When it comes to college admissions, there are tons of statistics at play. The most discussed is the dreaded acceptance rate, which (as we’ve written ad nauseum), has slowly crept downward for top-tier schools year after year. But lurking in the background of the whole process is a more mysterious calculation: the college yield rate. A yield rate is essentially the number of students that are accepted to a given school who end up attending. This is why you should care:
Deferred from College: Now What?
Getting deferred from your top school can be a gut punch. You worked your butt off, likely with the expectation of getting in. The first thing we recommend you do is to take a breath. (You’re going to be okay!) Keep in mind, while it’s not ideal, it’s not personal. You might just want to sit down and stay down, but you have a little ways to go before you can breathe a sigh of real relief. We recommend following these next steps:
Deferred from Dartmouth Early Decision
We’re guessing you’re here because you got deferred from Dartmouth. We’re sorry that happened, and we encourage you to take some time to yourself to feel your feelings about it. But, if you’re reading this, you probably want to do something about it. Our guide will help you make a strategy for the rest of regular decision, while also sending your last pitch to Dartmouth.
Deferred from Columbia Early Decision
Deferred from Princeton Early Action
If you’re reading this, you probably just got deferred from Princeton. We’re sorry you’re going through this right now. Take some time to process, be a little sad, and treat yourself to a nice coffee or something. This is not the end of the world. In this post, we have a few tips on how to best pitch yourself to Princeton again, and more importantly, how to diversify and expand your college list so you’re prepared no matter what.
Deferred from Penn (UPenn) Early Decision
We’re very sorry to hear you’ve been deferred from the University of Pennsylvania. We know this is a difficult time, but it’s more important than ever to think about how to maximize your chances of admission. We called Penn to ask about their deferral rates, but they specifically do not provide information on what proportion of applications are deferred each year. We do know, however, that approximately % of those deferred applications are eventually accepted. So, if you’ve been deferred, your chances for admissions are actually higher than those of normal regular-decision applicants. We’re going to talk about how to push your application into that 16%: we’ll outline what to do for the best chances of success.
Deferred from Brown Early Decision
We’re sorry to see you’ve been deferred from Brown. We know this has to be tough -- but if you’re here you probably are trying to do something about it. Take a beat to feel your feelings and give yourself a pep talk, then come right back here for our guide on how to get through these next few weeks.
Deferred from Cornell Early Decision
Getting deferred from your dream school can be hard -- especially if it’s a great school like Cornell. Don’t fear, you’ll get through this. Take a moment to feel your feelings, have a snack, and then jump into this guide to get some ideas on how to best strategize other applications and how to best handle the deferral.
Deferred from Harvard Early Action
So, you’ve been deferred from Harvard. We’re sorry you’re dealing with this right now -- and definitely take some time to process. But if you’re here, you’re probably a person of action, and you want to know what you should do next. Don’t worry, we have some action items that can help you give yourself a fighting chance to get in, and some strategies for applying to other schools too.
How Many Colleges Should I Apply to?
In the hyper-competitive world of college applications, one might think their key to success is to throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks. But we find that the best approach is to create an actual strategy, discover what elements of a university are interesting to you, and where you might be a good fit. You’re not going to be a fit at every school. It’s best to create a list of schools in which you will be. While some applicants apply to 30 schools, we find that 12-15 schools (a healthy balance between reaches, safeties, and targets) is a solid range.
What Does an Independent College Counselor Do?
Applying to college can seem daunting. For years, headlines have reported that college admissions rates are consistently plummeting, laying bare a landscape—once competitive—that can now feel impenetrable. Even schools outside of the Ivy League have been recording single-digit acceptance rates. While some students feel tremendous pressure to perform, particularly in their junior years, most can find success with some foresight. We strive to support our students in making the application process as manageable as possible, by providing a clear strategy tailored to every students’ progress, interests, and objectives.
How To Ask for a Recommendation Letter for College
Asking for favors is hard and the biggest favor you will have to ask during your junior year is for letters of recommendation. Don’t worry, most teachers won’t say no… you just have to know how to ask and then do it. While you can’t control what your teachers say about you, there are a couple of steps you can take to get the best letter that you can.
How do you Start off a College Essay?
Should I Write a Common App Essay about Travel?
This blog post could be one word, “no.” But let’s talk about why writing about travel is a bad idea. We promise we aren’t shutting you down just to be mean. There is a real reason not to write about traveling on your common app. There are two major types of travel that people tend to write about: service trips or traveling with family, and neither do you any favors.
How to Start Your College Essay
We talk on this blog a lot about the common app essay. What makes a good one, how to start brainstorming, and even examples of ones we loved. You can look through all of this and still be wondering, well how do you actually start to write it? You just have to follow a few steps to make your brainstorming ideas into an awesome essay.
How to Write the Best Activities Section of the Common App in 2021-2022
On our blog, we talk a lot about essays, but they aren’t the only section on the common app. If you are looking through the common app, you will see another big section: the activities section. This section is made for you to show off your extracurriculars and more. Everyone (hopefully!) does something outside of school and this is your time to show it off.
How to Research Colleges and Universities
If you just read this blog post, you might be ready to address the question of where you should go to college. But before you can do that, you need to do a hefty amount of research to learn more about what’s out there. When working with TKG clients, most of them don’t know exactly how to research schools. And even when they love certain schools, they’re unfamiliar with key details that will hugely impact their time there. Doing computer research is one of the best ways to decide if you should tour a school and apply to a school. It will also help you categorize it as either a safety, target, or reach school. Keep reading for our steps on how to research colleges:
Where Should I Go to College?
The question of where to attend college is one that comes up at various times throughout your life. It usually starts long before high school, perhaps over dinner with your parents or when you settled on Harvard after watching Legally Blonde. We’re all influenced in one way or another, either by a school list sent over by your high school or a late-night Google search. But when it actually becomes time to put together a school list, a lot of our clients have no idea where to start. If you’re currently in the “not sure where to even start” boat, keep reading for three tips that might help streamline the process.
Time Management Tips for Juniors
A few weeks ago, we got an email from one of our blog readers who was looking for summer plans related to climate change. We’ll be writing a separate blog post about that, but they were also looking for time management tips. In addition to wanting to pursue an environmental position, she also wanted a paying job, to keep up with an independent project, study for the SAT, and start her college applications. We totally get that balancing work, fun, and extracurricular activities can be challenging. Here are our tips for not going crazy this summer: