“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”
— Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Nationally Recognized College Expert
January 21, 2025
If your dream is to become a Nittany Lion but you don’t have the grades and test scores to make the cut directly out of high school, don’t worry—all...
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland is among the Ivy-equivalent colleges that now perennially sports a single-digit acceptance rate. This means that very few of the deserving crop of...
Much like the Ivy League colleges, Stanford, and MIT, the University of Chicago rejects many applicants who possess near-perfect (or perfect) test scores, grades, and extracurricular profiles. To further...
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is one of the most competitive private universities in the country. They reject close to 9 of every 10 applicants who apply to...
UCLA is a school with a single-digit acceptance rate for freshman applicants. However, unlike at other elite universities like Stanford or Harvard, transferring into UCLA is a proposition with...
January 20, 2025
For those applying as first-year applicants, Rice University has a single-digit acceptance rate. These high standards leave many aspiring Owls outside of the nest. However, not everyone is ready...
Ranked among the top 30 public universities in the country, Texas A&M draws a competitive applicant pool for coveted spots in their freshman class. This includes almost 8,000 out-of-state...
For entry in the fall of 2023, the middle-50% of successful freshman applicants to the University of Washington had a 3.75-3.98 GPA and a 1410 SAT. If you fell...
By any measure, the University of Notre Dame is an elite and highly selective institution. Incredibly, last year, 88 of every 100 freshman applicants were turned away. In more...
If you were not among the one-in-five freshman applicants to be accepted into the University of Michigan, your dream of becoming a Wolverine is not over. In fact, the...
The University of North Carolina is a dream school for many high-achieving teens from all over the world. While gaining acceptance to UNC Chapel Hill has never been tougher—the...
For prospective freshman applicants, Dartmouth—like all Ivies—sports an extremely low admit rate year after year. However, on the transfer front, the outcomes are far more variable. In recent years,...
Accepting as many as 450 transfer applicants per year, Emory University is one of the more transfer-friendly elite private institutions in the United States. Most schools with an 17%...
January 18, 2025
The University of Virginia is among the most selective public universities in the country. While they take less than 20% of freshman applicants, UVA remains one of the best...
January 16, 2025
Princeton University is a school that rejects 24 first-year applicants for every 1 that it accepts. The odds are even worse for transfer applicants. However, there is some reason...
Just a generation ago, Northeastern accepted the vast majority of quality applicants they received. By contrast, last year, they took under 6%. There aren’t many schools that have skyrocketed...
Georgia Tech is a far more selective school than many people presently comprehend. They now reject more than 4 in 5 of those who apply and are particularly tough...
Getting accepted into Brown as a transfer applicant is every bit as challenging as gaining admission directly out of high school. At the same time, if you’re sure that...
For most people, Georgetown University is the premier Jesuit school in the country. Located in Washington, D.C., this university is the number one destination point for many high school...
Nashville-based Vanderbilt is a dream school for many stellar high school students. Unfortunately, that dream will remain an unrealized one for most, as an astounding 94% of those who...
