I haven’t fan-girled over Adam Grant in a while, so I’m excited to share this one:
I’m seeing a growing number of students complain: “My grade doesn’t reflect the effort I put into the course.”
Public service announcement: High marks are for mastery, not for motivation.
Working hard doesn’t guarantee doing a good job, that you are a good person…. or college admission.
Read more here.
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I can’t think of a better example of nerding out to post on a blog about college admissions than Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider and Louisa Zhang’s (Illinois ’27) “Trends in High School GPAs among Incoming Freshman Classes of Big Ten Schools.“
They analyzed 286 reports to source Questions C11 and C12 in the Common Data Sets. The reports accessed in this work are published publicly by each University.
Other data nerds can join in the fun through a MicroProject they built to spread the data love. Oh, and their work also highlights the need for near-perfect grades for some of the more selective Big 10 schools!
The main CA essay prompts are the same, but there’s an updated “challenges and circumstances” question, which replaces the old COVID-19 question. The post from the CA is below:
We are happy to announce that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same for 2025–2026. 🎉
Based on positive feedback from students, counselors, teachers, and colleges, we’ve decided to keep the essay prompts unchanged. We will continue to explore trends in prompt selection across different student populations and use those insights to inform future updates.
Students will see two changes to the optional “Additional information” questions as of August 1, 2025.
We are making these changes after conducting listening sessions and consulting with our member, counselor, and student advisory committees to ensure we gather diverse perspectives and input. Students in the first-year app who have text in their “Additional information” question that exceeds the reduced word count limit after August 1 will see an error message alert letting them know they have exceeded the new max. They will not lose anything they have written prior to August 1, but they will need to go back and adjust their response. In the transfer app, student responses to the “Additional information” question prior to August 1 will not roll over.
Here is the full set of essay prompts for 2025–2026.
This is the updated “Challenges and circumstances” question language students will see beginning August 1, 2025
Sometimes a student’s application and achievements may be impacted by challenges or other circumstances. This could involve:
If you’re comfortable sharing, this information can help colleges better understand the context of your application. Colleges may use this information to provide you and your fellow students with support and resources.
Would you like to share any details about challenges or other circumstances you’ve experienced?*
( ) Yes
( ) No
Please describe the challenges or circumstances and how they have impacted you.
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Colleges have continued to roll back test-optional policies. We will update this post as more policy changes are made for fall 2026.
Auburn (testing STRONGLY preferred; required with under a certain GPA)
Brown
Cal Tech
Cornell
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Georgia Tech
Harvard
JHU
MIT
Ohio State
Penn
Purdue
Stanford
University of Georgia
University of Florida (state-wide)
University of Miami
UNC Chapel Hill (required with under a certain GPA)
University of Tennessee (state-wide)
UT Austin
Yale
For 2027: Vanderbilt, Wisconsin (Madison) = which means they prefer scores now…
We have also found it beneficial to send high scores to most other test-optional schools in the top tier, especially if you are applying to a selective major (engineering, comp sci, data science, business, hard sciences) or attend a high school where the majority of students test and test well:
Vanderbilt – test preferred
Northwestern – test preferred
Duke
Princeton
Columbia
Rice
WashU
Notre Dame
Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
Emory
USC
Boston College
Boston University (exception: General Studies)
NYU
Clemson
Case Western
Villanova
University of Chicago
University of Michigan – test preferred
University of Wisconsin – test preferred
University of Virginia
University of Illinois
University of Maryland
Reach out to us if you’d like help with your application strategy and deciding if you are a good candidate to apply test-optional.
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DEADLINE TODAY!
Applications for Girls* on Ice Canada are due tonight at 11:59pm PST!
Upcoming deadlines for the rest of our expeditions are:
February 9th for Girls* in Icy Fjords and Girls* on Rock (in two days!)
February 14th for Girls* on Ice Schweiz, Girls* on Ice Suisse, and Girls* on Ice Austria
March 2nd for Girls* on Ice Alaska and Girls* on Water
Share this with teachers, parents, and students who might be interested! Appy here.
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Colleges have long-loved students who take English, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Language every year of high school. It’s my most despised suggestion so I’m sharing College MatchPoint’s blog as backup. I do believe there are exceptions depending on the student, their school goals, major, the selectivity of their list, and where they go to high school, but either way, read more here!
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This is very cool!
From the University of California:
Our researchers collect and analyze all kinds of information about the world. We also track all kinds of UC stats, many of them available on detailed public dashboards in the online UC Information Center.
This fall, UC published a new data dashboard that shows how many first-year students apply to and are admitted at each campus by academic discipline. Until now, UC published the overall first-year admission rates for each campus. The new dashboard expands that by providing additional detail on admissions by academic discipline. For each broad area of study, you can see the admit rate, along with how many students applied, were admitted and ended up enrolling. The dashboard lets you see the admission rate for a discipline versus the overall campus admission rate. You can look at just one campus, or you can compare disciplines across UC’s nine undergraduate campuses. (A separate dashboard shows transfer admission rates by major.)
The goal of the dashboard is to offer the public more transparency into UC admissions. Being able to compare the selectivity of disciplines and campuses gives applicants an additional piece of information in their process and a more refined understanding of the competition. That said, the dashboard shouldn’t be used to assess any particular student’s chances of admission.
Continue reading about the new data dashboard in this October 18 article and explore the dashboard yourself.
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Colleges are starting to market their summer programming as a special pathway to fall admission—guaranteed admission in some cases. Expect to see more of it as schools continue to get creative about their enrollment management tactics.
Read more about Guaranteed Orange here (Syracuse).
Read more about UChicago’s Summer Student Early Notification here (University of Chicago)
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The information below is from the Born This Way Foundation:
Born This Way Foundation, at its core, is an organization informed, shaped, and led by the young people with and for whom we do this work. Young people want to build a kinder and braver world, and know how to do so, and it’s up to us to connect them with the platforms and resources they need to make that future possible. Apply to join a visionary group of leaders ages 15-24.
Our 2023 Youth Advisory Board cohort showed kindness is action, and that action is undeniably linked with our mental health and wellbeing. This group of global leaders launched their own nonprofits, community projects, media platforms, technology solutions, and more; all in service of mental health advocacy and building kinder environments where young people can thrive. They teach us every single day that there is no one way to be kind, to show up for your own and others’ mental health, but each path you take is valid and necessary for our collective wellbeing.
We hope you’ll consider clicking here to apply by our deadline of Tuesday, November 26, or sharing this link with a young person in your life so they can be part of this incredible experience: bornthisway.foundation/
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What is NewMu Teens?
A five-month, after-school program that invites young people ages 15–19 to interact with contemporary art and culture with a focus on the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation. The program is free and participants receive a stipend of $500 in support of their participation.
What can teens expect from the program?
NewMu Teens connect with peers, guest artists, and their own creativity through workshops, artmaking, and discussion. Together, NewMu Teens develop and produce a culminating creative project to share with their communities.
Where will NewMu Teens meet?
While the Museum is closed to continue construction of our building expansion, NewMu Teens will meet in our temporary office spaces at 250 Bowery every Monday from 4–6pm, January 13 to May 26, 2025, excluding school recesses.
How do I apply?
Applications are DUE Sunday, November 17, 11:59pm. Learn more here.
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