Updated Information on All Things College Admissions

This year, we were lucky to work with some of the most driven, reflective, and self-directed students in the country. Many were admitted to some of the most selective colleges in the U.S.—from Stanford and Yale to UT Austin’s CS and Business Honors programs. These weren’t students who simply checked every box. They were students who built something.  In almost every standout application we read, there was a throughline—a summer capstone project that brought the student’s story into focus.

The 2025 admissions cycle revealed something parents and students can no longer afford to overlook: colleges are not just evaluating students. They are building classes that reflect a carefully designed set of institutional priorities. While your teen may have done "everything right," the schools they applied to were also weighing factors well beyond grades and test scores. Understanding these factors is key to helping families navigate the process with less stress and more clarity.

In the rush to help our kids succeed, we may be quietly steering them away from the very roles that hold our communities together.  Careers in teaching, social work, counseling, journalism, and the humanities were once seen as noble, purpose-driven paths. But today’s college students are walking away from them in large numbers. And while it’s tempting to celebrate the surge in tech and health degrees, there’s a deeper story beneath the data—one that every parent of a teenager needs to hear.

When it comes to preparing for college, summer doesn’t need to be expensive to be impactful. In fact, many of the most powerful growth opportunities are free. Whether it’s volunteering, launching a creative project, or taking on a self-directed learning experience, what matters most is how a student engages with the experience. A thoughtfully chosen summer activity can help a student discover their interests and clarify what they might want to study in college. It can also provide the kind of story colleges remember—one that shows curiosity, initiative, and heart.

If your teen isn’t in the top 5% of their class, you’ve probably heard some version of this:  “There’s no way they’ll get into UT.” It’s a myth we hear all the time—and it’s simply not true. Yes, UT Austin is more competitive than ever. With over 90,000 applicants for the Class of 2025 and an admit rate of just 24% , the numbers tell a clear story. And for students who are not in the top 5% , the odds drop even further: the admit rate for non-auto-admit students was just 11% .

Let’s cut to the chase: Not every college major leads to a job anymore. And some degrees—still widely offered and enthusiastically chosen—are already out of step with the real world. According to the State of Higher Education 2025 report , 37% of top job skills have changed since 2016, and 1 in 5 of today’s in-demand skills didn’t even exist a decade ago. That means your teen could be pouring time and tuition into a degree that’s training them for... well, nothing. If you’re helping your student choose a major or build a college list, this isn’t just a casual consideration—it’s a crucial one. Here are five signs your teen’s major might already be behind the curve:

If your student took the SAT or ACT once and did not love the score, here is something worth knowing: the students who reached the highest scores in this cycle rarely did it in one attempt. Testing four, five, even six times was common among applicants to competitive schools this year, and not because those students were struggling. Because they were being smart about it. The families who came into this cycle expecting testing to be a single event ran into a real problem. When a score comes back below target with only one or two attempts left before deadlines, there is no room to recover. The families who understood that high scores are built over time, through repeated attempts, careful review, and steady improvement, finished the process with testing profiles that helped them rather than limited them. 

A lot of families entered this admissions cycle with a simple belief: testing does not really matter anymore. Test optional is everywhere. Scores are optional. We will figure it out. Those families got a difficult education this spring. Testing did not disappear in 2026. It evolved, and the families who had not been paying attention found themselves a step behind. More students submitted scores this year than did not. Several of the most selective schools formally moved back to requiring them. At many schools that remained test-optional, the data quietly told a story: students who submitted strong scores were admitted at meaningfully higher rates than those who did not. The rules changed. The game did not.

Picture a Monday morning in an admissions office in late November. An officer sits down with a queue of 300 applications to review before the week is out. That is roughly 60 applications a day, about 12 an hour, five minutes per student if that. There is no time to linger. There is no time to wonder. If a reader cannot immediately grasp who a student is and why that student matters, the application does not move forward. It is not a dismissal. It is math.  This is the reality most families never picture when they imagine the admissions process. At many selective schools this cycle, a single reader might be assigned 800 applications over the course of the season and flag roughly 100 of them for serious consideration. The other 700 were not debated at length. They were filtered out before the committee ever convened. What separated those 100 was not just grades. It was immediate, unmistakable signal.

This spring, something quietly unsettled a lot of families. Students with 4.0 GPAs, twelve AP courses, varsity captainships, student government titles, students who had done everything right by every metric they knew, received rejection emails and portal notifications from competitive schools they thought they had a real chance at. The grades were strong. The scores were competitive. The activities were impressive. And none of it was enough. What those families did not fully understand, and what this cycle made undeniable, is that at the most selective schools in the country, roughly 75% of applicants to the most selective schools are already academically qualified. The grades got their student to the starting line. They did not win the race. Admissions at this level is no longer about proving you can do the work. It is about giving a reader a reason to choose your student over the other 74 qualified students who look a lot like yours do.

Changing direction two months before college applications open sounds like a crisis. For this student, it was the best admissions decision she made.  Not because pivoting late is a strategy anyone would recommend. But because the application she built around her new direction was more honest, more specific, and more compelling than anything she could have produced staying on the path she had been following for four years. Auburn University saw the difference. She committed in the spring and hasn't second-guessed it once.

The bigger the list, the safer the feeling. More schools, more options, more chances. That logic makes emotional sense in October. By March, it tends to fall apart. This student applied to 14 schools. She researched most of them carefully, visited eight of them, and had strong opinions about nearly all of them. Washington University in St. Louis was added late, included because a counselor mentioned it and the name carried enough weight to feel worth a shot. She had never visited. She had never read deeply into what made it different. It was, in the most honest sense, a placeholder with a good reputation. WashU admitted her. Most of her target schools did not.

A deferral is one of the harder outcomes in the college process. Not a rejection, but not a yes either. It leaves families suspended in uncertainty for months, unsure whether to keep hoping or start adjusting. Most students respond by doubling down on the school that deferred them. This student did something more useful. He looked harder at the rest of his list, found a school he had barely researched, visited it in January, and came home knowing it was his first choice. Rice deferred him in December. Tulane Freeman School of Business admitted his ED II in February. He never had to wait for March.

The testing conversation in college admissions has gotten louder and more confusing every year. Test-optional policies expanded, then contracted. Schools that went test-free reversed course. Families who spent years being told scores didn't matter are now being told they do again, without much clarity on what that actually means in practice.  This student figured it out. Not by testing endlessly, and not by going test-optional everywhere. By understanding exactly where her score was an asset and treating it like one.

Ranked in the top 2% of her class at a large, competitive Texas public high school. A 3.95 GPA. A 1510 SAT. Full IB Diploma candidate. Her course load was exactly what a pre-med applicant is supposed to build: IB Biology HL, IB Chemistry HL, IB Physics SL, IB Mathematics AA HL, and a dual-enrollment Anatomy and Physiology course she sought out independently because her school didn't offer anything comparable. Her extracurriculars matched. Over 200 clinical volunteer hours at a hospital system near her home. President of her school's HOSA chapter, where she organized career panels and led a CPR certification drive that trained more than 80 students and faculty. A summer research internship at a university lab studying protein folding, where she contributed to data collection and co-presented findings at an undergraduate symposium. She knew what she wanted to study and why. Her application showed it across every section. Michigan waitlisted her anyway. 

The University of Chicago is not looking for the most accomplished applicant in the room. It is looking for the most intellectually alive one. That distinction matters more at UChicago than almost anywhere else. The school's admissions process is explicitly designed to surface students who don't just achieve things but who think about things in ways that are genuinely their own. Its famously open-ended essay prompts aren't a quirk. They're a diagnostic. And the students who answer them well are the ones who have already been thinking that way, long before anyone told them it would help their application.  This is the story of one of those students.

Every year, students do everything "right" and still walk away from college admissions results confused. Strong GPA. Rigorous coursework. Real extracurriculars. Essays that sound like an actual person wrote them. And a stack of rejections from schools that seemed, on paper, within reach. This is the story of one of those students. And it's also the story of a warning most families never hear until it's too late to act on it. 

Every college list has a name that almost didn't make it. Added late, included mostly to fill out a spreadsheet, never seriously researched. A placeholder. For this student, that school was SMU. It turned out to be the one that fit best. And the one she'll be attending in the fall. 

AP scores play a meaningful role in college applications. High scores can underscore academic strength and offer potential college credit. This year, more than 420,000 signed up for over 840,000 tests. Here is a snapshot of the grade distribution for some of the more commonly completed tests:

This admissions cycle made one thing unmistakably clear. The bar is higher, the competition is deeper, and strong students are being evaluated in a very different landscape than even a few years ago. More than 100 of the students we worked with were accepted to selective colleges across the country, including Brown, Yale, Rice, and highly competitive majors at schools like UT Austin, UCLA, and Michigan. What set them apart was not just academic strength. It was clarity. They made intentional choices, built depth in what mattered to them, and told cohesive, compelling stories about who they are and where they are going. In a year defined by rising deferrals and shifting testing dynamics, successful students did not rely solely on credentials. They showed direction, initiative, and alignment across every part of their application. They took risks, explored their interests in meaningful ways, and presented themselves with confidence and purpose. If you are wondering what actually made the difference this year, the answer is not a single achievement or metric. It is how everything comes together. Below, we break down the key insights from this cycle and how your student can use them to stand out in an increasingly competitive process.

Choosing the right college is one of the most significant decisions you'll make. It’s a choice that affects your education, career opportunities, social experiences, and financial future. With so many factors to consider, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But take a deep breath—this is an exciting moment! The good news is that there’s no single “right” choice. The best decision is the one that aligns with your values, goals, and future aspirations.  Most colleges and universities set a final decision deadline of May 1 of a student’s senior year. It’s essential to compare options thoroughly but also to make a timely decision to secure your spot. This guide will walk you through a step-by-step approach to choosing your college with confidence and excitement!

Choosing the right college is a significant decision for all students, but it requires additional consideration when your child has learning differences. Beyond academics and campus culture, understanding how a school supports diverse learning needs can make the difference between struggling and thriving. With the May 1 decision deadline still weeks away, you have plenty of time to gather important information to make sure the college your student chooses will have the support they need.

College admissions have become one of the most emotionally charged rites of passage for today’s teens. For many families, this season brings a mix of pride, pressure, and uncertainty. While excitement is part of the process, the toll on student mental health is real—and rising. More than half (52%) of students say the college application process is the most stressful academic experience they’ve faced. Nearly 48% report that anxiety and pressure overshadow their college planning, and 28% say mental health concerns have made them consider delaying or skipping college altogether.  As a parent, you can’t eliminate the stress entirely—but you can play a powerful role in how your student experiences it. This guide offers practical ways to support your teen’s mental health while keeping the admissions journey grounded in your family’s values.

As college admissions evolve, a new class of top-tier institutions is emerging. While the Ivy League still commands prestige, this year's admissions trends, employer preferences, and student outcomes reveal a different story: the most successful students are increasingly choosing schools that combine rigorous academics, real-world outcomes, and vibrant, supportive communities. Welcome to what Forbes calls the New Ivies . These 20 schools—10 private and 10 public—are highly selective, high-performing, and deeply respected by employers across industries. They offer the academic rigor and career outcomes once associated only with the Ivy League, without the rising skepticism and political noise now surrounding it. Organized by region, here's a closer look at each school on the list—what makes them stand out, what top employers value, and what the students we work with love most.

The summer before senior year is one of the most valuable windows in the college admissions journey. With your final year of high school just ahead, now is the time to reflect on your application résumé and take action to strengthen it—before deadlines arrive.  Maybe you’re missing a connection to your intended major. Maybe your activities list is shorter than you’d like. Or maybe you’ve been busy with school and haven’t had time to lead or explore beyond the classroom. No matter where you’re starting, there’s still time to grow.

As the school year winds down, many parents are seeing it: a teen who once seemed focused and motivated is now… done. The energy’s gone. The stress is high. And whether they’re avoiding schoolwork or dodging conversations about the future, you’re left wondering how to help them re-engage—especially with college decisions, applications, or planning just around the corner. Burnout at this stage is more common than you think. It doesn’t mean your teen isn’t capable. It means they’re human. And in a year marked by record-shattering college admissions trends, even the most ambitious students are feeling the weight.

This year, we were lucky to work with some of the most driven and thoughtful high school seniors in the country. Many of them were offered admission to one or more of the nation’s most selective colleges—from Stanford to Barnard—during what was arguably the most competitive admissions cycle we’ve seen. These students faced record-low admit rates, rapidly shifting expectations, and more nuanced institutional priorities than ever before. What they accomplished, and how they approached the process, offer a roadmap for students and families navigating what comes next.  Before we dive into those takeaways, a reminder: success in the college process doesn’t mean admission to one of these 25 schools. And falling short of their nearly impossible standards is not a failure. The schools below are incredibly selective, admitting just a sliver of the country’s most accomplished applicants. The strategies that helped students get in this year can support all students in telling a more authentic, compelling story—regardless of where they apply.

For years, many families considered public flagship universities to be smart safety choices—academically rigorous, nationally respected, and relatively attainable. Schools like the University of Georgia, University of Michigan, and UNC-Chapel Hill offered big-school energy with strong outcomes and, for high-achieving students, a sense of security in the admissions process. That’s no longer the case. The Class of 2026 admissions cycle confirmed what many parents of teenagers are just beginning to realize: many flagship public universities are now among the most selective options on a student’s list—especially for out-of-state applicants. In this post, we’ll unpack why this shift is happening, what the latest admissions data reveals, and how families can build smarter, more strategic college lists that balance aspiration with access.

When families think about the college admissions process, the focus often falls on the big-ticket items—GPA, test scores, essays, and extracurriculars. But there’s one document that quietly shapes how colleges read every application: the high school profile. It’s not something students write. It’s not something parents typically see. And yet, it might be the most important context-setting piece of the entire college file. At a time when admissions have never been more competitive—and when holistic review is being more carefully scrutinized—the school profile plays a crucial role in ensuring your student is evaluated fairly. It is, in every sense, the unsung hero of the application.