<p>I want to know how you made it in and if you have any tips/suggestions/warnings about admissions as well as high school curriculum leading up to applying 
Thanks!</p>
<p>By not asking stupid questions.
True story.
(This is real advice, not just smartass-ness. And it’s good advice too.)</p>
<p>On a serious note: Nobody does things to get in. You get in because of who you are. Doing things ‘to get in’ lands you up at Tufts, WUSTL and whatever other Ivy safety schools there are.
…presuming you were qualified enough to be applying in the first place.</p>
<p>guitarclassical, way to come of as a complete snob and general asshat.</p>
<p>Do what you like. Excel in those areas. Get good grades and scores.
There’s no secret. Don’t make your life about college admissions.</p>
<p>Amen to that.</p>
<p>And also, in all seriousness, there are plenty of factors to getting in that have nothing to do with planning or gaming the system. And some of them an applicant, even a successful one, can’t even possibly know about. Like having your application pulled from the stack right after four real stinkers got read. And playing bassoon as a high school senior when all of the university’s bassoon players are also seniors and the music department chair is particularly panicked about that the day he has lunch with the admissions director. And being interesting and articulate and hitting the right note with the reader. And working really hard for four years (or longer) and achieving at high levels the whole time. And having some amazing gift and applying it to some greater good since it was first discovered or tapped into.</p>
<p>If the admissions office is doing its job, it’s not about applicants plotting out a specific path or creating a “how to get accepted checklist” as much as it is about people who have compiled a consistently excellent record because that’s in their nature, and when it comes time to apply they take stock at what they’ve done and understand where they can go (not in terms of college but in life) and decide that it turns out that they’ve probably got what it takes and they’re going to take it on.</p>
<p>If that’s not you and it’s not what you’ve been doing, then it may make sense to turn to gaming the system and trying to make a mad dash to catch up and spin yourself, but it’s not the best way to go about it.</p>
<p>That’s why a question like this sort of comes across like asking Michael Phelps, a year before Olympic qualifying, how he won the gold medal. By the time the question gets asked, it’s already too late for the answer to be of value. All you can do is be yourself. There are thousands of colleges. There are probably many that will be right for you. And the best way to land in one that’s right for you is to be true to who you are and present that person rather than invoke tips and tricks and strategies.</p>
<p>That said, you didn’t ask to be beaten down with advice you didn’t want to hear so here’s what to do with the essays:</p>
<p>Write them in really really small print (as it makes the reader pay really close attention) and write it in overlapping spirals to show how your thoughts weave in and out and interconnect with each other. Each sentence should start at the center…using a different color…such that they spiral out to create an overall flower effect which is an allegory for how you bloomed as a student (and writer).</p>
<p>Or, if spirals seem too mundane, write your essay so that it forms the silhouette of a unicorn (if your essay is about unicorns, that is) or better still, cut out a portrait of yourself and write the essay around your silhouette – up the back of your neck, around the cowlick, through the part, zipping over the forehead (making sure not to pop the zit), blazing a new trail through the unibrow, skiing down the slope of your nose, rappelling over the lips, and using the chin to create some dramatic tension before garroting things at the neck. They’ll think you’re a total genius. This is guaranteed.</p>