How to Get Into an Ivy League School

i started thinking about college applications my freshman year of high school now a lot of people say that it's never too early to get started which is true but overly stressing about college apps your freshman year is a bit too much and i'll admit that i did do that within the first week of high school i went up to the guidance office and set up an appointment with my school counselor the one and the only question that i had planned for her was how do i get into an ivy league and i remember this meeting she took me to her office she sat me down and that's when i asked the question she looked me in the eyes and said that people who go to ivies essentially have something really special or extraordinary about them and right after saying that she asked me gohar what have you done now throughout elementary school and middle school i did code a bunch and i made a bunch of websites but i was honestly a bit too embarrassed to tell her about it why because a lot of these websites were about video games and there were blogs that i didn't really want to talk about so i simply told her oh i do a bit of coding she didn't seem super excited to say the least but four years later i ended up applying to a bunch of top schools and i ended up getting into these right here so how did i do it and more importantly what does it take to get into a top school right off the bat i'll say that i'm not an admissions officer i didn't see my admissions files so i don't know exactly why i got into any of these schools now i have taken a course on admissions counseling and i do remember the strategies i used throughout high school to kind of formulate my application and today we'll be breaking down one part of my strategy honing your narrative now first of all what is a narrative it's your story it's the story you tell in your college application it encompasses who you are why you are who you are and how you became who you are now everyone has a narrative it's not something that you have to artificially create for example did he move to the u.s at a young age were you super into soccer and computer science great that's part of your narrative did you have to take care of family growing up and is that why you couldn't partake in a bunch of activities that is part of your narrative now your narrative is important because college admissions in the us and especially at the top schools is holistic admissions officers will look at you as a whole they'll look at your context they'll look at your backstory they'll look at what you did and they'll try to truly and deeply understand your circumstances who you are as a person your characteristics what makes you tick and so on so why is a narrative important colleges want to embrace diverse campuses they want students from different perspectives and backgrounds to be part of their community and your narrative highlights and brings to life how you can potentially contribute to a college campus it hints at the kind of student you'll be the clubs you'll join the kind of person you'll be on campus so here's the reality while you can control a bunch of parts of your narrative such as where you were born what you did growing up etc you can largely control how it plays out in high school and you do this first and foremost by honing your identity in my case when i entered high school i very quickly knew that i wanted to do computer science that i was into entrepreneurship and that one day i even wanted to explore machine learning now i was in a lucky position because i figured out what i wanted my narrative to be essentially from the first day of high school a lot of students aren't in this position and that's okay take ninth grade as a learning year join a bunch of clubs try different activities pick up new hobbies figure out what you're actually interested in now a lot of students by the end of ninth grade will have some sort of an idea and once you have figured out what you want your narrative to be i want you to summarize it in one sentence are you the science olympiad who plays soccer are you the clarinet prodigy who's super into computer science are you the social activist that started a movement of 10 000 students now it does seem a bit superficial to boil you down into one sentence but it's helpful to have a sharp idea of who you want to be because that'll influence the activities you do and that leads me to my next part once you have figured out what you want your narrative and identity to be you have to go as far as possible if you're into biology joining biology club is a good first step but there are always creative and novel ways to go further and the younger you are the more opportunities you'll have for example if you're into biology and you want to go to yale for biology taking ap bio and being part of bioclub are some good first steps further steps might include preparing for the bio olympiad participating in local science fairs doing bio research at a local university and in my opinion the more sharp your interests can be the more appealing and interesting of a candidate you'll become for example instead of just broadly being interested in biology if you're interested in a certain field make that evident make your science fair projects about that field make your research about that field make your organization do activities within that subfield of biology and the biggest lesson that i learned in high school about creating and pursuing these activities is that almost anything counts if you have a tick-tock account about biology that counts activities on your application do not have to be these formalized professional pursuits okay so once you've figured out all these activities and pursuits that you want to start the next step is simply to continue them and keep going further and further for example you can have two students that both started non-profits that pertain to biology the activity title might be the same and honestly the title is meaningless because anybody can start stuff what will set you apart is how much impact you can actually create you have non-profits that simply post on instagram and then you have non-profits that are out here with thousands and thousands of members and that are actually making waves in society so once you have a few things going for you stop trying to find more things to add to your application go deep on the select three or four activities you are most passionate about and once you're a senior and applying to college it's really just about stitching this whole narrative together and you do that really in three major parts the essays through teacher rex and through interviews these are the parts that tell a story that revealed to admissions officers parts about you that numbers simply can't now i have a video about college essays and i plan to make a video about college interviews and teacher wrecks in the future but the general idea is that these elements should come together to support your narrative in the case of this biology student of course they should hint at the student's undying passion for biology but when it comes to supplements and additional essays highlight different parts about yourself because your narrative is not just your academic interest but also remember your background and other circumstances you've been through throughout your life so as these letters interviews and essays come together it'll paint a picture of not only what you're academically passionate about but also who you are your background and once again how you'll contribute to a college campus

Channel: Gohar Khan

Views: 269,730

Keywords: college admissions

Id: tZqbNPdPFtk

Length: 6min 28sec (388 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 15 2022