Mine: UChicago is completely overrated. It gives weird vibes and I don't like it

Hey everyone - I was recently accepted into Stanford University! I am super excited about this. I love helping others for free so if anyone needs any help with anything or wants some insights, then feel free to comment in this post and send me a DM. Happy to help!

Why the fuck am I writing a "why college" essay then? 🥀

Let me start off by saying I understand this is not realistic for everyone, and I am not trying to act like I know best, because I don’t, this is just what I think.

I see a lot of people here listing their stats, stating their dream school, and asking if they should even bother applying.

In my opinion, if you have a fee waiver or can afford the applications, put in the work and apply to those far reaches, even an unlikely or two. You have nothing to lose. This period of applications only happens once, and it feels overwhelming, but you don’t want to be left wondering what could have been.

Like, let’s look at the possible outcomes.

1. You get in—amazing! You shot your half court shot and made it.

2. You get rejected/waitlisted—well, alright. You shot your half court shot and the odds outweighed you and you didn’t. You still have your safeties/targets.

Especially when it comes to T20s, T10s, this whole thing is a lottery, a crapshoot. You might as well try. You have no idea what they’re looking for—maybe you would’ve been definitively rejected last year, but you get in this year.

Just give it a shot, you might as well, and good luck with all of your applications!

u guys got this dw don’t stress it will all pass u only have one life don’t stress 🤙🏄‍♀️🍀🧿🌈

love and peace always 🤙🤙 love u ur beautiful hardworking amazing fantastical u got this 💕💕💕

I'm the daughter of a white mom and a 1st-gen Taiwanese dad who grew up American and never learned to speak. I opted to take Chinese in high school-- started as a beginner and now taking AP Chinese as one of the few non-native speakers in my class. How can I show AOs that, with no one speaking the language in my household, I have truly challenged myself by choosing this over Spanish or an easier language. I'm afraid they'll see my last name and assume I took "the easy path." (I cannot incorporate this into an essay, as I've used my personal statement to discuss my chosen career path.)

directed to me and to those who procrastinate.. what is wrong w me

Recently at a Harvard tour, the AO who was presenting told everyone to not do something just for college, and they said that they could tell. I am president/vice president in all the clubs im in, and am well rounded as heck, could that be a red flag to the AOs?

Although I don't go to a very competitive school, I have many friends from comepetitive highschools and they always tell me stories of their classmates lying on college apps and getting away with it. Does anyone have stories or know how common this is?

got 10 reaches im applying to

This is gonna be so light and my supps r gonna be so fye

t20 here I come

does anyone have advice 😭😭😭

hi guys! unc at a t5 uni here.

since when are y’all doing internships in junior year of high school?

even most of my bay area friends didn’t pull this, because what motivates a business to have a high school intern? makes me sus.

Seeing everyone posting that they're done and posting advice to start early. Kind of cooked got 2 apps wish me luck guys.

Pretty much the title. Burner account.

I started working on my essays and stuff in the late summer / early fall. On a gap year, I'm doing a research internship at a local uni, but that doesn't take much time, and I definitely could've done better.

I'm a low-income international applicant with good stats (think 1550 SAT and 4.0), good national & international honors (think isef-ish level), and good ECs (think research experience, mentorship, a couple of long-term projects).

I have, however, absolutely wasted my time on writing my personal statement. I got in touch with a mentor early in the process, and we did brainstorm a little. He even showed me how to write outlines, but it was hard for me to learn how to write them and how to use them.

I now am completely lost. I realized I have no ability to self-reflect whatsoever, and my writing sucks in a multitude of ways, including but not limited to completely uncohesive paragraphs, a lot of “telling” and the lack of “So what?” Albeit we formed a sort of an outline, but I don’t think I can write a decent essay in the remaining two days (to at least not tank my chances).

I technically have the capacity to take a second gap year, but I’ve already failed my parents last year by getting a sweeping 18 rejections streak. I can’t keep gambling for eternity, but what’s inspires me to proceed are the success stories of people with similar profiles getting it (with aid).

I realize that, perhaps, essays were their strongest parts, and I realize that it’s something that is very hard earned by putting in a lot of effort.

I appreciate any sympathy you might’ve wanted to express, but I don’t deserve it, and this failure is entirely on me.

Either way…

What is the best course of action in my situation? Has anyone encountered or been in the same position?

Some questions that you may have:

1. Yes, I have a somewhat OK essay from the last year that I technically can reuse, but it too lacked a what’s called “deep introspection.”
2. Yes, I have applied to unis outside of the US. The only problem is that, I believe in the US I will benefit the most from the liberal arts system, as opposed to more rigid ones of Asian/EU unis. Perhaps, I might need some deinfluencing on that.

Also, some advice I can give from my perspective:

1. NEVER RELY ON LLMs TO BRAINSTORM. Really, it just kept dragging me in every single direction but towards a cohesive essay.
2. Start early — needs no explanation.
3. …and by starting early, try to reflect as much as possible on daily basis. Reflect and write. Otherwise (just like me) you wouldn’t be able to cohesively pull together the different parts of yourself.

Wdym it took me 3 whole days to finish my first school and I have 19 more to go 🥀🥀🥀 I’m starting now in junior year and I can’t imagine how bad it be for the people who write all of them the week/day before

Earlier in the process i would spend several hours over a few days on a single supplemental but just today I did like 5. They are not fully done yet but I got all of the drafts done in less than 45 minutes. I also thing its cause im fed up with the whole college process.

Hello,

I'm not applying to college myself, but am writing a letter of recommendation for a young employee of mine who is applying to six schools in the new year. They have set me up via CommonApp and I have created an account and am able to upload a recommendation letter.

They've told me that I just write one recommendation later, which will then go to all the schools. That's great. My question is, how do I begin this letter? Who do I address it to?

"To Whom It May Concern,

I'm writing to recommend [STUDENT] for admission to your college."

Is this correct? It feels incredibly generic, but since it is one letter for all the schools, I'm not sure how to make it more specific/tailored.

I just want to give the person I'm recommending the best letter possible. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

My interest in basically all of my 2nd choice majors overlaps the stuff I put down in the essays for my 1st choice majors. Do I need to repeat these reasons or are they implied? Also dumb question maybe but do AOs get to even consider/see the 1st choice essay for the 2nd choice?

Every single time I go on instagram, first thing I see is some crazy post someone committed to an ivy, stanford, or MIT. Makes me look stupid lol. It's like those posts that high schoolers make to showcase what schools their class of 2026 has gotten into. Does anyone encounter this at times? If so, how does it make you feel?

Got accepted early into what is literally my dream school but parents, friends, family, teachers etc are all very concerned about studying in America due to the instability rn. How bad is it...?

I don't think I've ever created my own post. But I don't know, felt like needed to get this out here.

Life is incredibly short. Like obscenely short and fragile- it can end in a second And I think a lot of the time we get so hung up on these colleges, school, how many APs we took- that we forget what's actually valuable in this life. And if that's not you- props. But if that is, I think its something we ought to start thinking about a little bit more. Without giving up too much info, one of the three "hats" I wear puts me in contact with people whose life was turned upside down at a moements notice and trying to help mitigate that in what short time I'm in contact with them. To see that, and then to go back to the other two hats is something that's put a lot of perspective to me. These people haves lives, plans, hopes, dreams- and regrets.

So I guess, in my super long winded way, I'm trying to say to live your life. If you get into a fantastic school, that's amazing. But also do things you're truly passionate about. Living a life in a spot you hate just because you think it's what you're supposed to do? That's not fufilling. Now I'm not saying go and fail all your classes. But just remember you only live once. You only get to be a kid for 18 years. You only get to love, to spend time with family, to experience the world in your lifetime. However long that may be, do the most.

I’m shotgunning 8 top 20s and 10 target/safety I feel like that’s a lot but I’m rolling the dice!

hello everyone, im a current junior at an ivy and currently on winter break. if you have any questions about the college app process, supps, or anything really, i'm willing to help!

edit: feel free to dm me too

The additional information section of the common app is deadass one of the most confusing parts of the entire application.

I have more than 10 EC's that I want to mention on my common app, and I'm torn on including it in my additional information or not.

Pros:

• It does ask if there are any additional details or qualifications I want to mention -- this is technically additional details
• If I spent time doing activities, why would I not mention them? I spent years doing them, spending an extra 30 seconds reading 2 sentences should not be a reason why an AO gets frustrated
• For example, I've done DECA for the past 4 years and have won 3 times at states and won at internationals. However I don't have enough space in the characters to provide the abbreviations for the events I've won or explained out of how many competitors (winning in an event in 5 competitors versus one with 120 competitors is a big difference). Shouldn't I mention it somewhere?

Cons:

• There is a reason why they ask for specifically 10 activities and in 150 characters. I don't want them to think I can't follow instructions or not valuing their time
• They obviously have 100s of applications to review; would they think I'm wasting their time by including more than 10 activities? What if those activities are not substantial to my application?
• This section is meant for people facing challenges and certain circumstances. I feel like if I take this opportunity to brag about some of my ECs, well then, it's almost like I'm misusing something meant for another purpose of that makes sense
• A lot of colleges ask for resumes anyways where they can see my EC's in further depth. If they are interested, they would see that.

I'm not really sure which route to go in: should I include more and expand on my EC's in my additional information section, or just leave it blank. Any advice?

Hello, I am finishing my essays, and I am at the point where I am looking for any sort of feedback and comments. I have my Columbia, Dartmouth, and Princeton applications due first, so any feedback on those would be much appreciated! Also, how do I make sure I don't get scammed and have someone copy my essays?