Located in, you guessed it, Boston, BU is a large, private research university known for lots and lots of research, study abroad, internship, etc., opportunities for their students. Some fun facts: did you know the school was originally located in Vermont???? That’s not Boston! Plus, Alexander Graham Bell, a BU professor, invented the telephone in a BU lab. That’s right, you could technically call someone in the same lab the telephone was invented in. BU has gotten a lot more competitive over the last few years. Last cycle saw almost 81k applicants and a 14% acceptance rate. Compare that to 2020, with 65k applicants and a 22% acceptance rate. A plummeting acceptance rate combined with a test-optional policy means you better get ready to write some stellar essays. Let’s go.

Nestled between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, Middlebury College enjoys an unbelievably scenic campus in Vermont’s Champlain Valley. With a small student body (~2,800 undergraduates total), and a remote location (seriously — it’s beautiful but hard to get to), Middlebury is a classical liberal arts school that attracts ambitious, outdoorsy types to its world-renowned foreign language, creative writing, environmental science, and teaching programs, among its many other offerings. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2027 was just 13%

If you are a STEM student, you have probably considered applying to Carnegie Mellon University. CMU is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While CMU might be best known for its STEM majors, the university offers a wide array of programs across several schools. CMU is test-optional this year and has been committed to need-blind financial aid. Carnegie Mellon’s supplement hasn’t changed since last year, and we have written about it before. However, their acceptance rate has been steadily falling. Last year it was around an —it has never been more important to put your best foot forward when it comes to the CMU supplement.  

Claremont McKenna College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. While it’s a small school, it is part of a consortium, meaning CMC students can take classes at Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer. CMC is primarily known for its social sciences, but they offer over 30 majors (some in conjunction with other consortium schools). Last year their acceptance rate was about 11%. We have written about their supplement in the past, but they changed the questions a bit this year. The CMC supplement has two essay questions and one “optional” video. We put optional in quotations because, with an acceptance rate of only 11%, you should be using your opportunities wisely. TL;DR: just do the video.

Pomona College, located in Claremont, California, is a small, prestigious liberal arts college known for having one of the lowest acceptance rates among liberal arts schools, at 7%. Pomona is a part of the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of liberal arts schools that share a singular campus, and they’re joined by Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer. They’re also one of the wealthiest schools in the US, with a $2.7 BILLION (with a B) endowment. That’s enough for $1.5 million per student. As with many other schools, they’re continuing to be test-optional for 2024, although they haven’t said whether or not they’ll continue after that.

Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a public research university based in Atlanta, Georgia. With 17,000 undergrads and 22,000 postgrads, it is an extremely popular college for STEM-minded students. Don’t be fooled by the Georgia of it all, they’re called the MIT of the South for a reason. Georgia Tech boasts a top ten engineering undergrad program, a 36% in-state acceptance rate, and a 12% out-of-state acceptance rate. It’s important to note that Georgia Tech is not test-optional, and in fact are test-mandatory. This seems to be the case with a number of elite STEM schools, so we’re not surprised.

Williams is a highly-prestigious small liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts in the Berkshire mountains. The Williams community is tight-knit, passionate, curious, and committed to the process of learning — there are also no fraternities, which makes for a distinct social environment. The academic calendar at the college highlights this, as it’s a twist on the standard. They have two four-course semesters, which is normal, but also a one-course where students go deep into a single class. The most popular majors include math, political science, economics, English, and biology, and 43% of the 2,000 students graduate with more than one major. The acceptance rate is 8.5%, and they receive over 15,000 applications annually.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a prestigious public state school known equally for its academics and its culture (go Badgers!). Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school is set in a mid-sized city that isn’t completely taken over by the university but is heavily dominated by it. This isn’t surprising, given that that total student body of nearly 50,000 accounts for nearly 20% of the city’s population. The university is ranked as the 10th best public university in the United States out of over 1,600 schools, and, despite its size, it holds community values at its core. Public service is considered central to the identity of the university, and the school is a top source for Peace Corps volunteers. While the published acceptance rate is 60%, we consider that number very misleading as . A few years ago, the university received a whopping 42,627 applicants for 6,800 spots.

Pitzer College is a tiny (1,000 students total) private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. They’re part of the Claremont Colleges, which is a consortium of five undergrad (and two graduate) schools – Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer – that share a gorgeous campus. This innovative approach allows students to attend classes at any school, participate in cross-college sports teams and clubs, and get a liberal arts education on an Oxford-inspired campus. Each school has its own personality and focus, and Pitzer is famous for social sciences, behavioral sciences, international studies, and media studies, as well as a hearty social justice culture. Last cycle, Pitzer had a 17.3% acceptance rate.

Washington University in St. Louis is a leading research university in St. Louis, Missouri. Affectionately referred to as WashU, this medium-sized school has nearly 8000 undergraduate students and 17,000 students overall. Known for their programs in the humanities with a focus on research, engineering, education, business, and one of the few undergraduate architecture degrees in the United States, WashU offers a 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio, and access to a faculty that includes four Pulitzer Prize winners, three Poet Laureates of the United States, and 10 National Medal of Science recipients. The campus is truly global, with students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. And, while the acceptance rate is a mere 12% overall, applying Early Decision offers much higher chances. The regular decision acceptance rate is 9%, but the Early Decision acceptance rate is 26%.

Tufts is a private research university in the suburbs of Boston, and it wants to be your quirky aunt. By that we mean it has academics on par with top-tier schools and flaunts an intentionally eccentric school spirit. Case in point: Tuftonians also go by the nickname “Jumbos,” a reference to the school’s mascot (P. T. Barnum’s famous circus elephant). With a class size typical of a New England liberal arts school, Tufts has gotten increasingly selective. The incoming class of 2026 includes 1,695 enrolled students and has an admission rate of 9.7%. 

So, kid, you wanna apply to the University of Texas at Austin? Alright, alright, alright. (Note: although this blog is not a car commercial, we’d still like you to imagine the iconic rumble of a Matthew McConaughey voiceover here). As the #1 public university in the lone-star state, and among the top ten U.S. public universities overall, UT-Austin has academic rigor and top-tier undergraduate research opportunities while offering all the excitement of Division 1 athletics, state school spirit, and a booming student population. UT-Austin may have over 40k undergraduates, but they’re still selective, especially when it comes to out-of-state applicants. The overall admit rate is 32%, which means the percentage of students living outside of Texas who get in is even lower. 

Lafayette College is a small liberal arts college in the city of Easton, Pennsylvania along the Delaware River just about between Philadelphia and New York City. They say they are small enough to offer personal attention, while large enough to offer the resources and opportunities of a larger institution — and we have to agree. The tight-knit student body of 2729 represents 44 states and territories, and 60 countries, and have access to a vast array of academic programs, extracurriculars, and student events. The overall is 33.6%, and the Early Decision acceptance rate is 43.4%.

Colgate University is a small private liberal arts college nestled in Hamilton, New York. It's often referred to as a "Hidden Ivy" and a "Little Ivy" because of their size, academic programs, and campus culture. In 2020, their acceptance rate was 27%. In 2023, it was 12%. Colgate is both test and supplement optional, which is probably why they had a huge increase in the number of applicants over the last three years. Before you start thinking, “Gee, time to send off my app with little to no work!” let us burst your bubble. There's no such thing as "optional" when it comes to admissions. With a 12% acceptance rate, you’re gonna have to write an essay or three.

Boston College, or BC as they’re commonly known, is a private Jesuit research university in Boston (read: Chestnut Hill). It’s a midsized school with just under 10,000 undergrads, and as you may have guessed – yes, many students who attend are indeed Catholic. Jesuits are all about “educating a personal as a whole,” and this extends outside the classroom as well. BC has gotten increasingly popular over the last few years, dropping to an all-time low 14% acceptance rate for the class of 2027. That’s right parents, BC isn’t a safety school anymore. Reasons for increased popularity might include their highly ranked business school, high levels of school spirit, or their continued test-optional policy.

Colorado College is a small liberal arts college in the city of Colorado Springs in — you guessed it — Colorado. It is, perhaps, the most Colorado of Colorado schools. At the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the school is known for attracting quirky, curious, and passionate students who love the outdoors almost as much as they love fully immersing themselves in their academic and artistic passions. The acceptance rate is 11.6%.

Haverford is a small liberal arts school eight miles from downtown Philadelphia. The school is known for creating intimate academic environments for students who are driven and inherently intellectual. One-third of the classes have less than 10 students, and include political science, economics, psychology, and the hard sciences. It is a highly-residential campus, but isn’t insular. While 98% of the 1,472 students live on campus, nearly half do at least one study abroad program. The Haverford acceptance rate is about 18%, and it is .

Macalester College is a private university located in St. Paul, Minnesota (more on that later). It’s small, with an undergrad population of 2,220 (and a freshman class size of about 500). The acceptance rate is 25%. Most students hail from Minnesota. Here’s how we recommend you tackle the supplement: