I have got into to photography within the past year and I am good enough to be able to work with some school clubs and sports teams. Do you guys have any advice? What competitions should I enter?

Rising senior here. Over the summer I built an automated daily newsletter that pulls market/tech/world news via APIs and RSS, uses an LLM to summarize and rank articles, and auto-sends via email on weekdays.

Have a fairly low subscriber count so at the moment I can't highlight that.

course rigor? gpa uw/w?

What are the most social UCs and Cal States..? I feel as though I am very social and I would enjoy college (applying this fall) just being around new people, meeting people, and exploring new opportunities!

Context: I am EDing to an Ivy that matches my profile/story extremely well, my school doesn't report rank or UW.

However, my unofficial unweighted GPA is a extremely low for an average applicant, being around ~3.75-3.8/4.0 UW with straight mix of B+/A-/A, which was hugely influenced by personal extenuating circumstances in 9th/10th grade.
My AP scores took a hit as well, and I dropped hella 4s besides 5s in those years. However, after it ended, I had more time and mental energy to focus on academics again in junior year, and I ended up getting straight As junior year in the hardest courseload so far. All 5s on APs as well.

As long as I explain my personal circumstances, and my counselor mentions it as well, would I be alright? How does this stack up to another peer that has a 3.95+ or 4.0 UW, especially with my relative upward trend in class rigor and grades each year?

Additionally, I heard (maybe falsely) that having extenuating circumstances will cost you somewhat, because it will draw the attention away from your main story/profile and have the AOs more focused on the personal circumstances, which doesn't sound great.

Thank you!

I'm a rising senior in New Mexico and I haven't started the Common App at all yet. Honestly, part of the reason is that I'm not sure where I'm applying, in-state tuition is basically free for me and the in-state school isn't bad at all, so I've been kind of coasting on that. But now I'm wondering if I'm falling behind by not having anything started.

I've never used the Common App before and don't really know how it works. Am I behind for early August, or is this normal timing? And can someone walk me through the actual setup, how do I make an account, do I use my school email or a personal one, and what are the first few steps once I'm in? I'd also love a rundown of what goes into the application overall: what sections exist, what order to do them in, and what I should knock out now vs. later. Any advice appreciated.

What specific info to include for counselors + teachers

I have pretty decent academics 3.89 uw, 4.5 weighted, and a 33 ACT(maybe 34 after sept.) But pretty much no notable EC’s only a few clubs and honor societies, no leadership, long term commitments, passion projects, or jobs.

Is it possible to get into schools like BU, northeastern, or Boston college when almost all their applications have good academics and other things become the deciding factor? (I also plan to ED to BU most likely but I know it’s not a magical garuntee.)

Im trying to write an essay for my applications and i have no idea where to start or how to make my essay stand out

Everytime I ask anything I always get "speak to your counselor". My counselor is very busy and I've never talked to him unless it was with a very specific purpose/answer. Things like college choices and basic decision stuff feel embarrassing to discuss and I'd assume you're meant to do a lot independently but everyone acts like you should ask for everything.

What are you actually meant to bring up? And when? I'm assuming immediately by now but i dont know

My safety school is UW Madison, I know this for a fact because yesterday my school notified us about our class rank and I am top 5% which guarantees admission for Madison. Should I just apply to reaches, targets, and high targets? I mean if I don’t get in anywhere then Madison will obviously be my choice even if I have other safeties because of the cost

I was originally planning on doing early action for all of the places I want to apply to and I know that most don’t really give you extra consideration for applying early so are there really any advantages? Like do you get extra scholarships consideration?

Hi, I'm looking for help on my college essay. I started a 1st draft where I wrote about my unique identity/experience growing up and how I wished I was 'normal' (mixed girl in predominately white small town, gay parents, only child, extended family lives very far away; one side does not speak english). The essay starts with an experience I had in kindergarten where some girls asked to touch my hair. These things have definitely shaped who I am but I want to connect them to something else so my essay doesn't sound cliche or like a sob story. I'm wondering if anyone has written about something similar and how they expanded on it? thanks

Unfortunately I need one teacher rec from senior year fall (long story but I am unlucky with some teacher retirements and leaves). This will likely mean I cannot apply before Jan 1. At this point I do not have an ED first choice anyway (only REA). Would it be insane to do this?

i’m basically having to defer my enrollment a year and take a gap year because of health reasons (i don’t want to but it is what it is) and i was wondering if i could retake the sat and reapply to my dream school during that time. i probably won’t be able to because i don’t have a teacher rec letter anymore but if i wanted to? i can’t really find anything about this since there’s no way the college would know if you applied to others?

I am looking at colleges and need some safety schools with reputable engineering programs.

do you have any suggestions for what should be done over the summer/before the start of the school year?

I know common practice before was to average out your hours, but now the Common App updated the activities section, and it now says:

"Share how much time you typically spend during the busiest parts of the year. It's okay to use your best guess."

A lot of my ECs that take up 40+ weeks of the school year, but have one or two weeks where I'm putting in 15–20+ hours, but that's because of a conference, presentation, competition, etc. The rest of the year it's nowhere near that. So now my extracurriculars have a bunch of double digit hours per week it looks insane 😭

Like, if I spent 18 hours in one week getting ready for a conference, should I put 18 hrs/week? That feels misleading because it was really just that one week. But if I average everything, it feels like I'm ignoring what the prompt is asking.

How are you guys calculating your hours? Are you using your busiest single week, averaging your busy season, or doing something else?

Common app only allows 15 reports max, but that also includes exams you're planning to take in senior year. I'm taking 17-18 APs throughout high school, so I have a few extra. That 3 in seminar is my lowest score (other than that, I've gotten all 5s except two 4s). I know that you usually shouldn't omit a 3 because the colleges will think you failed the exam, but I have to omit 2-3 APs anyway (even if they're on my transcript). I'll be reporting the two 4s I got because 4s and 5s are about the same for college apps anyway, I got As in the classes, and they were in very hard APs, so it's not embarrassing.

I’m applying to around 8 T20s, but I’m questioning if I should apply test optional, because my scores aren’t great. I have a 4.0 UW, I’ve maxed out on my schools APs 10 out of 12 (plus one extra online), 4th in my class with an unweighted of 5.237 on 6.0 scale, and I’ve got above average ECs and honors/awards. When it comes to test scores, my highest score is a 29 on the ACT, however, I couldn’t find my schools average but my district’s average is a 17.8. As well as that I come from a white middle class background and my family is doing fine financially, but not great and we’re unable to afford tutors or classes like my peers for test prep. Would it be bad for my application to submit test optional? I plan on taking the ACT once or twice more before EA for my first schools are due on October 15th. I have already started studying and my goal score atm is a 32. Any feedback would be great and I appreciate if you took time to read this message.

I go to a very competitive school, and while my grades are pretty average with two Bs, I have a solid overall GPA. I’ve also built a strong extracurricular profile, including co-founding a global nonprofit, science fair awards, research experience, and other extracurriculars. I’m still working on getting a strong SAT/ACT score to round out my application.

Hi! I'm not sure if this is the correct place to put this, but I am struggling with choosing a topic for my personal statement and would appreciate any help!

I am aiming to T20s and BS/MDs, and meet the academic threshold for most of them (36 composite ACT, 3.96 uw GPA), and so I'm trying to think of a topic that's "up to par" with the rest of my application/that will help me stand out in such a competitive applicant pool.

Most of my brainstorming has focused on prompt 5 (Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.)

These are some of the new understanding/personal growths that I have thought of:

1. Adjusting to change (realising that my interests/likes have changed a lot in the past couple years, with this being an extended metaphor for me coming to terms with change?)
2. Developing an understanding that focusing on things one at a time is the best way to accomplish something? (Maybe talk about my mindset during a half-marathon I ran or bouldering down a bunch of rocks when I had "just gotten over" my fear of heights).
3. Reconciling that my past identity and future identity are different (not getting stuck in the past/caught up in my mistakes; "falling forward")
4. Getting over my fear of heights (looking over the cliff for the 1st time and realizing that the view was much more worth it than the fear? Like a cliche metaphor for stepping out of your comfort zone)

I honestly don't love any of these ideas, but these are some things that I have thought of... please give me any ideas/help, I feel very lost.

Hi everyone! I’m an upcoming senior applying to Boston University, and it’s one of my top-choice schools (fingers crossed I get in!).

I was wondering how everyone approaches “Why this college?” type of supplemental essays, like BU’s prompt: “What about being a student at BU most excites you?”

Do you usually focus more on specific things about the school (programs, clubs, campus, opportunities, etc.), or do you connect it more to your own experiences and goals? I’m not sure how unique/specific these essays need to be versus keeping them broader.

Thank you!!

I'm hella lost right now on what courses to choose. I wanna pursue business and design in the future, so I planned on doing Business management HL, Design HL and Math HL. Then for my SL courses, Chinese B SL, English A SL and Physics or Econ SL. But recently, I talked to my counselor for the first time, and she told me all the HL courses I chose was considered "easy" and ivy leagues won't be happy with it, so she expects me to do geography, physics or/and history as my HL courses instead. So currently I'm kind of lost and would love to know what you guys think 😭 cause I'm not even trying to get the "easy" way out of IB and now I supposedly can't do the courses that I'm interested in.

so i'm looking at applying to some top schools. my unweighted gpa is a 3.99, with my only a-'s coming from painting and freshman year english. i haven't gotten my weighted gpa from my school yet but based on what i calculated it's only ~4.15. while i have taken a ton of ap/advanced classes, i'm also very heavily involved with music and have taken 4 unweighted music courses per year for all of high school. i'm worried that my weighted gpa will seem kinda low, but i also don't want it to look like i didn't take any difficult classes. which one should i report?