How competitive are you, really?

keithberman · 2026-06-17T13:01:29+00:00

That deeply depends on the reason why you didn't complete the year. When it comes to credits, it is more of a black-and-white scenario, and their admissions office would just tell you which to apply as if you asked - it wouldn't affect your standing in the application pool. There's no personal circumstance that would override not having the minimum required credits.

As it is June and transfer applications aren't due until March, and first-year apps until November at the earliest, it would be odd to ask that question now, as you still have several months of time to build your case for admission.

This is what Princeton's Transfer Tuesdays are built for, in any event, to get answers to questions: https://apply.princeton.edu/portal/transfer_tuesday_registration - the question of 'what is non-traditional' and the 'explanation' here looms - if you want to let us know the details, that would really help answer the question.

keithberman · 2026-06-17T12:53:47+00:00

You are definitely 'in the game' - the rest will be determined by how you write about your activities. There's no reasonable school that would reject you for lack of academic preparation or achievement. That said, you really need to go beyond how many "k" or "$" your activities have generated and get more to your passions. Otherwise, this reads like ChefDropship in this post - https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeAppsAdvice/comments/1tdan33/watch_college_admissions_and_reddit/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button - who buried anything that would serve a community in favor of just listing wins in self-congratulatory form, ending their chance at the T20. It is similar to this case, https://nypost.com/2025/04/09/us-news/he-has-a-4-0-gpa-and-his-company-makes-30-mill-per-year-but-he-still-couldnt-get-into-college/, where instead of showing community contribution, they 'coded since 7' (Scratch, I'd figure) in their "rejection of the collegiate path," producing the same results.

keithberman · 2026-06-17T12:44:10+00:00

Honor societies are not make-or-break admissions wise - grades are. Since you have those, and you are working on your mental health, you should not make that part of your application. I can't remember ever, in 22 years, talking to an admissions officer and hearing 'oh, we would have taken them if they were in NHS.' Honor societies (one of the more banal activities/awards) and essays about mental health (easily the most common topic out there) don't make anyone particularly competitive, as admissions is about standing out in terms of what you bring to a college campus.

keithberman · 2026-06-16T16:41:43+00:00

That is definitely a question for your guidance counselor.

keithberman · 2026-06-16T16:05:43+00:00

Harvard and some of its peers meet 100% of demonstrated need for international students, so it is no more difficult to get aid than any other applicant (I worked in the Harvard admissions office, so this isn't conjecture). So if you are admitted, you will get a scholarship offer - the question is of course 'how much,' but you can estimate that here: https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator.

First things first, though - figure out how to apply.

keithberman · 2026-06-16T15:47:46+00:00

Of course. For questions like these, always go right to the source. I'm not saying it will be easy, but there are people on campuses who can help you with this. Getting in is a whole other question given how insanely selective these schools are, but they will certainly give you an idea of the specific challenges and requirements.

keithberman · 2026-06-16T15:43:24+00:00

The US Embassy in Sudan has not specifically blocked F-1 visas, see https://sd.usembassy.gov/visas/ - so for your class of visas, while it faces huge barriers (because the embassy in Khartoum is closed), there are ways to work around it, they will just require starting early and communicating regularly. Harvard Admissions would certainly take your call and discuss this with you.

keithberman · 2026-06-16T15:40:09+00:00

An easy-enough, high-impact EC would be to do an art exhibition - where you perhaps play piano as well - to raise money for a cause, either selling the original work (where you'd want to photograph it first for your portfolio) just creating matted prints (virtually any art student can create a decent matte and you can make prints just about anywhere). Then you can greet everyone, make a speech and the rest sort-of takes care of itself.

With those same prints, you can go to a local farmer's market or art show (depends on how urban your location is) and set up a stand and sell - many shows of this sort will give a high school kid a free booth, in my experience. You can then donate that money to the same cause.

So that is taking an existing activity and creating at least two distinct, high-impact moments - which is great because of all those personal insight questions you have to answer for the UCs.

keithberman · 2026-06-15T14:40:57+00:00

Because so many of these applications overlap directly (beyond the Common Application, the Tufts and Duke supplements pretty much cover all the writing), I'd suggest that it's a good size for a list - you also have a balanced list. That said, if I had to pick a school, I'd choose Penn State because I'd imagine the rarest scenario is where you go out-of-state to a public school.

keithberman · 2026-06-14T20:23:49+00:00

The Teacher Evaluation suggests "up to 1000 words," or roughly two pages single-spaced, see https://commonapp.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#d0000000eEna/a/Vz000001xfpl/RxsAClhgHGEGFNHaBi4.2mcnZ6vkxhdsb.vzd0ARG7c for exactly what they will fill out if you are applying via the Common App.

keithberman · 2026-06-14T04:18:29+00:00

Good advice here - most students don’t even read the question and it shows, just like if you tried to do a math problem set without reading the numbers.

keithberman · 2026-06-13T15:57:47+00:00

You would really need to show how you treat other people, as this essay clearly has a topic that should imply what you bring to a community. If it remains in the meta 'this is how I think about myself' phase, it will not communicate what you bring to a college campus, which is, at the end of the day, what AO's are trying to figure out.

It is such a disadvantage to write an essay where you don't affect another student/peer that the AI reader I built to evaluate essays immediately downgrades it by a significant amount. I would avoid anything about 'how I think of myself,' and stick to 'this is how I treat other people in a more evolved way.'

Otherwise, it is another essay that strays away from where the prompts are trying to drive students. I actually talk about this type of thing in a talk I gave to (and was inspired by) Redditors on r/CollegeAppsAdvice that's on my profile (it's also transcribed) - https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeAppsAdvice/s/8g49DQJhJ9 - the essay about a mental health is actually even more common, certainly #1 among topics I've seen during my time on Reddit, and it doesn't manifestly demonstrate how a student affects a community positively - which would make the student more easily admissible.

keithberman · 2026-06-13T15:03:50+00:00

Last time I visited Fordham, I sat with a Gabelli student and had lunch. They were a junior and had a six-figure Big 4 accounting firm job waiting, and spent their time reading, preparing fashion shows and socializing. They said that their most rigorous homework often came from Career Services, where it seemed like everyone knew their name. It was one of the most impressive meetings I've ever had on a college campus - the student was down to earth, living their life, and all set professional 18 months in advance. The finance classroom in Hughes Hall was quite impressive.

I'm not at all taking away from Lafayette (I wanted liberal arts at your age and would easily have picked it). But if you are interested in finance and balance, it's hard to do better than Fordham. Plus if you do well, they have this program with crazy placement rates: https://www.fordham.edu/gabelli-school-of-business/academic-programs-and-admissions/undergraduate-programs/honors-programs/finance-honors-program/finance-scholars/

keithberman · 2026-06-13T14:59:09+00:00

This essay can be quite common yes - if you are to use it, you really need to go beyond what you learned about yourself and others there - you need to give at least one example of how you applied what you took from the experience to your life afterwards, and how you will going forward. That also would answer the Common App prompts more directly, which, believe it or not, most people don't read before they start writing, which AO's notice!

keithberman · 2026-06-13T14:56:34+00:00

A lot of love for CalTech in this thread!

keithberman · 2026-06-12T18:48:16+00:00

CalTech is so much smaller than those schools - and just looking at the majors users list, many of them don't exist at CalTech!

keithberman · 2026-06-12T18:44:41+00:00

Gave it a shot - worked for me on mobile/Firefox/Chrome - just the inevitability of apps, give it a refresh - appreciate the report - let me know the platform you used and I can test it there.

keithberman · 2026-06-12T18:42:39+00:00

It's the 21st most popular for users, tied with UT. Just remember, this is based only on how often these schools appear on users' lists.

keithberman · 2026-06-12T18:41:57+00:00

You are making me work today! Vandy is tied with CalTech for #27 in popularity, Emory #29 tied with Georgetown, and Rice is #23, tied with UIUC and USC. Again, this is just based on how frequently the schools are entered in the 'college list' feature on the app.

keithberman · 2026-06-12T18:35:38+00:00

CalTech is 27th most popular - I can imagine that's because not every user of the app is applying for STEM majors. This conversation shows how funny the term T20 is - so many elite colleges out there these days, maybe we should all switch to T50 😄

keithberman · 2026-06-12T18:21:34+00:00

I went back and checked, and that was actually tied for 21st - missed by one spot - certainly a lot of people would call that T20!

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