10th Grade

Events Class of 2026 College Application Primer With Former Admissions Directors DATE AND TIME On Demand Free Watch Now ABOUT THIS EVENT The Class of 2026 is almost halfway done with high school, but there is still plenty of time to take advantage of the flexibility and opportunity that next few years can offer. Join IvyWise college admissions counselors for a deep dive into the college application process and how you can set yourself up for success over the next few years of high school. Attendees learn about selecting the right courses, developing their personal profile, identifying the best-fit extracurricular activities and summer plans, and beginning the college search process.

As the college admissions landscape has evolved, these are the more common questions I am getting from students and their families. Yes, grades and test scores remain pivotal, but that’s just the first hurdle. What makes the difference between being admitted, deferred, or denied is a student distinguishing themselves uniquely — what we call being "pointy.

The college application process is stacked with buzzwords, including the often-used “holistic review” and “hook.” Right now, more and more families are trying to decipher terms like “profile building,” “applicant profile,” and “telling your story.” What do these terms mean, and how do they differ?

Are you a natural linguist? Do you thrive on exchanging cultures? Did you grow up speaking multiple languages in your household?

By Tiffany, IvyWise College Admissions Counselor The summer season can be an impactful period in the college admissions process, and it is important to start planning for the longer break now. In fact, many universities prompt students to answer some variation of the “How did you spend your last two summers?” question in their supplemental essays.

By Jonathan, IvyWise Tutor Students around the world are confronted daily with the topics of social and racial justice, whether in their own experiences and communities or, at the very least, in the news and on social media. Students who care deeply about these topics or want to learn more about them might be wondering how to integrate them into their own lessons. There are numerous resources, such as the Zinn Education Project, which provide grade-level-specific teaching materials that center racial and social justice across a variety of subject areas, including art and music, world history and global studies, economics, and even math.

While we are not supposed to have favorite applicants in the admissions process, I will fill you in on my little secret; my favorite applicants to read at Johns Hopkins University were often the Biomedical Engineering (BME) applicants. I loved learning about their innovative solutions to the problems overwhelming healthcare. These students are always so creative, passionate, and excited about making their impact in the world through engineering.

By Kelly, IvyWise College Admissions Counselor Have you been drawing in a sketchbook since you were five? Did you receive national/international recognition for your fashion design work through competitions/awards? Are you involved with your community in arts-related initiatives such as mural painting projects?

By Carolyn, IvyWise College Admissions Counselors When I first begin speaking with students and their families about college, the tone of the conversation is often trepidatious. Students know that this process involves a lot of work and high-stakes decisions, and with that comes an understandable amount of stress. While I do not want to invalidate these feelings, too much stress can have detrimental effects on your mental and emotional health and may even cause some unforced errors along the way.

“You know, there’s math in music” my piano teacher said as I lowered my hands from the keyboard. With one simple phrase, she sent my 12-year-old mind into a cyclone, questioning the sneaky places that math might also be hiding without warning. As the daughter of two accountants, I considered this statement as an attack on a whimsical, free flowing form of expression — all of the things I did not know math could be.

After schools across the globe suddenly transitioned to virtual learning models in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students struggled to adapt to their new online learning environment. Now, as schools make plans for the fall semester, we're seeing that online learning is likely to continue for many primary, secondary, and higher education students for the next academic year, in some format. So what can families expect if online learning continues, either partially or full time this fall?

  You have it down to a science — you know the best way to get up to speed on class schedules and which clubs to join. Or perhaps this is your first time moving and you’re a little nervous about attending a new school. From a personal perspective, you have so much to consider.

“I got a B in AP Calculus,” a student recently said to me. “I guess I won’t have a shot at my dream schools, since I know colleges automatically reject students who don’t have straight A’s.” This is a conversation I often have with students this time of year.

When I meet with a new student and their parents for the first time, I will often point out the things about their college admissions profile that are “set in stone.” The closer the student is to senior year, the longer this list is because we are too close to application season to make any big changes to GPA, testing, and activities. When I meet with younger students, though, there are a lot of things about their profile that are set in stone and there’s a lot they can do to make the most of their high school experience so that come senior year they’re satisfied with the elements they’ve solidified.

How can high school students use executive functioning skills and practice stress management during the college application process? In Semester 5 Episode 6 of our podcast, IvyWise College Admissions Counselor Robin (formerly at Georgetown University and Vanderbilt University), Executive Functioning Team Leader Lorenza, and Executive Functioning Coach Nicki share their top tips on how school high school students can further develop their executive functioning skills and practice stress management and self-care during the college application process. Tune in here!

When it comes to researching colleges, there is certainly not a lack of information available — so much so that it can be overwhelming to figure out which data points are most useful. Numerous ranked lists are published annually, there are websites that provide students’ reviews of colleges, and then there’s my personal favorite, the thick, desktop Bound-For-College Guidebook. If anything, with so much information available, one might even experience analysis paralysis while sifting through all the data points and statistics.

The Price Is Right is iconic, having graced TV screens since 1972. Plinko, the Showcase Showdown, and of course the excitement as they call your name to come on down to contestant’s row is familiar to a lot of people, so I was thrilled when I appeared as a contestant in 2017. Becoming one of the nine players that are plucked out from an audience of 300 (that's a 3% “acceptance rate") is not as simple as just showing up and hoping for some good luck.

A great opportunity for many students to consider as part of their high school journey is taking advantage of study abroad and having some type of international immersion experience. These international experiences can promote personal growth, intercultural development and competency, and academic and career exploration. Study abroad is most well known as an opportunity for college students, typically in their junior years to spend a semester or full-year living in another country and studying at a local university there.

When applying to college, the goal of most students is to “stand out.” They want to know what they can do to differentiate themselves from the thousands of other applicants they are competing against to win a spot at their top-choice college. Some students think a stellar essay will separate them from the pack.

Whether you’re a freshman still adjusting to your first year of high school, or a college-bound junior ready to hit the ground running, it’s important to set academic and college prep goals for the fall as soon as school starts back up. Goals not only help keep students on track with their college prep, they also help students learn more about who they are, what they’re interested in, and how they can better pursue those interests. Goals can also help students stay motivated during a particularly busy or stressful time.

For many high school students, spring semester means standardized test season. Like it or not, these tests are a factor for college admissions at most schools — even if they’re test optional. While a perfect score alone won’t get you into your dream college, it is important to do well on these tests to have the greatest chance of admission.