield; most of the admitted students choose to attend, leaving the school little need to turn to the waitlist. 

Maximizing Your Chances of Waitlist Acceptance at Yale

The odds of acceptance off of Yale’s waitlist are long, but there are things you can do to improve them. First, and most important, you must accept your place on the waitlist. This isn’t difficult, and may be done through your student portal, but must be taken care of or they won’t consider you at all. We advise doing this early, as Yale likely begins evaluating students on the waitlist well before May 1. 

The other thing you can do, and the best way to improve your odds of acceptance off of the waitlist, is to write a letter of continued interest and send it to your regional admissions officer for Yale. Yale does not have an official form for these as some colleges do, but they still accept letters of continued interest, though not other additional supplementary materials (such as portfolio pieces or additional letters of recommendation). 

The purpose of these letters is twofold. The first is to state your continued interest in Yale as your top choice school, and to state explicitly that you will attend if they let you in off of the waitlist. Yale uses the waitlist to balance out their class if other students choose to attend elsewhere, and they like assurances that you are committed to their institution. 

The other purpose of these letters is to share with admissions officers what you have been up to in the intervening time since you applied originally. This is especially true for significant extracurricular achievements. High grades are nice, but those are expected, they won’t move the needle on admissions. 

You should focus on major achievements: new research projects, major awards, winning significant competitions, or new responsibilities at jobs or internships. The goal with this is to show that you are still actively involved with your passions, and to differentiate yourself from other applicants on the waitlist when it comes time to review and decide who gets in.

For each achievement or extracurricular you mention, you should also tie it directly to opportunities you wish to pursue at Yale. If, for instance, you are currently undertaking a research project, you should discuss labs you want to work at on Yale in the same field, or professors whose research interests mirror your own. The point is to show that you and Yale are perfect fits for each other, and that both would benefit greatly if you were admitted. 

Final Thoughts

Getting waitlisted isn’t any fun. The college is saying you are fully qualified to attend, but then you aren’t admitted; which is quite disheartening. While this is an unenviable thing to deal with, we hope that this article has demonstrated that getting waitlisted does not need to be the end of your journey for Yale, and that you may still have a chance of getting in, though it is a small one.

If you are looking for more insights into how the admissions process works, or help on perfecting your applications, to Yale or any other college, then łÔąĎąŮÍř can help. Our mentors are masters of the admissions process, well versed in every aspect and wrinkle of what admissions officers are looking for. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more, we’re always happy to hear from you.

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How Dartmouth’s Waitlist Works

Dartmouth themselves offers scant information on their , most importantly whether or not they rank their waitlist. Some schools do; and students are admitted in order based on where they rank. Others do not, and initiate a fresh round of application reviews to determine which students to admit. Most top ranked schools do the latter, as part of their holistic review, but we can’t say for certain that Dartmouth does so.

, they offer fewer than 10% of applicants a spot on the waitlist, and as application numbers increase, this percentage has been decreasing. Waitlist decisions go out generally in May-June, , though they do warn decisions may take until later in the summer, depending on the year. This indicates they likely do not begin admitting students off the waitlist until after decision day on May 1, though they may begin evaluations before then.

Dartmouth admits students off the waitlist to fill holes in their class left by students choosing to attend other institutions. Not every student admitted to Dartmouth attends; the fewer that do, the more students they admit off the waitlist that year. It is unclear if Dartmouth also tries to fill holes in their class when doing so.

Some colleges and universities will specifically try to fill gaps off the waitlist; so if many of the admitted CS students choose to enroll elsewhere, they admit more CS students off the waitlist. This makes sense as an approach, as these colleges often want to build well-rounded classes. We are uncertain if this is Dartmouth’s chosen approach however. 

What are Your Chances of Acceptance Off of Dartmouth’s Waitlist?

This is the first question any student has when they’re put on a waitlist, wanting to know if they should hold out hope, and what their odds really are. This is a difficult question to answer, and to illustrate why this is the case, we’re going to look at data from past years. 

Dartmouth releases data on how many students they admit off the waitlist each year on the . Here is what that looks like for the last four years at time of writing: 

Tables aren’t always the easiest to interpret, though some things stand out already. To make this even more clear, here’s that same data on a graph: 

Between this graph and the chart, we can say a few things for certain. First, the number of students placed on Dartmouth’s waitlist is relatively consistent. It’s not set in stone by any means, but it’s been a bit over 2,000 students each year. The acceptance rate off the waitlist has been significantly less consistent however. 

This makes sense; the number of students admitted depends entirely on how many spaces are available, and this in turn depends on the actions of hundreds of other students choosing to attend Dartmouth or head elsewhere for college. There is no way to predict this with any real certainty, and thus no way of predicting what your odds of acceptance off the waitlist will be.

One thing we can say for certain is that these odds are always quite low. While there is usually some chance, the odds of getting in off the waitlist are generally just as long, if not longer, than your overall chances of admission to Dartmouth.

Improving Your Chances of Waitlist Acceptance at Dartmouth

Long odds are different from impossible, and there are concrete steps you can take to improve your chances of getting accepted off of Dartmouth’s waitlist. The first, and most important, is of course accepting your place on that waitlist. As the table above shows, not every waitlisted student does this (though most do), and the only students who are admitted are those who have indicated that they want to be considered for such by accepting a place on the waitlist. This is done easily enough, through your student portal on Dartmouth’s website. 

The next thing to do, and the most important for your admissions chances, is writing a letter of continued interest. This is a chance for you to update Dartmouth on everything you have done since the first time you applied. These aren’t required of course, but can improve your odds, showcasing how your candidacy and fit since you applied the first time.

These letters are generally submitted to the school in , and can be submitted through your student portal. These don’t have a set required length, but shouldn’t be overly long. They do note that they only want written submissions, not pictures or scanned certificates. 

What you include in this update depends on what you’ve been up to, but here’s some key things to consider telling admissions officers about: 

• That Dartmouth is (and remains) your top choice school. Colleges want to admit students who want them, and letting admissions officers know Dartmouth is your top choice (and that you’ll definitely attend if admitted) is appreciated.
• Any notable extracurricular achievements. You don’t need to update them on every single thing you’ve been up to, but you should cover notable achievements; publishing new research, awards you’ve won, or other notable developments.
• Tie your activities to Dartmouth. If you won a debate tournament, talk about how much you want to join their debate club. If you published research, then discuss labs or professors at Dartmouth you want to collaborate with. Show them how you and the school are a perfect fit for each other.

While Dartmouth encourages students to submit a letter of continued interest, they that you not come visit the school to speak with admissions officers directly. This makes sense; this is a very busy time of year for admissions officers, and they are unlikely to have time to meet with waitlisted students, especially when Dartmouth waitlists more than 2,000 applicants each year. Your update letter is where you need to show off all you can bring to Dartmouth, and why they should let you in.

Final Thoughts

Getting into a top college is hard, especially for a school like Dartmouth, one which admits a single digit percentage of students each year. Getting waitlisted can be disheartening as well; good enough to attend, but without a seat to fill. We hope that this article has given you the insight you need to understand how Dartmouth’s waitlist process works, and your chances of getting admitted off of it.

Of course, there are plenty of things you can do to increase your chances of getting into Dartmouth in the first place, and one of the best is working with łÔąĎąŮÍř. Our mentors are well versed in every aspect of college admissions, and excel in helping students find and apply to the best programs for them. To learn more about how we can help you, schedule a free consultation today.

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How Harvard’s Waitlist Works

Every year, Harvard places some applicants on their waitlist; the exact number varies by year. These students are ones who meet the qualifications to get admitted, but don’t make the final cut for one reason or another. This waitlist is ; that is, there is no ordering of students on the waitlist with some definitely getting admitted first.

This is because of how waitlists function generally; Harvard and other colleges use waitlists to balance their admissions numbers. Most of the students who are admitted to Harvard attend, but not all of them do. If too many go elsewhere, then admissions numbers might slip; to prevent this, admissions officers admit students off the waitlist.

When admissions officers build a class, they try to do so in a balanced manner. Harvard could admit nothing but stellar computer science students, but that might shift the campus in a direction they aren’t looking for. They do the same when admitting students off the waitlist.

If, for example, most of the CS students admitted to Harvard decide to attend MIT instead, then Harvard will dip into their pool of waitlisted students and find some other CS-interested applicants to make up that gap. It’s not always that straightforward; indeed, it usually isn’t. This is the general principle they use however. 

Your Chance of Acceptance Off the Waitlist

Now that we’ve covered how this waitlist works in theory, let’s see how it actually functions in practice. This is somewhat difficult; most universities release their waitlist statistics via the , but Harvard chooses not to do so. They confirm that they do have a policy of waitlisting students, but give no indication how likely you are to get admitted once you’re on the waitlist.

This is annoying, but does make sense in a way. One thing we know well is that the number of students admitted off the waitlist varies wildly each year; this is true not just of Harvard, but at every college that makes use of a waitlist. This is counterintuitive, but makes sense with some additional examination of the factors at work.

The key point is that how many students are admitted off the waitlist depends on the decisions of hundreds of other people, namely all the students admitted to Harvard who must choose whether or not to attend. The more of them that head elsewhere for college, the more students get admitted off the waitlist; the more who stick with Harvard, the less admissions officers need to dip into the pool of waitlisted students.

Annoyingly, however, we have no idea how many students Harvard puts on the waitlist each year. Even if the number admitted varies, having a sense of the scale of the waitlist can still give you some information. Harvard, however, chooses not to release this information either, leaving us with nothing but conjecture. 

So what are your chances of acceptance off the waitlist? Uncertain, but using Harvard’s peers as a comparison, they are quite low, but highly variable. We are confident in saying acceptance rates off the waitlist are generally less than 10%, and some years much lower. More exact numbers, however, elude us.

What to do if You’re Waitlisted by Harvard

So the chances are uncertain, but are definitely somewhat low. In that case, what should you do if you’re waitlisted by Harvard to improve your chances? The first, and most important thing, is to accept your place on the waitlist. This is not automatic, and you must indicate to the school that you want to be considered. There is time to do this, but we recommend accepting your place as soon as you are waitlisted, so you don’t forget later.

Step two is to write a letter of continued interest. Harvard doesn’t have an official portal for these, as some other universities do, but they do accept them. These are of course optional, but as with most optional aspects of an application, they can greatly increase your odds if they are done well.

What is a letter of continued interest? Exactly what it sounds like; a letter meant to tell a particular college that has waitlisted you that you are still interested in attending. Not just that, but in fact that this college is and remains your first choice school, and you’ll definitely attend if you are admitted. 

On top of this, these letters are a place to update admissions officers on what you have done in the time that has elapsed since you applied. You should focus on major accomplishments; admissions officers don’t need to know every detail, but if you have significant achievements, then you should definitely update them. Here’s some examples of what that can include: 

• Publishing original research in a peer-reviewed journal, or presenting that research at a conference.
• Winning a major competition, like a science olympiad or a national debate tournament.
• A major achievement in an existing extracurricular, such as a major project completed in an internship.

These are not the only options of course, but give a sense of what you can talk about. Each of these should be tied to the options available at Harvard; if you won a debate tournament, you should then talk about how you want to join Harvard’s debate club. If you published research, you should talk about specific researchers at Harvard that you want to work with, or labs you want to join, or ongoing research projects you want to take part in.

The goal of this letter is to demonstrate that you and Harvard are natural fits for each other, not just that you really like the school (though of course you do), but that by attending Harvard, both you and the school will benefit greatly. Harvard isn’t just looking to admit the best and brightest; they already have a full selection of those. They want to select from among the best and brightest those students who will best prosper with what Harvard offers.

These letters should not discuss your grades; your school will send a transcript to Harvard in the mid-year and your final report card as well. You can include a sentence on your grades if you wish, but this is generally unnecessary. You should of course maintain stellar academic performance, but you don’t need to inform Harvard that you are doing so.

Finally, these letters should always specify that you will attend if admitted. Your praise for the school should be genuine, not effusive, but the reason schools admit students off the waitlist is to fill gaps left by students going elsewhere. If Harvard is going to admit you, they want to be sure you’ll say yes.

Timing on Harvard’s Waitlist

Harvard only starts admitting students off the waitlist after the May 1 reply deadline, once all of the students who were admitted early and in the regular round have made their call on whether or not to attend. Until this happens, they have no way of knowing how many seats they’ll need to fill off of the waitlist.

While you are waiting to hear back, you should submit a deposit for another school that accepted you, and move forward with plans to attend there. You should always expect the best of course, but plan for the worst. That way you’re safe in every eventuality, especially with how competitive acceptances off of Harvard’s waitlist are.

Finally, if there are schools that have admitted you that you know you won’t attend, you should withdraw your applications from them. They may not be your top schools, but they are for somebody, and the sooner you withdraw, the sooner some other stranger gets the letter they’re waiting for about an acceptance off the waitlist.

Final Thoughts

Harvard is an excellent college, with a well deserved reputation. It is also incredibly competitive for admissions, and this continues into admissions of the waitlist. That said, students can and do get into Harvard off the waitlist; the odds are long, but it isn’t an impossible thing.

We hope that this article has given you needed insight into how Harvard’s waitlist process works specifically, and what steps you can take to make sure you have the best chance of getting admitted if you’ve been waitlisted. College admissions is hard, but the more information you have to work with, the easier it becomes. If you want to work with an expert on your own college admissions process, or have more detailed questions about your application, then schedule a free consultation with us today, we’re always happy to hear from you.

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