Ali's Insights

Admissions officers often read tens of thousands of applications. During their arduous review process, they look for “red flags” to help them quickly weed out unqualified applicants. Here are five common “red flags” – and how to avoid them.

1.     Lack of Academic Rigor

Admissions officers want to see that applicants challenged themselves by taking rigorous courses available to them at their high school. It’s therefore helpful (and for some top-tier colleges, critical) to not only maintain good grades, but also to select courses that push you intellectually. This is especially important…

As more colleges emphasize a “holistic” admissions review process, demonstrating fit for your first-choice major can become very important. As an initial matter, it’s important to clarify that NOT all schools consider an applicant’s major; many colleges admit their students as “undeclared.” But for other colleges (especially large public universities), applicants must select their preferred college within the university, and their preferred major within that college. This discussion focuses on universities requiring this selection during the application process.

Admissions offices want to see applicants exploring their first-choice major throughout their high…

Here in the very competitive tri-state area, list size has always been a controversial discussion topic. But in the last 5 application cycles (in part due to many colleges remaining test-optional), we’ve seen a staggering increase in the number of applications that students apply to. How many schools is enough?

As a starting point, list out 4-6 schools that excite you (‘excite’ in terms of academic interests, appealing geographic preferences, etc) and determine whether those 4-6 schools fall in the category of ‘universal reach’ (a ‘stretch’ for all applicants), ‘reach,’ ‘target,’…

With applicants applying to more colleges than ever, it has become expensive to order official score reports as part of the applications. Over the past few years, many colleges have accepted “self-reported scores” during the application process. Rather than having to go through the College Board/ACT to release your score data at a charge (per application), applicants can now manually input their SAT/ACT score(s) into the application itself (through the Common Application platform or the Coalition Application). These unofficial scores are used for admissions purposes only. If you are accepted and decide…

Back in the 1990s (yes, I’m dating myself), there were two choices – Early Decision (‘ED’) and Regular Decision (‘RD’). Today’s admissions landscape looks a lot different, and a whole lot more complicated.

Here’s a simple breakdown of every possible application type:

Early Decision

ED applications are binding and come with an earlier (typically 11/1 or 11/15) deadline. The ED agreement is essentially “if I get in, I will attend.” There are rare exceptions to this rule, typically related to financial aid packages or if you are admitted to an “alternate” program/campus.

The scores you receive on Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests have little impact on your chances of admission to college. Many schools have space on their applications for you to self-report your AP and/or IB scores…and if you received a high score (ie, 5s on a variety of AP subjects), feel free to include the scores – admissions committees will see them. But reported AP/IB scores have little weight in the admissions process. Factors such as GPA, courses listed on your transcript, SAT/ACT test scores and teacher recommendations matter…

Demonstrated interest ('DI') refers to how colleges assess how interested an applicant is in attending the school. Without getting too technical, DI can be closely correlated to high yield rates - the percentage of admitted applicants that go on to enroll (this statistic can affect a school's standing in various published rankings and how they are perceived by their boards and donors).  

Some colleges track DI, others don't. For schools that track DI, it can be a very important part of the admission process for students. An applicant's file will include…