“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”
— Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Nationally Recognized College Expert
August 20, 2026
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has joined the ranks of premier flagship universities that high-achieving teens from around the country and the world now line up to attend. Like UVA,...
Short version, and the only thing most readers came here for: the University of Georgia no longer requires a supplemental essay. The well-known “meaningful book” prompt, which asked applicants...
UChicago has long been known for their “provocative” essay prompts, viewing them as a chance for “students to talk about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions.” The University of...
Short version, and the only thing most readers came here for: UNC-Chapel Hill no longer requires supplemental essays. Both short-answer questions have been removed for the 2026-27 application cycle....
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of the top public universities in the entire United States. Top-ranked computer science, engineering, and business programs, in particular, attract an endless...
The University of Washington’s main campus in Seattle isn’t the type of public school that just services local residents. Rather, UW-Seattle attracts roughly twice as many applicants from out...
Getting accepted into Swarthmore College, one of the very best liberal arts schools in the country, is equivalent to gaining acceptance into an Ivy League school. With a 7.4%...
Short version, and the only thing most readers came here for: the University of Miami no longer requires a supplemental essay. The community reflection prompt has been eliminated for...
Tufts University has long been a highly selective school, and it keeps getting more so. For the Class of 2030, Tufts admitted 10% of applicants from a record pool...
August 18, 2026
With a most recently confirmed acceptance rate of 3.8%, Stanford University is in a league of selectivity with only a handful of other schools including Harvard, MIT, and Princeton....
Princeton’s most recently confirmed acceptance rate is 4.42% for the Class of 2029, when the university admitted 1,865 students from 42,303 applications. Princeton withheld its Class of 2030 figures...
In its most recent completed cycle, NYU received 120,633 applications, a record-breaking figure for the university, and admitted 9,288 students for an all-time low acceptance rate of 7.7%. To...
Rice University, the STEM powerhouse in Houston, Texas, admitted 2,984 students from 38,603 applicants for its Class of 2030, a record-low 7.7% acceptance rate. Given that the applicant pool,...
Situated in the state capital of Raleigh, North Carolina State University is a stellar public research institution that attracts droves of high school stars from around the country. Known...
Purdue is a school where the non-scary acceptance rate figures are not truly indicative of just how competitive the admissions process actually is. This public land grant research university...
With an acceptance rate of about 7% for the Class of 2030, Northwestern University is very much an “Ivy-equivalent” school. This is true both in terms of quality academics...
When applying to MIT, a school with a 4.6% acceptance rate where a 1500 SAT would place you below the average enrolled student (seriously), teens should be aware that...
With an acceptance rate still above 50%, it would be easy to misjudge how challenging the Penn State admissions landscape truly is. University Park draws well over 100,000 applications...
August 14, 2026
In the most recent cycle with complete data, Johns Hopkins University admitted 5.14% of applicants into the Class of 2029, a record low, and the university extended 2,795 offers...
Emory’s 12.3% acceptance rate for the Class of 2030 came after they received a record 43,269 applications, a sharp jump from the roughly 37,000 the school had been fielding...
