Here’s an example from Cornell’s website, which really seems to stress “innovation:”
“Cornell Engineering celebrates innovative problem solving that helps people, communities” (talking about the writing supplement)
“We are looking for problem solvers and innovators…” (from their 2017 Freshman application booklet)
“Entrepreneurship at Cornell is the hub for students to…create tomorrow’s business innovations today.” (From their Academics - Business page)
These are just 3 examples, there are countless more. Any student who is paying attention and doing their due diligence (as opposed to just blindly applying) would understand that Cornell cares about innovation, and should stress that in their essays, letters of recs, etc.
Lehigh, on the other hand, seemed to me to be all about “leadership”, and so someone applying there would emphasize that quality. Tufts seemed to me to be all about collaboration.
I think the students who succeed in getting in are the ones that pick up these clues and tailor their apps accordingly. Much more work, but a better end result.
I don’t think anyone should be focusing on what colleges are looking for. I think everyone should stop trying to fit a school and find a school that fits them. So I would ask, instead, what an individual applicant is looking for, not the schools
I think creative writing, and maybe even a little salesman like ability to BS, can matter as much as anything. In one of John Hopkin’s examples of a great essay this year, the student used a lot of verbiage to tell us the shocking news that’s its cold in Vermont. He then tells us how funny and reassuring he was reading the announcements. Did the rest of the school find him as funny and reassuring as he thought he was? Who knows?
However, it seems like, on these forums, many individual applicants’ idea of “fits them” is college prestige and exclusivity, making their reach colleges more desirable to them than their safety colleges, leading them to focus on trying to find out or game what their reach colleges are looking for.
The top schools look for the same things in applicants. The proof is that some kids got in all the Ivy+ schools that they applied to.
These top schools give different weight to different things that they look for. The kids that got in some, but not all, of the Ivy+ that they applied to are the proof.
This thread and many people want to know the weight each school gives to each thing that they value. Nothing’s wrong with that if the applicant is a junior in high school. But it could be unhealthy for much much younger kids. It’s unhealthy if parents try to shape the kids to fit the schools, but it’s healthy to see what schools their naturally developed kids fit into.
eiholi, I agree with this: "It’s unhealthy if parents try to shape the kids to fit the schools, but it’s healthy to see what schools their naturally developed kids fit into. "
But that’s what I meant when I suggested switching the focus from what the schools are looking for to what the kids are looking for.
This involves research and visits. Looking at factors such as location, size, academics, extracurriculars and “vibe.” Talented and interesting peers might be a factor too.
As for creative writing, I would say that the effort to be creative is the number one cause for truly awful essays
See the “Mission Drives Admission” section. It helped me understand a little better what sometimes looks like a random event (the infamous “lottery” schools).
I’m not sure what top schools are looking for but I’ll add this little bit of data. My D attends a high school with a specialized curriculum that includes no AP/IB/Honors classes. It’s only 12 years old and has 125 kids in each graduating class so not a ton of data but top students have been accepted to Stanford, MIT, Chicago, and all the Ivies except Brown. High GPAs, high test scores, high achieving URMs , kids with varied interests have all applied and been rejected by Brown. So either it’s a huge coincidence or Brown just doesn’t like the specialized curriculum or the lack of AP/IB classes.
I agree with compmom, with the addition that I think that the best way to know which colleges offer what the applicants want is to know exactly what the colleges are looking for–which is why I posed the question that way, in addition to the possibility that it would reduce the mystery of the admissions process at “top” schools at least a little.
If you know a reasonably large number of graduates from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, you will probably see commonalities among the alumni/ae of the same college and differences between pairs of colleges. But those observations are not that easy to convert into adjectives or lists of qualities (at least, not without making it likely that you will receive some blistering counter-claims).
It’s too bad the well rounded student is out. Be angular or spikey. Also first gen is in as well as students from North Dakota are always wanted at the elites.
Well, I’d have to counter with the LACs (and I have one at a top LAC) wants spikes across the board. So yes, you call it well rounded, but they want that well roundedness to be superlative in every category whereas the other elites may only need spikes in one.
Perhaps one needs both. I.e. have high achievement in a well rounded baseline of academics (i.e. no deficiencies, like the numerous students who ask if it is ok to stop foreign language at level 2, skip physics, or skip precalculus) but also some exceptional achievement (spike) in something interesting to admissions readers, if one applies to super-selective schools.
^ what he/she said. Someone during my son’s college search used the term “well lopsided”. In other words, be well rounded, check all the boxes, certainly. But you better bring something else to the table as well.
Admissions officers state what Academic and non-Academic factors are important in their Common Data Set. Almost all the top schools rank non-Academic factors as “Very Important”. Brown says “Talent” is “Very Important” in their Common Data Set. The top schools are looking for non-hooked students of extraordinary talent (i.e. ability on the Regional, National or International level).
I note, however, that the student in question had the good sense to choose Auburn over Yale, so perhaps Yale will look for less-savvy pizza lovers in future applicants.
Your post is the best answer I’ve seen in this thread. The Ivy admissions process may not be random, but it certainly appears that way to the rest of us. I don’t see any connection between that essay and motivation, curiosity, energy, leadership ability, distinctive talents, or any of the other buzzwords that Yale claims to be looking for. I don’t think it even demonstrates the applicant meets the infinitely vague and subjective bar of being interesting rather than boring.
^ This! Her aspirations are such that it’s pizza that brings her joy? And ordering pizza is her “consolation”; what exactly does she need to be consoled over? Pizza and teenagers–how original! I am sure she has an impressive application, but I also am not seeing the rationale from the limited details in the article.
