For many students, gaining admission to an “Ivy League” school is the pinnacle of academic accomplishment. With some of the lowest acceptance rates in the country (ranging from 5% – 13%), Ivy League schools maintain the ability to select and educate the most talented students across the globe. The Ivies have a proven track record of producing the world’s most prestigious graduates in a variety of fields, including business, politics, entertainment, sports, medicine, art and law. In fact, most of the recent US presidents attended an Ivy League school (George HW Bush: Yale, Bill Clinton: Yale, George W. Bush: Harvard, Barrack Obama: Columbia & Harvard, Donald Trump: University of Pennsylvania). While members of the Ivy League are committed to meeting full demonstrated financial need, they offer no athletic or merit scholarships.
Despite being revered for academic excellence, admissions selectivity and rich traditions, the term “Ivy League” actually refers to an athletic conference that includes 8 private universities, most of which were founded during the Colonial Period. Cornell is the exception on both accounts: it was founded in 1865, just after the Civil War, and is a land grant college that receives state funding for three of its seven undergraduate colleges. The other members of the Ivy League are Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale. Although not formally designated as part of the Ivy League (or members of the athletic conference), Stanford and MIT are often discussed in the same group.
As a graduate of not one, but two, Ivy League schools and an interviewer of many successful Ivy League applicants, Stef is very familiar with what these elite schools look for when making admissions decisions. It really comes down to one thing: they want students who will change the world in a positive way. That’s it. They want to educate people who will leave a lasting impact. So, how do they predict who these changemakers will be? Here are top 10 things that Ivy League schools look at to assess applicants:
We offer one-on-one coaching sessions for students in 8th through 12th grade, workshops for rising and current seniors as well as the self-paced program, The Complete Candidate™. Whether you’re preparing for the application process or you’re ready to begin, we can create a strategy to fit your needs. To get started today, call us at 469-751-7122 or schedule an appointment.
