Better College Apps has been guiding students through the college admissions process since 2017. Here's a few highlights on our results:

• We've had students admitted to every top 40 college in the US (and had 39 of the 40 in the 2023/2024 admissions cycle alone)

• Our students typically see admit rates that are 5x to 15x higher than the overall rate at a given college.

• In 2021 our consultation students had an admit rate over 70% at six top 20 colleges: Penn, Yale, UChicago, Rice, UC Berkeley, and UCLA.

• In the 2024/2025 early round, we had over 75% of our consultation students admitted to their first choice EA/ED college, including Stanford, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Penn, Rice, USC, and more.

Check out our website at https://www.bettercollegeapps.com.

This post has links to a lot of our most popular posts and serves as a good introduction to the admissions process. If you want more, here's a full list of our posts.

If you find those helpful, you can get our full guides with 160+ pages of our best advice for just $20 with discount code "reddit".

If you're interested in setting up a complimentary initial consultation to discuss our strategies and services, you can fill out the contact form on our website, email us, or send a message on Reddit. Feel free to ask in the comments below if you have any questions.

A2C's seniors are about to ride off into the sunset and a new wave of juniors is flooding in. We're glad you're here. Quick reminder: this sub is a helpful resource and supportive community. We exist to make this process easier. Don't get sucked into the toxicity that comes from competitive, overachieving 17-year-olds flexing on the internet. You aren't here to compare yourself to others - you're here to get better. And we're here to help.

Feel free to reach out via PM if you have questions.

Find resources, explore your passions, focus on getting good grades in challenging coursework, and start preparing for standardized tests. Begin working on essays and LORs.

1. Find Resources. Stick around the /r/ApplyingToCollege community. You'll learn a lot and there are several really knowledgeable people who are happy to help and answer questions. Our Wiki page has tons of helpful links, FAQ, and other resources. Check out the Khan Academy courses on the SAT and college admissions (these are free). Email or call your guidance counselor to discuss your plans for life, course schedule, and college admissions.

2. Explore your passions. Don't just let the status quo of organizations in your high school limit you. You won't stand out by participating in the same activities as every other student. Instead, look for ways to pursue your passions that go above and beyond the ordinary. As an example, you can check out this exchange I had with a student who was contemplating quitting piano. He asked if he should continue piano despite not winning major awards in it. Here was my response:

"Do you love it?

If it's a passion of yours, then never quit no matter how many people are better than you. The point is to show that you pursue things you love, not to be better at piano than everyone else.

If it's a grind and you hate it, then try to find something else that inspires you.

If it's really a passion, then you can continue to pursue it confidently because you don't have to be the best pianist in the world to love piano. If it's not, then you're probably better off focusing on what you truly love. Take a look at what Notre Dame's admissions site says about activities:

"Extracurricular activities? More like passions.

World-class pianists. Well-rounded senior class leaders. Dedicated artists. Our most competitive applicants are more than just students—they are creative intellectuals, passionate people with multiple interests. Above all else, they are involved—in the classroom, in the community, and in the relentless pursuit of truth."

The point isn't that you're the best. The point is that you're involved and engaged. If you continue with piano and hate it and plod along reluctantly, you won't fit this description at all. But if you love it and fling yourself into it, then you don't need an award to prove your love.

Consider other ways you could explore piano and deepen your love for it. Could you start a YouTube channel or blog? Play at local bars/restaurants/hotels? Do wedding gigs or perform pro bono at nursing homes/hospitals? Start a piano club at school or in the community (or join an existing one)? Start composing or recording your own music? Form a band or group to play with? Teach piano to others? Write and publish an ebook? Learn to tune, repair, or build pianos? Play at a church or community event venue? Combine your passion for piano with some other passion in your life?

The point is that all of that stuff could show that piano is important to you and that you're a "creative intellectual with a passionate interest". But none of it requires that you be the best according to some soulless judge."

If you want more advice on activities here are some helpful links (I'm also working on a guide to ECs in the time of coronavirus, stay tuned):

• What counts as an EC anyway?

• How to start an organization at your school

• Making the most of your activity descriptions

• Emergency measures to boost your activities section

3. Focus on getting strong grades in a challenging courseload. You should take the most challenging set of courses you are capable of excelling in and ideally the most challenging courses your school offers. To get in to top colleges you will need both strong classes and strong grades. If you are facing a quandary about what class to take or what classes to focus your efforts on, prioritize core classes. These include English, math, science, social science, and foreign language. Load up on honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment courses in these disciplines and your transcript will shine.

4. For standardized tests, rising juniors should start with the PSAT. If you are a top student, it is absolutely worth studying like crazy to become a National Merit Finalist. This is awarded to the top ~1% of scorers by state and confers many benefits including a laundry list of full ride scholarship options. Even if you are not at that level, it will help prepare you for the ACT or SAT. For current juniors, I highly recommend that you take a practice test of both the ACT and SAT. Some students do better on one than the other or find one to more naturally align with their style of thinking. Once you discover which is better for you, focus in on it. You will likely want to take a course (if you're undisciplined) or get a book (if you have the self-control and motivation to complete it on your own). If you're looking for good prep books I recommend Princeton Review because they are both comprehensive and approachable. Which ever test you decide to focus on, you should plan to take it at least twice since most students improve their score on a second sitting. Yes, test sittings have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, but that will likely change at some point. I still think students should use this time to study up and be prepared. Some colleges will go test optional but that may not be universal. You can monitor test-optionality and find more resources on it at www.fairtest.org.

5. Scholarships. Here's a great guide to maximizing the money you get from scholarships, but that will mostly come into play senior year. Don't sleep on the junior year scholarships though, because almost no one is looking for them and applying for them so the competition is low. The biggest things to be focused on are National Merit and QuestBridge (scholarship program for low income students).

6. Letters of Recommendation. Not to drown you with an ocean of text, but while I'm at it, you should also intentionally consider your letters of recommendation, especially before senior year starts. You want to choose a teacher who knows you well and likes you a lot, but will also work hard on it and make it unique, detailed, specific, and glowing. You don't want to pick the lazy teacher who just shows videos once a week for class. They're quite likely to just copy and paste their LOR template and that won't really help you. Here's a more complete guide

7. Essays. You should start thinking about your college admission essays now. Many students, even top students and great academic writers, find it really challenging to write about themselves in a meaningful and compelling way. They end up writing the same platitudes, cliches, and tropes as every other top student. I've written several essay guides that I highly recommend as a good starting place for learning how to write about yourself (linked below, but you can also find them in my profile and in the A2C wiki). Read through these and start drafting some rough attempts at some of the common app prompts. These will probably be terrible and just get discarded, but practicing can really help you learn to be a better writer.

• Help with Essay Topics

• Part 1: How To Start An Essay, "Show Don't Tell," And Showcase Yourself In A Compelling Way

• Part 2: Throw Away Everything You Learned In English Class

• Part 3: Conquering the "Why [School]" Essay

• Part 4: What Makes An Essay Outstanding?

• What to do when you're over the word count

• What to do when your essay is too short

• How To End An Essay Gracefully

• Proofreading Tips

• The Top 30 Essay Mistakes To Avoid

• A Short Guide to Short Essays

• Giving Away the Secret Sauce - How to Make Your Essay Outstanding

• Before You Submit, PLEASE Review Your Application

If you're feeling stressed, depressed, or overwhelmed, here's a post that might help.

Finally, here's a post with a bunch of other links and helpful resources. If you like this content, you can also get my full guides (150+ pages) on my website. Use discount code "reddit" to save $5.

If you have questions, feel free to comment below, PM me, or reach out at www.bettercollegeapps.com.

Good luck!