Pomona College is a liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, and is a part of the consortium known as the Claremont Colleges. The Claremont Colleges (sometimes known as the 7C’s) share a central library and have adjoining campuses with shared resources. With under 1,400 undergraduates, Pomona is tiny, but for many, that is part of the draw. Pomona had an for the class of 2024, making it a very selective school.

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school was initially founded in 1900 as Carnegie Technical Schools and has a little over 7,000 undergraduates. The school also has degree-granting campuses in Silicon Valley and Qatar, among others. CMU has a 15% acceptance rate. Their Common App has three supplemental questions, which we gotta say, aren’t bad.

Boston University (BU) is a private research institution located in--you guessed it--historic Boston, MA. With more than 34,000 students (undergraduate and graduate) Boston University is actually the biggest school in the state of Massachusetts. Boston University has an overall undergraduate acceptance rate of 19%, and an Early Decision acceptance rate of 30%.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The acceptance rate for in-state students for the class of 2025 was 47% and the out-of-state acceptance rate was 13%. There are about 19,000 undergrads.

Pitzer is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, about 30 minutes outside of Los Angeles. It’s part of the larger Claremont Colleges comprised of five schools. Pitzer places a large emphasis on sustainability, among other values (more on that below). Its dining options are also consistently rated some of the top in the nation. The student body consists of about 1,000 students and the acceptance rate is 18.3%

Santa Clara University is a mid-sized Jesuit school located in--you guessed it--Santa Clara, California. Near Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Santa Clara is a particularly smart choice if you’re hoping to work in either of those areas. Santa Clara is consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful schools in America--it surrounds the famous Mission Santa Clara de Asís, one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in California. Santa Clara has an acceptance rate of , and will ask you for two supplemental essays when applying.

Vassar College is one of the nation’s top liberal arts schools. Founded in 1861 with a total enrollment of about 2,400 undergrads, Vassar is located in Poughkeepsie, New York (i.e.: upstate). The vast majority of classes have fewer than 20 students. The acceptance rate is 24%. This year’s supplement is just two questions. Well, really 1.5. Below, we’ll tell you how to tackle them.

Princeton is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. It is one of the eight members of the Ivy League, and it’s also the fourth-oldest college in the United States, founded in 1746. Princeton is very selective, boasting a 5.8% acceptance rate for 2020.

Yale University was founded in 1701 and is the third oldest college in the United States. It is also a member of the Ivy League and is considered one of the most prestigious schools in the world. Yale has about a 6% admissions rate and had 4,703 undergraduates in 2020. Because of this selectivity, Yale has a pretty robust set of questions for their supplemental essays. We’ve covered Yale before, but some of the questions on this year’s Common App have changed.

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research school located in—you guessed it—St. Louis, Missouri. WashU The acceptance rate for the class of 2025 was 13% and the total undergrad population is about 7,700. WashU is a competitive school known for its research opportunities, business school, and pre-med program, among others. Here are some tips:

Wake Forest is a mid-sized university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Wake Forest is known for its emphasis on a liberal arts education and features strong Psychology, Economics, and Communication programs. Wake Forest is also known for its Greek life--around 45% of its students are in Fraternities or Sororities. Wake Forest accepted of its applicants last year.

New York University is a private research university located in New York City, and is one of the largest private colleges in the US, with almost 30,000 undergraduates. NYU also receives a ton of admissions applications and has an acceptance rate of 16.2%. Known for the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU boasts alumni such as Martin Scorsese and author of The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins -- but also Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, and Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine.

Williams College is a small liberal arts school located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. There are about 2,000 undergrads. The school is pretty open in terms of curriculum. They don’t have minors. Rather, concentrations where students can take groupings of courses that support one area of interest Students They also have a cultural diversity requirement and encourage students to do coursework about other groups and societies. Classes are small with a student-faculty ratio of 6:1. The acceptance rate is 8 percent

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia. UVA was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and it currently offers 49 majors to its 17,000 undergrads. Legally, UVA is required to enroll two-thirds of its student body from in-state, but that hasn’t stopped students from all 50 states to be included in their class of 2023. Because of this, in-state admission for UVA sat at 36%, while out-of-state admission is almost half at 19%.

The University of California application is one application for all nine UC schools: UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego. The UC app is similar to the Common App but has some slightly different questions and its own set of essay prompts. We have covered the UC app before, but have updated it for this year.

Dartmouth College is an Ivy League school located in the rural town of Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth’s ethos is intertwined with the landscape around it. The acceptance rate for the class of 2025 was 6.7% and there are about 4,400 undergrads.

Harvard University is a private Ivy League school located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The acceptance rate for the class of 2025 to Harvard College was just over 3.4%. You read that right—3.4%. Its reputation precedes itself. It has more Nobel Prize-winning and Field Medals-winning alumni than anywhere else on Earth and has turned out more U.S. presidents than any other school in the nation. So, if you really think you have a shot, here’s how we recommend tackling the (extremely long) supplement:

Stanford University, located in Stanford, California, is a private research university that enrolls approximately 7,000 undergraduate students. They are known for their rigorous engineering school and boast some of the most impressive alumni—from former Presidents to the co-founders of Google. Stanford is one of the most difficult and selective schools to get into, with extremely high academic requirements and an extremely low acceptance rate.

Bard College is a private liberal arts school in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. With gorgeous views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains, this historic campus is a popular choice amongst those looking for a scenic, small college experience. While their admission rate seems to fluctuate from year to year, it usually lands in between 33-40%.

The University of Southern California, or USC, is the oldest private research university in California (don’t let the name fool you, while it sounds like it could be a UC, it is indeed private!). Located near downtown Los Angeles, USC boasts 22 academic schools and units and has an acceptance rate of 12%.