<aside> 📢 US Colleges are trying to figure out how exceptional & impactful of a person you are through you High School (UK Years 10-12) record. They want to pick students that will make the best use of the uni, and also also help take the uni to greater heights - both parties win. Now, who **is the best applicant to do this?

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No one knows how they got in.

This is the most genuine answer to this question. No one knows how they got in unless they have Application Review document from the University. Out of the thousands of people I know that went to American unis, only 1 person has that. Everyone else is making thier best guess. And some people aren’t great at thinking - they will comflate reasoning and arrive at poor conclusions or apply imperfect logic to calculate what the Getting In method is.

Other than that one girl, no-one knows exactly what parts of the application the admissions office liked or not, and how much it was rated. All we can do is a large and complex pattern recognition exercise. Prospective students to Ivy League colleges like to ask the statistics of those that made it into Ivies. This can be useful, but also understanding the reality that people with the strongest Activities and Grades get rejected in the thousands from Columbia helps one instantly wake up to that fact that this cannot be the method. This is not the common thing amongst the 3.5% of admitted students… so what is?

So what’s the method?

What is almost never asked and rolled into the average evaluation of Stats That Got Me Into X is the Essays and Reccomendation Letters. We are not seeing the brillance that lies there. By a process of elimination, the Esssay and LORs have to be the stronger indicator of success in the admissons process! The essay is the most important part of your application. See here for how to write a good essay: The Common Application. But finish this page first.

The US admission process gauges your ability to:

1. Handle the academic rigor at the uni*.* Which is why you’ve got to have great grades alongsiede handling multiple responsibilities, which is what you will be doing at college.
2. Be intellectually curious, shown through your ECs, projects, research, writing, research, ball juggling, sports, whatever. This is very different from having straight A’s/A*’s - this proves a strong ability to handle hard concepts and 2) follow rules) and maybe 3) study effectively. Being intellectually curious is asking questions, being introspective and creating new ideas/solutions.
3. Be a success in life. How strong is you ability to effect change and succeed, using what resources you have? They say they want students that will 'change the world', a lot. This is why you **show that you're resourceful - your ability to make lemonade from lemons. Because resourcefulness is a common trait of world-creators, industry-creators, and change-makers. Do you make change in your community currently? Are you a powerful person? they want to you come to the university and do things that impact the world and people,

Their understanding: “What Jess will do at school… she will do at university.”

Think like an admissions officer.

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These are questions they ask themselves as they read through your application:

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• Is this student exceptional?

• Does this student do more than get ‘A’s and do more than what they’re told? Does this student only follow assigned responsibilities?

• Does this student go out of their way to pursue their passions and what they believe to be important? - do they use thier agency?

• Does this student go out of their way to effect change?

• Is the world better off with this student? Is this student’s school/community a better place with them there? Will this campus be a better place with them on it??

• Have I seen this type of applicant before?

• Which of these two students do I admit? Who will benefit more? Who is a better investment?

• Do I give this spot to a US Citizen or this International student?

• Does this student have politician potential? (Top applicants will have competed and won debate competitions, and will be involved in student government, or have worked with local politicians.)

• Does this student have leader/CEO potential? (Top applicants will have started a business or 3.)

• Does this student have software start-up founder potential? (Top applicants will have created an app or have a few cool side projects.)

• Does this student have Nobel Laureate potential? (Top applicants will have done a research internship or have officially published some work.)

• Does this student work hard?

• Does this student challenge themself?

• Does this student’s teachers’ comments reflect who the student says they are?

• Is this student self-motivated? Are they resilient? Are they dimplomatic? Are they kind?

Ideally, you want to tick all these boxes. Most people who get into your dream colleges don’t tick all the boxes… so how do they get in? They exhibited traits that signalled excellence - this is all.

Signalling Excellence.

You don’t need ****to have published research **as an aspring physicist, it’s just one strong signal that you are exceptional. Exceptional has many different definitons and there are 1000 of them in every admitted Class to Stanford. One of them is sharing knowledge with people through teaching, another is making people feel emotionally included and safe in group settings. Most people with affinity for(1) and prowess(2) in physics seek(1) and land(2) top internships before college. The published research (or maybe internship) is just decent correlation to exceptional nature, not a causation towards it. There are 1000 ways that an affity and prowess for physics can be surfaced in the application - that can even be through analogies in the literary world. Excellence is a justified Whatever You Want It To Be. Define for yourself, understand where you have it and don’t, then just honestly reflect in yor applications. Some word on the internet is about wanting ‘well-rounded’ applicants - this is not defined as having your hand in all academic pots - it’s more having an appreciation for the value of things outside what you understand. Like a Physicist having an appreciate of Art.

Reflect on you, your life and the experiences to hone in on your signals - then make sure you display them in your application.

Here is a superficial example of your competition for top universities

You don’t need to be a prodigy or an engineering genius to get into Ivy League/MIT.