Researching Ivy League Admissions

Researching Ivy League Admissions December 26 Theres a bit of an inaccuracy in an article of the Cornell Chronicle. A funny one. Theres an article in Cornell Chronicle by Kathy Hovis entitled In Arts and Sciences, reading every admission application that we figured wed bring to the attention of our loyal readers. Our loyal readers, after all, know that we have a penchant for pointing out inaccuracies about the highly selective college admissions process and correcting popular misconceptions. Well, this particular article didnt get off on the right foot with us! It begins like this: Google Ivy League admissions and up will pop thousands of sites that list the GPA requirements, SAT scores and activities a high school student needs to make her or his application stand out to admissions counselors.  Typical text reads: A winning Ivy League application needs to present a strong academic record, meaningful extracurricular activities, glowing letters of recommendation and a compelling application essay.  What these sites don’t reveal are a host of other factors that Cornell’s admissions deans consider when they are deciding on the new freshman class. Things like curiosity, sincerity, leadership and a general sense that they will fit at Cornell – the idea that students understand and are excited to take advantage of all that Cornell has to offer. Not so, Ms. Hovis. In fact, if you Google Ivy League admissions, youll find Ivy Coachs website at the very top or right near the top of your search results. And, if you choose to peruse our extensive site, youll find page after page after page devoted to the host of other factors that Cornell admissions deans consider when they are deciding on the new freshman class. We write about intellectual curiosity. We write about sincerity in essays, in letters of recommendation. We write about leadership and fit. And so much more! Do your homework, Ms. Hovis. If youre going to lead off your article by stating that a certain search result doesnt return what youre hoping to find, click on the very first link on the very first Google search result page. But our guess is you didnt actually bother Googling it. You just thought it would make a fun intro for your article! We take no offense. Rather, we find it amusing. But maybe next time youll do as you suggest to your readers