Posts by Andrew Belasco:

UNC Chapel Hill Supplemental Essays 2025-26 – Prompts and Advice

Posted on: 03 Jul 2025

Those hoping to enter the Tar Heel Class of 2028 faced tougher competition than at any previous time in UNC Chapel Hill history. To quantify this assertion, there were 66,535 first-year applicants for the Class of 2028 and the overall acceptance rate was just 15.3%—less than half the figure seen two decades ago. North Carolinians […]

How to Get Into Northwestern: Acceptance Rate and Strategies

Posted on: 03 Jul 2025

Located in Evanston, Illinois, near the desirable city of Chicago, Northwestern University is home to slightly more than 8,800 brilliant undergraduates and several of the top academic programs in the world. The notion of Northwestern being a highly selective school is nothing new, but—as with most elite institutions in 2025—getting into Northwestern and becoming a […]

How to Get Into Duke: Acceptance Rate and Strategies

Posted on: 03 Jul 2025

With an acceptance rate solidly under 5%, the Duke acceptance rate is now slightly lower than that of Dartmouth, Tufts, or Rice. Their exclusivity is matched by their sheer popularity—Duke receives as many applications as Brown and Yale. While Duke has always been an academically competitive institution, gaining admission didn’t used to be THIS difficult. […]

How to Get Into Caltech: Acceptance Rate & Admissions Strategies

Posted on: 02 Jul 2025

A popular filming location for shows/movies about brilliant young scientists (Big Bang Theory, Numb3rs, Real Genius, and countless others), the California Institute of Technology is a magnet for the most accomplished STEM minds in the country. You might think of Caltech as “MIT-West,” and in many ways that would be an accurate moniker. At the […]

How to Get Into the University of Chicago: Acceptance Rate and Strategies

Posted on: 02 Jul 2025

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the University of Chicago was still a premier destination for quiet, bookish types, many of whom had their heart set on a future in research/academia. Always a haven for intellectuals, UChicago was more concerned with providing an epically rigorous educational experience (the school was then known as “where fun […]

How to Get Into Williams College: Acceptance Rate & Strategies

Posted on: 02 Jul 2025

Williams College is one of the most competitive liberal arts schools in the country, in the same league as the likes of Amherst, Pomona, and Swarthmore. While lesser known to the general public, these schools are every bit as competitive and prestigious as Ivy League universities, and boast of acceptance rates in the single-digits or […]

The Best High Schools in Monmouth County, NJ: A College Admissions Deep Dive

Posted on: 01 Jul 2025

If you’re raising a college-bound teenager in Monmouth County, you’re navigating one of the most academically diverse and quietly competitive regions in New Jersey. From nationally ranked magnet academies like Biotechnology High School, High Technology High School, and MAST, to powerhouse suburban publics such as Rumson–Fair Haven, Holmdel, Marlboro, and Colts Neck, to selective private […]

Northwestern Supplemental Essays 2025-26 – Prompts and Advice

Posted on: 01 Jul 2025

With an acceptance rate of about 7% for the Class of 2029, Northwestern University is very much an “Ivy-equivalent” school. This is true both in terms of quality academics and selectivity. Last fall, incoming Wildcats almost universally placed within the top 10% of their respective high school class. They also boasted average SAT scores in […]