Ahsan Gardezi
The 8 Ivy League colleges had 281,000 applicants for the academic calendar 2021. From among those applicants, less than 10% got admission offers – Harvard accepted their new cohort at a dismal 5% acceptance rate! It’s clear that getting into these colleges is an impressive achievement. So, what is the right way to prepare for the Ivy League Colleges?
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We’ve designed this article in a way that filters out most of the student searches from the outset. Grades are the most important factor in admissions. Course rigor is also extremely important. Schools look to see if students are challenging themselves and still succeeding.
- Test scores are just as important. Students who lack scores in line with Ivy standards will be sent right to the ‘no’ pile, unless they have some other achievement that helps them stand out!
- Institutional Need applications are considered once you fulfil the first bullet^
- Just having a high GPA or SAT score won’t get you into an Ivy League school, however — most highly intelligent and qualified students get rejected. In order to get admitted, you’re going to need to show that you’re not just smart, but special, too.
The Rules To Follow | The Right Way To Prepare For The Ivy League Colleges
Follow Your Passion
Find your passion and let it drive you.
It doesn’t necessarily matter if a student is doing athletics, community service, academic clubs or anything else. What’s primitive is why a student is choosing to do those activities, and what they got out of it.
- Have they learned time management skills, leadership, teamwork, discipline?
- How have they grown as a person?
- What qualities will they bring to respective campuses?
Ivies are looking to admit “specialists” who focus on a few core interests for all four years of their extracurriculars during school.
- Students should focus on what they love instead of joining a bunch of random clubs that they don’t care about. Why? Because admissions readers see right through that!
- Being genuine is what will make you stand out.
Simply put: Future Ivy League students have lives outside the classroom!
Disclaimer: There is no secret formula to gaining admission to an Ivy League college. You just have to understand what they’re looking for.
Apply-Early Decision | Early Action | The Right Way To Prepare For The Ivy League Colleges
Applying this way significantly boosts your chances of getting into one of the Ivies. You only get to apply early-decision for one school, though, so choose carefully.
We encourage students to apply early only if they are ready, and if they will enrol when accepted.
If a student is accepted under ED, he or she must withdraw from all other schools. Moving forward, you indirectly proclaim to officially withdraw from other pending university applications.
The Early Decision/Action acceptance rates for the class of 2021 show how much better ED/EA applicants’ chances are:
- Brown: 21.9% compared to 9%
- Columbia: N/A for early decision/action; regular acceptance rate was 6.04%
- Cornell: 25.6% compared to 12.5%
- Dartmouth: 27.8% compared to 10.4%
- Harvard: 14.5% compared to 5.2%
- UPenn: 22.0% compared to 9.2%
- Princeton: 15.4% compared to 6.1%
- Yale: 17.1% compared to 6.9%
Have Qualities That Compliment Your Application
According to various international admission experts, top universities want students who are willing to give back to society.
Ivy League institutions and other top colleges looks to fill their campuses with impactful individuals. Here’s the trick about getting this one right:
- Whatever school you’re attending right now – or intend to do so – plan on establishing good relationships.
- Be more interactive with the teaching and custodial faculties, and try blending in a mix of sharing food, or having water-cooler conversations.
- Don’t be nice just because an Ivy League College requires it. Be nice because it’s the right thing to do.
For reference, here’s a little case in point for you to get a basic idea:
A letter of recommendation from a high school custodian helped one student get into Dartmouth, according to a piece in the New York Times. The letter noted that the applicant was the only student who knew the names of every janitorial staff member and would help custodians with menial tasks like turning lights off in empty rooms and cleaning up after other students.
The custodian who wrote that recommendation pointed out that the student would do these things when no one was watching.
How can someone predict which of today’s 17- and 18- year olds will develop into tomorrow’s world-changers? The key is to be genuine.
Exactly What’s Going On Here?
Now Pakistan doesn’t quite exhibit such interactive personifications of student-faculty relationships. Honestly, there isn’t much to say regarding this here (you’re welcome to negate this notion!).
However, if you study at elite schools like Aitchison or Beaconhouse Newlands – LHR and ISB – then you might be able to provide a different story.
This might just be another take-a-hint logic for most readers, but unfortunately it’s true. Another way to get into Ivy colleges is if you attend an elite school with a state-of-the-art teaching faculty, and an international recognition. Here’s why:
- Elite schools make students go through the grind – there’s a lot of community service and interactive events like parliamentary debates.
- There’s a trend for sending the top-tier students on foreign exchange programs to develop and test their skills in unfamiliar places. If you get through this one, you get accepted anywhere.
- Recommendations from the teaching and custodial faculties are a huge catalyst for acceptance at colleges like Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown.
Stay Brilliant | Enunciate!
Exceptional grades in rigorous courses and excellent standardized test scores are predictors of academic potential.
In terms of academics, the majority of Ivy League students are a stellar bunch. Colleges want to make sure that students who are accepted can handle the academic workload, and the best way to assess that future is through past achievements.
Now it isn’t compulsory that you must have straight A’s, but your transcript should not be riddled with B’s and C’s (unless you have a valid explanation). The average SAT score is about 1500 for most of these schools. However, many applicants have perfect GPAs and standardized test scores. You certainly want to aim for scores within the middle range of an Ivy League school to give yourself a legitimate shot.
If you fall short on a few grades, what’s the next best thing that compliments your case?
To demonstrate well-roundedness in terms of productivity and day-to-day learning, students have to get involved in a variety of activities.
Ivy League schools want students who have shown in-depth passion in an activity, ideally over a number of years, because it represents genuine commitment and offers insight into what the student may pursue on their campuses. For instance, exceptional students in the West have founded non-profits, written code and developed apps, and published works of fiction/non-fiction.
In Pakistan, breaking national athletic records is somewhat more common to hear about. Whatever the case may be, we’re trying to establish an important point to consider here.
Usually, these students are exceptional because they love what they do.
It is imperative that you find what you love and pursue it as deeply as possible!
Work That Essay | The Most Important One
The essay is one of only two places where the student can tell universities exactly who they are, in their own words. (The other place is the interview!)
Applicants should write about something not found anywhere else in the application. It’s a chance to show what they’re interested in, what their passions are, and what’s important to them.
Be yourself; keep it simple. In many cases, the best essays – or personal statements – are the simplest ones. Remember: Admission Officers are real people. They want to laugh, empathize and develop a professional relationship with the next cohort of accepted students.
Imagine A Place Where You Belong | The Right Way To Prepare For The Ivy League Colleges
Be special, kind and unique. There are many more ways to go about this one, but we’ve tried to bring to light the best possible steps for you to consider. For instance, we could’ve mentioned something about consulting firms, but we didn’t. It isn’t always the matter of going through the right mode; rather students should try to be original.
Students who are unashamedly themselves will almost always stand out in a crowd. People are drawn to reliability and trustworthiness, and colleges are no different in this regard. It can be difficult to express your true self amid recurrent complications in life. However, going beyond these complications will yield a rewarding experience!
Much of your personal character flows through your college essays, interviews, and recommendations. It goes without saying that you’ll really want to nail these aspects of your college applications.
You have complete control over what you write about in your essays, so let your voice shine through and write about topics that you genuinely want to share with others. Authenticity is infectious, and colleges appreciate students who bring this quality to the table!
Top schools like Ivies always aim to attract the top cream. Aspire to be at such a place!
This article was all about learning the right way to prepare for the Ivy League Colleges. If you have any questions, leave a comment in the section provided below.
Good luck!
