The Best U College Admissions Consulting

  Legacy admissions policies are making headlines right now. As another complicated, convoluted and highly competitive year in admissions winds down, attention is turning increasingly to the practice of legacy admissions. Read on for what the latest news means for you –  Why legacy admissions policies are in the news:  Following the August 2023 Supreme Court decision banning race as a factor in admissions decisions, attention turned to another preferential admissions policy: legacy admissions, the practice of considering an applicant’s parents, grandparents, and other familial connections to the college. In March of 2024, the state of Virginia joined the state of Colorado in banning legacy preference in the admissions practices of their public universities. This same month, a bill is in discussion in Connecticut that would ban the practice at not only public but also private colleges in the state. Maryland, Massachusetts, and the U.S. House of Representatives are all disc...

  Does the major I apply to matter? What if I don’t know what I want to study?  Will my major choice change my chances?  Students and parents have many questions about the role of major choice in the college admissions process. While we believe there’s plenty of room for changing your mind and pursuing a range of interests in college, there’s something to be said for thinking about majors of interest early and often. Read on for what we want every high school student and parent to know about high school majors & why this is something to think about sooner than later –  Colleges evaluate applications in context: Context is everything in college admissions. One key piece of information admissions officers look to to gain context are the major and career interests a student articulates on their application. Admissions readers will use a student’s intended major or stated future career interest as a lens through which to evaluate the application. This means that a st...

  What Changes to test optional policies really mean for students You may have heard that Yale University is the most recent of the elite colleges to announce that  testing is back in admissions.  What caught our attention in the announcement is that Yale’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan touted a ‘new flavor’ to their now test flexible policy… Read on for what these changes to testing policy mean for admissions in the years to come – What’s the latest news on testing policies in admissions?  In February 2024, both  Dartmouth  and  Yale  announced changes to the test optional admissions policies they have held since the early pandemic in 2020 ●  Both institutions will require the submission of test scores for a complete application to be considered beginning with the college class of 2029, also known as the high school class of 2025. Dartmouth and Yale are notable for being the first Ivy League schools to return to testing r...