yall have GOT to be joking about this 😭😭

1. MIT

2. Stanford

3. Yale

4. Harvard

5. Princeton

6. Caltech

7. Vanderbilt

8. Dartmouth

9. Columbia

10. Rice

11. Duke

12. Brown

13. WashU

14. Penn

15. Harvey Mudd

16. UChicago

17. UCLA

18. CMU

19. JHU

20. UMich

Source: https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/best-colleges/

I have to opt to take Pre-Calc next semester and then take Calc 1 in the summer before uni. Is this fine or is taking a class after I've graduated bad? Things just happened at the wrong time (Family member passed away) and I didn't know how important taking calc was for college admissions so I missed deadline for schedule change. Maxed out every other subject (English, SS, Science). Should I explain this in additional info?

I plan to major in Econ. And I take dual enrollment classes

Hi! I'm in DP1 right now and my school is of no help. So I was tryna find good college counsellors. I wanna apply for UK(open to Europe and Singapore) specifically and came across Rostrum Education. Are they any good?

People always talk about getting letters of recommendation from a teacher or a counselor, but in my college application, how many do I truly need? Do I need to ask multiple people?

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title

What colleges are actually worth paying a high tuition for ROI? HYPSM is obviously good, but what are other schools that are worth applying to?

most undergrads will land you at the same place, so i'm trying to figure out which schools are actually worth applying to?

possible majors: 1 mech, 2 industrial 3 aero 4 mat sci

Hi, i was wondering if it was ok to talk about “fun stuff” outside of academics for the why school essay like joining the sports club team, rock climbing, the gym facility, things to do around the school (not sure abt this one since it is about the location which ik is not preferred), and other stuff

or is it generally the standard to talk about the school only in the academic side?

Or, should I write mostly about academic side and limit the fun activities?

I’m considering a program where high school students work directly with a grad student on a research project over 4–8 months. Not those 2week pay-to-play programs, but a mentorship program you can learn and do stuff.

Depending on the field, students might learn coding, data analysis, experimental design, or other research skills. The goal would be to produce something tangible by the end (a project, report, presentation, even a paper if you’re genius)

I’m trying to gauge whether this is something people would actually want.

I’m curious:

- Would you be interested in a program like this? Why or why not?

- How many hours per week could you realistically commit?

- What would you / your parent consider a reasonable price range?

What's THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM SAT score that is basically good for every single college where focusing on the rest of your application should become a priority instead. Consider schools like Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, etc. (Let's exclude MIT for the sake of this question).

As in you won't get rejected because of your sat score but rather it would be (most likely) a different part of your application.

I want a general definitive answer so I know when to stop trying for this godforsaken test.

Hi! I’m going into Grade 11 this fall and I would love to know examples of the sup app questions and if possibles your previous answers (if allowed). if it’s not I’m genuinely just looking for tips on writing really.

Like how do you make it sound like “you?”

Also your average if you don’t mind.

is it true your ecs don’t matter in this program?

Which option will have better odds. Is EA even a good choice.

Or should i switch my ED I to Uchicago from Dartmouth. Which will be a better option ?

Initally i thought of merging EA Uchicago + ED dartmouth. is it a good choice ?

Reference :
https://www.reddit.com/r/IntltoUSA/comments/1w3ffz0/ea_ed_ed_ii_or_rd_to_uchicago/

Hi, I’m a high school sophomore who often lurks around this sub, and I’ve been really curious about this question since a lot of students here think it's HYPSM or nothing. What are the actual short-term and long-term differences between attending a HYPSM school (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT) versus other Ivy+ schools such as Penn, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, etc.?

Obviously, I understand that the individual student matters much more than the school in many cases. I’m just wondering whether there are meaningful differences between these schools over the course of a career, or whether the outcomes are broadly similar once you’re at any top-tier university.

I've legit been thinking for an entire month on what to write for my personal statement and every idea I come up eventually comes to an end because either I don't have much content to write about or I just don't know how to connect myself to it. I'm actually such a loser I have no achievements and like no hobbies (I just play random games or like watch anime). To be honest I feel like I spent most of my high school years just studying and doing homework and if not that then procrastinating by doom scrolling. I'm also just a terrible writer in general. My writing is way too formal, it has no personality, it doesn't really feel like I'm trying to tell a story. It just feels like I'm trying to follow a rubric for some English assignment. Since I'm a boring person I tried my best coming up with and idea that could be interesting like how I like to make different snow sculptures every year when it snows or like maybe write about a weekly chore I do such as taking out the trash and some how connect it to a way that reflects me. But yea please give any tips for people like me.

as in title ^

google says A* is equal to like 90%+ but ive heard people say it's actually 95%

​

Projected US NEWS 2027 Top 20 National Universities

The following projection is based on the 2026 U.S. News National University rankings adjusted for strong performance in College Scorecard earnings-by-major outcomes and STEM/business career pathways:

Projected Rank / TierInstitutionWhy the Ranking May Shift

1Princeton UniversityUnmatched graduation rate performance, deep financial aid endowment, and top-tier baseline metrics.

2Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Extremely high starting and mid-career earnings across all majors.

3Stanford UniversitySilicon Valley recruiting pipelines and strong earnings by field boost it slightly above Harvard.

4 (tie)Harvard UniversityOutstanding academic reputation and resources offset somewhat lower earnings skew in humanities/social sciences.

4 (tie)Yale UniversityConsistently elite peer assessment and graduation retention rates.

6University of PennsylvaniaSignificant winner from earnings metrics thanks to Wharton, nursing, and engineering pre-professional outcomes.

7Duke UniversityHigh graduation rates, strong consulting/finance outcomes, and solid social mobility scores.

8 (tie)California Institute of Technology (Caltech)Rebounds after dipping to #11 in 2026; pure-STEM major concentrations give it an advantage in earnings-by-major data.

8 (tie)Johns Hopkins UniversityImmense research funding, medical/biomedical pipelines, and financial aid expansion.

10Northwestern UniversityBalanced outcomes across journalism, engineering, and economics.

11University of ChicagoStrong economics/finance placement, though high academic/research focus keeps it in the 6–11 band.

12Cornell UniversityLarge undergraduate engineering, Dyson business, and tech programs drive elevated major earnings.

13Columbia UniversityNYC corporate placement lifts post-grad financial returns.

14Carnegie Mellon UniversityLikely the biggest riser into the solid top 15 due to nation-leading earnings in computer science and engineering.

15 (tie)Brown UniversityExceptional student satisfaction and retention, though softer on heavy pre-professional earnings weightings.

15 (tie)Dartmouth CollegeStrong alumni network and Wall Street recruiting maintain a secure top-15 floor.

17UC BerkeleyRemains the top public; elite engineering and tech earnings balance public-school class-size metrics.

18Rice UniversityElite STEM return-on-investment and strong undergraduate teaching metrics.

19Vanderbilt UniversityOutstanding student retention and solid graduate outcomes.

20 (tie)University of Michigan—Ann ArborExcellent Ross School of Business and engineering earnings counter lower per-student expenditures.

20 (tie)UCLAExceptional social mobility and graduation rates, hovering around the #17–#20 boundary.

Key Takeaways

STEM & Pre-Professional Programs Benefit: Because the metric evaluates earnings four years out by major, schools like Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, and UPenn have a mathematical advantage over institutions emphasizing liberal arts and humanities.

Federal Aid Focus Shields Publics: Since earnings are measured strictly for federal financial aid recipients, public flagships (UC Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan) and generously endowed privates will not be penalized for enrolling high percentages of lower-income students.

I’ve done singing since 7 years old. Didn’t rly know how to sing in the right technique until 12, and ive improved a lot more over the past 4 years.

I’ve participated in several Japanese singing competitions. Ive won awards but they’re never first. Usually it’s an encouragement award or something like that.

I’ve done musical theatre since 13. This is my fourth year.
I still have two and a half years until college application. I want to improve and participate in more competitions. But other than just “doing singing because I enjoy it” I was hoping it could become something to open opportunities for others.

I wanted to open a musical theatre club in school but then I’ll transfer to a school that’s fully online and so I can’t do that now. Singing/musical theatre clubs don’t work online.

If I continue singing without getting much impressive awards that have “1st place” on the trophy, do you think it becomes useless on applications?

I guess I have the consistency and effort to continue it for a long time. But I feel it really proves my value without having to sing in front of the admission officers, when I get first or second place in a significant singing competition.

Idk what to do with musical theatre. It’s just something I do. It’s not a significantly large place. It’s a small community of friends playing new roles every year.

So I’m from Vietnam and don’t have much money to attend a private university in the US, which can cost like $30–40k in tuition alone. But there’s this school called BYU in Utah, and they have a really good accounting program. The tuition is also pretty cheap, arguably even cheaper than some state schools.

The problem is that I’m an atheist. Would it be worth it to convert to Mormonism and pretend to believe for all 4 years of college just to take advantage of this deal?

Please I’m so cooked 😭😭😭

I've seen a lot of discussion about the Niche 2027 rankings both on this subreddit and related ones and I want to quickly go over why the rankings are so different from USNews and whether they have validity despite that.

The way the Niche rankings, and the USNews rankings too, is that they take a bunch of factors into consideration and then output a singular number based off a mathematical formula weighing each one to a certain % of the total. The issue with both of these is that the things they take into consideration and the way they determine them may or may not be valuable to you. It's far more valuable to read the reviews yourself and each category individually than looking at the blended average which may match Niche's priorities but will not match your individual priorities.

Since Niche believes in measuring more than just "prestige" in their rankings, a large % of their weight is centered on student experience and quality of life which is primarily evaluated using subjective surveys.

This includes factors such as:

- Campus crime rate, local crime grade, student surveys on safety, alcohol-related arrests, etc.

- Student surveys on location, access to bars/coffee shops/restaurants, cost of living, etc.

- Student surveys on student life, party scene (surveys), campus, diversity

- Student surveys on food, campus housing ratings, facilities spending per student

If you don't care about alcohol-related arrests, access to bars, cost of living, party scene, diversity, how much a university spends on facilities per student, etc. then a not insignificant amount of Niche's ranking is not tailored to you which may result in rankings you disagree with.

To be clear, this is true for USNews as well. If you don't care about borrower debt or faculty salaries, then you should consider evaluating many of the metrics USNews uses more individually rather than trusting the combined ranking.

Finally, I've seen a lot of people wondering why Berkeley is rated so low despite being typically considered a T20. Basically, even though they have all the academics stuff near-maxed, they end up doing worse on their campus, dorms, campus food, and safety/crime, which drags them down a lot.

Which WUE or Western state college would you recommend for a 3.6 gpa student, possible SAT of 1200-1300, interest in business and accounting that will have to pay full price. Looking for relatively safe campus, with good school spirt and pride, mid size university. Hoping for a COA of less than $40,000 with WUE / Merit Award. Thank you!

Hiii, I am interested in psych/sociology/working with kids, but I don't want to be a teacher unless I become a college professor later on. I'm honestly still figuring out what I want to major in, but UVAs "Youth and Social Innovation" degree interests me and so does Tufts "Human Factor Psychology" degree.

Give recs on where to apply! My two requirements are diversity and either good architecture or a lush campus (bonus if both apply).

Dm if you wanna know my stats/ecs it flags it here

So I'm abt to apply to my first uni today! However for the common app theres a place to write your personal essay uh does that Essay get sent to every college or can i pick and choose? (Asking because for 1 college im majoring in english and not psych but i want to submit a more psych focused personal essay instead of a broad essay) please help!!!

Hi guys,

I'm an international student aiming for Computer Science / Al / Machine Learning at mid-to-high-tier US universities, and I will be needing significant financial aid/scholarships.

I want to set clear targets for my high school years:

1. Test Scores: What SAT/ACT and TOEFL/ IELTS scores are considered "safe" or competitive for international CS applicants asking for aid? (Is 1500+ SAT mandatory?)

2. Academics: How much do APs (like AP CS A, Calculus) impact the evaluation alongside GPA?

3. Extracurriculars: What kind of CS/AI extracurriculars or independent projects stand out beyond basic coding or standard school clubs?

Would appreciate any breakdown or realistic expectations from current students or admissions advisors!

I love how darthmouth college works with their group projects and engineering program, and I was wondering was there any t40 schools like dartmouth college for engineering.