Applying to the Ivy League: Everything You Need to Know

Applying to college is no simple task, no matter where you apply, but for students applying to the prestigious Ivy League, the challenge is even greater. With acceptance rates consistently dipping below 10% and college applicants on the rise, getting into the Ivy League is a goal that most can only dream about. At , we have coached hundreds of students towards their Ivy League acceptances. In fact, we even helped one amazing student gain acceptance to seven of them! But what’s success if we aren’t willing to share it? Here, we provide a home for our top Ivy League tips. To learn more about the Ivy League and how you can score an acceptance too, take a look at the resources below. The term Ivy League actually refers to a collegiate athletic conference composed of sports teams from eight private colleges and universities in the northeastern United States. Though the term officially refers to an athletic conference, it is more commonly used to refer to these same eight schools in other contexts. Ivy League schools are generally known for their academic excellence and their extreme selectivity in admissions. The eight Ivy League schools are: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. To learn more about some of these schools and what they’re all about, check out these posts: The Ivy League is exceptionally difficult to get into, especially by today’s increasingly selective college admissions standards. To learn more about the standards expected by the Ivy League, check out these posts about Ivy League students: Before you apply to any colleges, you’ll want to learn as much about them as possible. This can be through campus visits, interviews, college rankings, summer programs, or other avenues. To get started learning more about the Ivy League, have a look through these posts: Estimating your chance of getting into a college is not easy in today’s competitive environment. Thankfully, with our state-of-the-art software and data, we can analyze your academic and extracurricular profile and estimate your chances. Our profile analysis tool can also help you identify the improvement you need to make to enter your dream school. As is the case with any school you apply to, you’ll need to be sure that your high school classes and extracurriculars qualify you for acceptance. To learn how you can prepare for the Ivy League in high school, check out these posts: Although the overall trend in Ivy admissions places less emphasis on test scores than it did in previous years (thanks in large part to Harvard’s Making Caring Common initiative ), your scores are still important. To learn how they factor into Ivy League admissions, check out these posts: Are you college applications signed, sealed, and delivered? Now you wait. For many students this is the hardest part of the process. Waiting and receiving college decisions can be stressful. Here are some tips to help along the way: If you are a high school student interested in attending an Ivy League school, but you’re unsure if you have what it takes or you would like some help to ensure that you present the strongest application possible, consider ’ s Mentorship Program . This program provides practical advice on topics from college admissions to career aspirations, all from successful college students who have been in your shoes.