Posts by Andrew Belasco:
2024 Guide to Summer Programs for High School Students
Posted on: 01 Dec 2023
In the 1990s, while the rest of society was busy squirting each other with Super Soakers, listening to the Gin Blossoms, and carving Nike swooshes into their hair, colleges suddenly realized, for the very first time, that their campuses were completely deserted during the summer. That’s when an administrator at a prestigious university had a […]
Georgetown Supplemental Essays 2023-24 – Prompts and Advice
Posted on: 11 Sep 2023
The nation’s oldest Jesuit institution of higher learning is also its most selective, as Georgetown University welcomed just 13% of applicants to the Class of 2027 onto its historical and notably beautiful Washington, D.C. campus. Whenever you are applying to a school of Georgetown’s caliber, where the average admitted applicant has a 1470 SAT score […]
2023-24 Penn State Supplemental Essay – Prompt and Tips
Posted on: 06 Sep 2023
With an acceptance rate still above 50%, it would be easy to misjudge how challenging the Penn State admissions landscape truly is. In fact, those entering the famed University Park campus sport mid-50 SATs of 1270-1450. They also boast an unweighted GPA range of 3.59-3.93. Additionally, successful applicants in 2023-24 should prepare to write a […]
Cornell Supplemental Essays 2023-24 – Prompts and Advice
Posted on: 06 Sep 2023
The 7.3% acceptance rate for Cornell’s Class of 2027 was just a touch higher than last year’s 6.9%; as late as 2003, the school still had as high as a 31% acceptance rate. Clearly, getting into Cornell in 2023-24 is a vastly different enterprise than earlier in the millennium. Even if you earned a 1450+ […]
Northwestern Supplemental Essays 2023-24 – Prompts and Advice
Posted on: 06 Sep 2023
With an acceptance rate of just 7% for the Class of 2027, 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 […]
University of Miami Supplemental Essays 2023-24 Prompts and Advice
Posted on: 28 Aug 2023
In the 1980s and ‘90s, the University of Miami was a football powerhouse; albeit one with its fair share of controversy. In the 2020s, the school has more to brag about on the academic front than on the gridiron. Now attracting close to 50,000 applications and sporting an acceptance rate of just 19% (and dropping), U […]
College Application Essay Topics to Avoid – 2023-24 Edition
Posted on: 19 Aug 2023
We would never unequivocally tell an applicant that any proposed college essay topic is off-limits. Great writers can take the most mundane, banal, and generic topic and transform it into a captivating composition. However, in our experience reading thousands of college essays, we are able to say with confidence that students are wise to steer […]
University of Virginia (UVA) Supplemental Essays 2023-24 Prompts & Advice
Posted on: 16 Aug 2023
The University of Virginia is one of the handful of flagship public institutions in the United States that attract massive numbers of high-achieving applicants from around the country/globe each and every year. In the most recent admissions cycle, over 56,000 students applied (up 10% from the previous year) and only 16% were accepted. While becoming […]
