Students and parents have long approached the admissions process with a simple assumption: If you can get into an Ivy League school, you can get in anywhere.
Based on that assumption, many applicants devote all of their time, energy and effort to their Harvard application first, then plan to tinker with their essays a bit before sending them on to the other schools on their list. After all, a student who is accepted to Harvard should be a shoo-in at Duke, Northwestern or Vanderbilt, right?
Yet, this admissions cycle, many talented students are baffled to receive an Ivy League acceptance … and a rejection from a “lower ranked” school on their list.
As a private college admissions consultant with nearly a decade of experience successfully guiding students through this process, I’ve fielded countless calls from bewildered parents and students who want to understand what went wrong.
The truth? The old strategy of prioritizing Ivy League acceptance above all else is outdated.
The admissions landscape has changed — and so should your strategy
The college admissions landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. It is no longer a simple game of prestige or a hierarchy of selectivity, and many schools that previously fit in the category of “match” or “low reach” school have joined the Ivy League colleges as “high reach” options for any student, regardless of their profile.
In 2013, almost one-fourth of students who applied to Notre Dame were admitted. Today, that acceptance rate has plunged to just 9%. Rice University has experienced a similar surge in desirability, with applications more than doubling from 15,408 in 2013 to 36,749 this admissions cycle.
But it’s not just the numbers that have changed: Schools once seen as back-up plans to the Ivies are now academic powerhouses in their own right.
Duke, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins and Caltech climbed past UPenn, Cornell and Brown to collectively claim the No. 6 spot in the latest US News & World Report rankings. Likewise, in Forbes’ List of America’s Top Colleges, Rice University beat out Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown for a spot in the top 10.
In other words, these schools are no longer second fiddle to the Ivy League — they are coveted institutions in their own right.
UMich isn’t looking for another Dartmouth student
Changes in institutional priorities also mean that students should rethink their Ivy-focused strategy.
In the past, applying to college was largely a numbers game. If students had the grades, test scores and extracurriculars to get into one top-tier school, they were likely to get into several so-called reach schools on their list. This is simply no longer the case.
With applicant pools filled with valedictorians, class presidents, National Merit scholars and straight-A students, admissions officers have to evaluate other aspects.
For instance, a winning application at Dartmouth will emphasize a student’s interdisciplinary curiosity and interest in exploring numerous fields through the school’s liberal arts curriculum; their independent learning and eagerness to customize their free semester through the D-Plan; and their desire to get
involved in the tight-knit Hanover community.
If you believe that you can make a couple minor tweaks to that application in exchange for an acceptance letter from UMich, you’re dead wrong. Why? Because the University of Michigan isn’t looking for another Dartmouth student.
Michigan values students who thrive in a large, research-focused environment and will take advantage of its vast alumni network and professional development opportunities.
If you don’t emphasize these things, you’re unlikely to get in — not because UMich is more competitive or highly ranked than Dartmouth, but because you have failed to demonstrate that you are a compelling fit for UMich’s campus.
Know your audience
Likewise, top colleges want to see evidence of a student’s genuine and demonstrated interest in their school.
Rather than simply stating that they want to live in Atlanta, our team will coach Emory applicants to
showcase their unique interest in learning from Emory’s rigorous academic community. Or highlight
specific initiatives that tie Emory to the broader Atlanta community. Or outline the ways in which they
would be able to find distinct inroads in their intended profession within the metropolis.
If your application reads like an afterthought, Emory will see it as such.
Each application — and students should be applying to roughly 11 schools — needs to be intensively tailored to the unique culture and offerings of a given school. That requires time, introspection and expertise.
In their freshman year of high school, students should begin to think critically about their interests and the type of college they want to attend. If you discover you’re an exceptional liberal arts candidate with a passion for small discussion-based classes and an intimate academic environment, you might be a perfect fit for Amherst or Williams, but struggle to gain traction at a massive university like the University of Miami, even though it’s less competitive.
Meanwhile, an aspiring entrepreneur who thrives in a hands-on, fast-paced setting might be a poor candidate for Brown but a strong candidate for Babson, where the primary focus is business education.
If this sounds like a complex task that will make your head spin, that’s because it is.
Increasingly, families are realizing that excelling in today’s competitive admissions landscape is nearly impossible without expert guidance. One of the greatest assets that my team of Ivy League+ graduates bring to Command Education’s mentorship process is their wealth of insider knowledge. That’s invaluable for students — whether they’re building their college lists or seeking to demonstrate their specific knowledge of an institution in their supplemental essays.
At the end of the day, college admissions isn’t just about being “good enough” for a school; it’s about proving that you belong there.
The right college consultant can help an applicant make their case in the most compelling way possible — but only if they devote the time and personalized attention to understand a student’s genuine interests, goals and needs.
Many firms try to manufacture successful applicants through checklists, flashy extracurriculars and inauthentic “passion projects.” Through meaningful mentorship and long-term investment in a student’s academic and personal growth, Command Education’s Senior Mentors don’t just help students craft authentic and eye-catching applications — they guide them to become the kind of students top schools truly want. No other firm does what we do.
That’s why our students are some of the few who receive acceptance letters from Dartmouth — and Duke.
Christopher Rim is the CEO of Command Education, an education partner of the New York Post.
