I should preface this section by saying that I don’t intend for this to be a brag fest in which I encourage others to compare themselves to me or anyone else. I’m sure there are “less impressive...

Get comfortable. This is going to be a long article. I’ve thought about this piece for more than two years now. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I wrote a post entitled “Acceptance into elite...

College admissions is an increasingly complicated process, one with lots of moving parts that you’ll need to stay on top of. What follows is my method of organization, with the obvious disclaimer that...

Once you spend even a little time in the world of elite college admissions, you’ll inevitably come across the Holy Grail of prestige: the U.S. News & World Report rankings. People will refer to schools...

College admissions could be simple: send us your application by this deadline and we’ll get back to you. But we can’t have nice things, so instead we get a confusing hodgepodge of letters and numbers....

This guide contains tens of thousands of words about how to apply to college, but I’ve yet to directly address where to apply — or where to commit after receiving your decisions. This is a section...

You don’t need me to tell you that college is ridiculously expensive — and it’s only getting worse. In this section, I’ll run through some key terms and concepts regarding the financial side of...

At highly-selective institutions, the amount of qualified applicants far exceeds the number of available spots. The question then becomes how admissions offices should resolve this quandary. Rank students...

Chances are you will never find out the definitive reason why School A accepted you, but not School B. That’s because colleges are notoriously secretive about their admissions process, partly to avoid...

This portion of the guide focuses on various components of your application. Click through to learn more about the honors and activities sections, the personal essay, supplemental essays, test scores,...