There is for sure one thing in common you hold with a lot of the top students in your high school (amongst the other obvious ones like you are all human go to the same high school, and other small obvious things), you all probably want to go to a good college!

Human beings are storytellers. Look around and you’ll see stories everywhere. Game of Thrones? A story. Call of Duty? A story. That huge billboard you drive by every day? The conversations you have with your friends? The warnings you tell your children? Stories. We make sense of the world and our own lives through narrative. Every experience that we have as human beings becomes integrated into our personal stories. The ones that we remember well, or that led to something significant, become part of our life story.

Holistic admissions: What does that really mean?

Community service is a great way to help others and improve your local community. It can be an avenue to build on or develop new skills, feel great about your contributions, and develop interests and passions into tangible results. From a college-admissions perspective, admissions officers want to see that you take deep dives into your interests (that relevantly have a community service aspect) and are able to create an impact in your community and even beyond. Today, we’ll talk about how you should go about thinking about your community service.

In most top colleges’ supplemental essay portion, the first prompt is usually the “why us?” question. Although it sounds like a question that colleges use to flatter themselves, what are college admissions committees actually trying to know about students through this question?

My journey to MIT began at age 16 while in high school in Jamaica, where I was born and raised. Through random circumstances, I had discovered MIT online and the school immediately captivated me. At that moment I decided “I’m going to get into MIT.”

After spending countless hours planning, writing, and editing your applications, you finally hit the submit button and you wait. However, an aspect many students forget in the college application process is the interview process. (Don’t fret if you don’t get an interview, as it largely depends on how many available alumni have volunteered to interview students in your area as well as how many students have requested an interview.) However, if you are given a chance to interview, take the opportunity.

It’s that time of the year again. For many, summer is a time to relax being off from school for several months; for others, it’s a time to get even more work done in preparation for college admissions looming ahead. How should you spend your summer vacation as a high school student aspiring to attend an elite college?