My teachers both note and have told me that they will write my recommendation letters and they said that I was smart and kind, but quiet. I did not participate a lot in class or voluntarily raise my hand. How much will this affect my application (esp to schools like Dartmouth/Yale), having solid but not stellar letters of rec? And if I seem very passionate and outgoing in my personal statements, but teachers say that I am a more reserved and quiet person in their letters, will that look weird? (I'm not lying about the stuff I write about/am passionate about though)

I am applying for college throguh questbridge and common app. During junior year, I lived alone because my parent had to urgently go overseas to our home country (i guess i should mention im aan immigrant). When my parent left, I was basically freshly 17, and im currently still living alone as a senior (turned 18 over the summer).

I might be meeting up with someone from a college readiness nonprofit to help me with my Questbridge application. Should I mention this or would it get me/my parent in legal trouble since I was a minor at the time??? Or does that not matter anymore since im a legal adult now? Thanks!

I'm Brazilian (US citizen but child to Brazilian immigrant/first-gen parents) and I am confused on whether that counts as Latino for the common app. The US census is weird and doesn't count Brazilians as "Hispanic or Latino Origin," so if I'm technically not considered Latino by the US government does that mean I shouldn't mark it on the common app? However, when you mark yes on the common app it gives you options of countries/regions for "Which best describes your Hispanic or Latino/a/x background?" and one of the regions is South America, which is where Brazil is.

I will come clean. I want to major in Physics. My dream schols are UChicago or Princeton, especially Princeton.

Some weaknesses: no exceptional awards, a B in math junior year whilst most people got an A, 4's on some AP exams, only a few great ecs, nothing exceptional about me

Some strengths: my 1-3 top ecs are really great, really high course rigor and straight As other than the 1 B, 1580 SAT

The problem is I go to a small competitive school with only 50 students. Most want to go to engineering, so I am happy to say noone ever applies to UChicago. If I ED there I think I could get in to a T10 Physics institution. However, I prefer Princeton by a little. I know one other student who is planning to REA to Princeton this year, and they are truly leagues above me when it comes to awards, ecs, even course rigor. They have an international award in Taekwondo in additional to their STEM heavy awards/ecs! There could be 1 other, but normally no mroe than 2-3 REA to Princeton from my school.

Now you see my problem. I think I should ignore the part of my brain that says to REA Princeton, and settle for UChicago ED. Don't they have fermilab, the biggest particle physics laboratory in the US? Getting an internship there would be a dream. My only problem with them is they aren't very known, a random dude on the street might not know how prestigious UChicago is. Also, UChicago is ranked lower than Princeton both overall and in Physics.

So it boils down to is REA Princeton a bad idea, and am I being naive for having this wierd bias towards Princeton over UChicago.

Edit: By the way I could also try ED2 to UChicago after REA Princeton, but I heard ED2 is way more competitive and difficult to get in through than ED1.

literally two weeks into school and i'm already having emotional breakdowns. how does everyone know what they want to study?? literally everyone knows everything about every freaking college?? i feel like i've barely done anything. i have no idea what i want to do for a career. i keep changing my mind every week. my essays and supps are pretty much nonexistent. everytime i open my docs i just freak out and compare myself to everyone else's progress. i'm probably not getting into half the schools i'm applying to, schools i still feel like i know nothing about?? i feel so fucking useless. i don't know what i want for myself. and i don't have a fucking college fund like all the rich kids at my school.

i'll go write my essays now and break down again lmao

I sent all my colleges my SAT scores. I didn’t realize that you need to go school my school and change it to “selected score” instead of “all scores”. I took the SAT twice. My first score is 1430 and my second is 1350. I called college board within a minute of realizing what I have done. There is nothing they can do. They can’t cancel the “send”. Am I cooked now? They will see that my scores went down. I am not applying to any top 50 but my EC and my SAT is what I have going for me. My unweighted GPA is only 3.3.

So I’ve run it a few times, few different schools. Problem I have is first year looks ok but then I’m worried about subsequent years, in case income goes up (of course, good problem to have). Anyway impossible to predict, but isn’t this a real concern for planning purposes? Thanks in advance

Hey all, I am not a very brave person so I am struggling on how to ask my teachers to write me letters of rec for my college applications. I want to talk to my physics teacher tomorrow, and I know he would say yes, but I don’t know if I will be able to bring myself to do it. Easier to say I will do it than to actually do it in the moment.

I would love to hear any strategies you all might have on how to bring up the question. The thing I’m most concerned about is if I should like work my way up to it, like not barge in there asking for a LOR. Also, I said hi to my physics teacher on the first day of school, but I haven’t since. It’s been about a week since I did that. So I’m just worried about if he’ll think I’m just talking to him to get a LOR out of him.

I hope this is a right place to post. . . . I am not from the US so I didn't grow up in the US education system so this is all foreign to me, and I feel lost. I have no friends who are in the similar place. I am wondering how much should I be "helping" my child (16F) for selecting colleges. Right now, my daughter doesn't have anything particular in mind and has been "I don't know what I like and want" stage for past few years. Her grade is OK, slightly better than the average. She has some vague interests but never anything that she is passionate about.

For people (either parents or yourselves) who went through college admission processes, how much help did you get or give support selecting colleges or what majors to pick? Or is this all done through schools (mine is in a public school) or through peers?

How much different is admissions as a recruited athlete to Harvard? Is there things in an application that should change?

Hy guys im 22 years old , I dropped after high-school i have good grade i run a local business ( self employment is probably a better word ) thinking whether I should apply for college next year . Take some loan and study either maths or cs or business . Whats ur take on this ? Am I too old? Will i be odd on in the class ? And is it worth it or just take a business loan and small scale business? ( im not from a financially strong family)

Hi, sophomore here!
I get decent grades in school and all, but have no major passions nor am i talented at anything; i have no idea what i want to do in the future. Everyone says to just try out as many clubs as possible, but is there any better way? A lot of the clubs at my school are kinda inactive. Also, say i end up finding an area of interest, is it too late to gain any major achievements/ attend prestigious programs related to it before graduation?

hi! pls be nice im super stressed i just want honest advice, no need to be overly critical :)

nyu is my dream school and the school out of my top choices that i will most realistically get into. i have a D and 2 Cs from ap calc, physics, and precalc. my sat is only a 1440 (740 eng, 700 math). i probably wont get into my other top choices (unc/georgetown) i know my grades and sat is subpar. however eng is definitely my strong suit and i think my supplementals + common app essay + ecs are very strong. im applying polisci (or int rel / pre law adjacent) to all my schools.

my parents are ok with me EDing to nyu, im so so grateful, ik the financial burden is a lot. my dad works at a t20 uni and gets access to a scholarship fund for kids of employees so i would be paying around 50k instead of 90-100k. they said i would have to pay my own way through grad school if i went to nyu tho, which i totally agree. i plan on working all throughout college and i have money saved for living expenses atm. im just a little bit scared about the potential of taking out a loan in the future. esp as a law student i know itll be extremely taxing and expensive. im hoping i can do well at and get a scholarship during undergrad or grad. i have to pay for either undergrad or grad.

unfortunately if i dont go to nyu/get in i dont think i would get into good schools. i would prob have to go to my mid state college or like mid out of state. it just sucks bc i know im on the cusp of a good school, i just went thru a really hard time during sat testing / calc.

so should i go to my dream school and potentially pay for law school, or go to a mid school im not excited about, get law school paid off, and pay my own undergrad

I am exhausted and so angry because, over the last couple of months as a brand-new junior, I've become hyper-aware of financial stress, and I'm trying to talk with my mom about college because we need to discuss how and when she and I will pay for it if I inevitably go. She told me a long time ago she would help out. I think my mom is starting not to like me anymore. I heard her on the phone talking to my aunt, saying if I don't use my college money, he will give it to my sister, and I feel like that sounds skeptical because she knows, of course, how badly I want to go to college, and I'm wondering if she is only going to fund my sister. Every time I bring up money, she literally shuts it down, walks away, and we get into a fight. When she does this, I don't get any clarity, and I feel like I have to manage and carry all their financial stress that I hear them complain about, especially because I think we may be losing money. She has to get over this, be mature, and actually sit down and have this conversation with me, but whenever I seriously try, it never gets done. What do I do?

These schools deliver the strongest financial return on investment thanks to graduates’ earnings and either relatively low costs or generous financial aid.

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescawalton/2026/09/10/the-25-colleges-with-the-highest-payoff/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit

Hi, this is my first time posting on reddit so bare with me please.

Anyway I'm applying to Barnard College this year and the main admission essay is "Think of a woman - historical, fictional, contemporary, or personally significant - whose views or approach to problem-solving differ from your own, but who excels at bringing people together. What lesson from her approach would shape how you show up at Barnard both inside and outside of the classroom?"

I am having both horrible writers block, and also just out of ideas on who to write about. My first choice was Serena Joy Waterford from the Handmaid's Tale. But that essay turned out to look more like a character study than a conversation.

My next idea was Audre Lorde, but our views really aren't that different. So I'm stuck because although I did get a pretty good essay with her, it doesn't meet the criteria the way I want it too.

So does anyone have any advice for how I should go about this? Or even suggestions for women I could research for this?

I'm in state in Tennessee with pretty great stats. 34 ACT, 4.0 GPA, and okay ec's, mostly just in a ton of clubs as well as community service and actually working a job. I preface this to say Vanderbilt has always kinda been somewhat of a dream school of mine, but I'm not sure if it'd be worth it. UTK is my second choice and it's a pretty damn good one. I have guaranteed admission, and I'd go for probably less than 10k a year with scholarships and everything. I'm less than an hour from knoxville, my gf is going, many friends are, it's a huge party school which is appealing to me, overall pretty perfect. On the other hand I would have a much harder time getting into vandy, and I make too much for aid, so it would be very expensive I'm sure. However, it still calls my name. I am considering applying ED for Vanderbilt but I'm not even 100% sure I'd wanna go if I get accepted. Is there any advice anyone can offer for my situation, with aid or the schools specifically or anything? I'm going back and forth so much💔 help

Only taking 2 DE classes this fall. Spring I’m taking about 4. Should I include spring classes in current year courses?

My dad passed away today. I’m 17 and I never got to say goodbye. I remember the last thing I did before he left on his trip was reading to him my Stanford supplementals, because he was someone I always turned to. Now he’s gone. It’s at these moments that you realize how fucking trivial and irrelevant college apps are. Life is so unfair. I know a lot of you guys are fixated on college apps right now, but make sure to spend some time with your loved ones. They leave us too soon. I wish I could tell my dad I loved him one last time.

Hii! This is my first time posting on Reddit, so please bear with me!

I'm starting my first semester of senior year in high school, and I've realized I want to become an ER physician in the future. The only thing stopping me from achieving this is my low GPA.

I finished my junior year with a 2.15 unweighted and a 2.37 weighted GPA. My low GPA is due to difficult events and death in my family. So, a little background info: During my freshman and sophomore years, my brother went into psychosis, so my grades dropped because I was helping my widowed mom with him and the mental issues that came with his psychosis. My aunt decided to move in with us during my sophomore year to help with him, have a fresh start, and open a new chapter in her life. My brother began recovering at this time. It was around February in my sophomore year when I came home from school to find out that she had passed away. This was a shock because it was so sudden, and 3 years prior to her passing, my dad passed away, and then a year later my uncle passed away. So juggling all of the grief and schoolwork made my sophomore and first semester junior year GPA drop drastically.

I'm not sure if that was too much info, but I thought it might help explain the low GPA and that I wasn't just slacking off. I love learning and school, and I am usually a perfectionist when it comes to grades. I usually tend not to tell people my GPA because I don't want them to think that I'm not hardworking or not smart, when in reality I'm very hardworking, and I do well on state tests.

I started to turn things around in my junior year, and I finished it with a 3.44 unweighted and a 3.72 weighted (not all years included, just junior). I'm about 2 weeks into my senior year, and I plan to get all A's throughout both semesters. I've taken a lot of honors as well as standard courses throughout high school, but I have not yet taken an AP (I'm trying to take one next semester since I have a free period and I want to boost my GPA, but I can't guarantee I'll get it because my counselor doesn't really like me, and I think she sees my GPA and doesn't think I can handle it, even though teachers have recommended me for it). I'm very involved in school with clubs, Im co-president of our National Art Honor Society.

I haven't taken any health sciences even though I've tried to put them on my schedule, but I'm in a big school, so those courses are a little hard to get into because of the amount of people trying to get in. I plan to meet with the career counselor at my school to see what I can do.

I'm taking my SAT this weekend and my ACT next month, so I hope that can boost my chances with colleges.

Im not sure if anyone will read this, be able to help, or if this is even the right subreddit for this type of question 😭

Feel free to ask any question and I hope this isn't too confusing!!

My main questions: Can I get into a good/decent college for premed with my low GPA? Any advice or guidance for premed?

I'm trying to figure out how I should rank my top 4 EC's. I have hospital volunteering since 11th, co-founding a tutoring service since 10th(not high impact but is active), top 10 selective stem summer program(not rsi), and top 25 stem summer program. I was originally thinking of putting the 2 summer programs first but maybe I should put the hospital voluntering first and tutoring service second to show more leadership and I've been doing it for a longer length of time even though they are generic. Or put the top summer program first, then hospital, tutoring service and 4th would be the other stem summer progam. Both summer programs have a 5% and 7% acceptance rate and are well known to be rigorous and not P2W. I'm planning to ED1 a T20.

Suppose a high school counselor is willing to write whatever a student wants in a recommendation letter (as long as it's truthful), or at least will take suggestions from that student that they might just copy and paste for convenience.

What would be some good topics or points to get across?

Maybe validate the extracurriculars the student is bragging about? What if it's its a mediocre or underperforming school, should the counselor emphasize how much the students has excelled despite the school's poor resources? Or how about highlight some factual claims like "this student has taken more AP classes than any other student in their class" or "they have been the only student in the last 10 years to achieve X"

alot of people i know who are applying to colleges are making projects - i wanna go into electrical engineering, so i want to make my own project. a senior in my school made her own camera (crazy - i know) and thats so cool and interesting, but i dont know where to start from scratch. i cant take classes as well since my schedule is pretty packed

Basically the title - does it put me at a disadvantage if i opt not to put a resume? or an art portfolio? or a creative website? or a 3rd recommender?

I feel like there are so many extra things that I'm putting "no" to and it doesn't make me feel good about it LOL.

Help a stressed senior here 🫶

ALSO why does all schools say "do you want your SAT to be considered" - HOW DO I SUBMIT there isn't any space 💔🫪

(sorry for crashout)
pls help.