On this week’s episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Elizabeth Heaton explores the idea of a “distinguishing excellence” in highly selective college admission (especially relevant for ninth and tenth graders), and then, targeting high school seniors and their parents, spends two full segments discussing the intricacies of this summer’s transition from high school to college.

Admissions, Penn Style

Ever wonder how admission officers at the most selective universities read applications? In the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Elizabeth Heaton launched the second installment in the series looking at how admissions decisions are made at a variety of institutions. To help her discuss admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, Beth welcomed her former Penn colleague, College Coach expert Sai Somboon. Together they discussed how applications are read at Penn, helping listeners understand the process a bit better.

If you’ve been following Elizabeth Heaton’s Huffington Post series Who Gets Into Harvard?, you know that a stellar high school transcript and equally compelling standardized test scores are crucial ingredients in a successful bid for admission to an Ivy League college, but are high grades and SAT scores enough?

To the thousands of students grappling with a recent rejection from an Ivy League or similarly selective university, the college admissions process can seem unfair. And guess what? They’re right. The competition among the highly selective universities to recruit what amounts to a virtual handful of students leads to a purposeful lack of transparency in their admissions practices. This opacity encourages among families unrealistic expectations, undue stress, and, for the vast majority of applicants, eventual disappointment. Is this anxiety and heartbreak simply a natural consequence of a brutally selective process? No, says College Coach’s Ian Fisher.

Harvard University releases its admissions decisions for the 2017/18 school year today.  Is your child one of the chosen few receiving the coveted acceptance from Harvard or one of the other similarly selective Ivy League institutions?  If we’re being honest, the answer is probably not.  But why not?  Your child is a good student, right?  But how good is good? 

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Beth Heaton welcomed guests to talk about both the SUNY (State University New York) system and to answer our listener’s questions.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Sally Ganga welcomed guests to explore the college transfer process and opportunities for private scholarships.

In my former life as an admissions officer, I was often cornered at the end of my information sessions by a student or parent who wanted to know the “secret” formula, the undisclosed algorithm, for getting into MIT or Caltech:

“How many APs should I take?”

“Should I raise that 770 math score to an 800?”

“I play violin, run track, compete on the Science Olympiad team, and volunteer several hours a week. How many other activities do I need?”