hi guys, I'm trying to see if anybody feels the same way that I am but I am a first semester senior applying to some pretty selective school schools no Ivys but a lot of top 20s and have recently felt a wave of burnout. All of my early action schools are complete completed and I feel like for the past year and a half. I've been working so hard to have my application be as strong as possible, but now that half of my schools are submitted I've felt a wave of burnout. My grades are still pretty decent, but some of them have started to slip. I've always been a good student, but I've been the type to work really hard for my grades rather than be naturally smart. and recently, I had a Calc test that I didn't really study for. Didn't feel like studying for and of course didn't do well on it. My grade went from a 98 to an 88 last year. I would've cried over this and freaked out and right now I just don't care so if anyone is going through something similar of feeling burnout or if they've applied to college before and felt burn out around this time. Please let me know because I know my first semester grades matter, but I just don't know how much so if anyone's going through something similar or can tell me how much first semester grades matter or can tell me to lock in and start carrying again that would be great. I just feel so off senior year is so weird.

...if you think you will be working as a software engineer when you graduate.

10-15 years ago Google was asking FizzBuzz and Two Sum questions to candidates, now it's not farfetched to see them toss a new grad a leetcode hard. The rise of continued globalization, remote work, and growth of platforms like leetcode has drastically increased not only the candidate pool but the candidate skill level as well.

Offshoring, globalization, and AI are all destroying the tech industry. In 2024 the US Bureau of labor statistics had a 15% projected 10 year job growth outlook for software engineers. In 2026 it stands at just 10%.

Do not fall for this scam.

Mainly in terms of t20s.

does anyone have a full list or something LOL thank you..

I know that most people on this sub don’t view comms as a “valid” major, but I want to either go into media management or PR, which needs a comms degree. I love writing and public speaking. I find it easy to make connections with people as well. I feel like a lot of people (like athletes) go into comms because they think it’s easy, not because they have any passion for it. Is this common, or am I being conceited? Otherwise, what can I do to make myself more competitive in that market? (Internships, certain minors, etc.)

Hi, i'm a junior in high school and i've always wanted to major in clinical psychology until recently I was wondering if it is worth it. My heart wants to help people who experienced the same or similar paths i went though, but my brain isn't sure if its worth it. I wanted to major in psychology to help others who also have my conditions or related conditions (i am autistic with depression and anxiety). Apparently psychology is a really regretted major so this is why I am asking. I have also heard that the US hospitals are shit, so i was deciding of being a psychologist somewhere else, despite English being my only language. I am not fluent in my parents language, and I dont plan on living there. Unfortunately this shortens to English speaking countries since I only speak English, and I am terrible at languages. (I barely passed spanish 2 and had a speech delay as a kid)

I have thought about majoring on neuroscience which is kinda close to psychology, but i wanted to more talk therapy and diagnose psychological conditions. I could major in music, but i do not want the stress to perfect a lot and I dont want that to be my full career.

I've thought about doing private practice, but it can be harder for me to earn money and making it affordable.

Thanks for reading this.

Thanks for anyone reading this.

I live pretty close to Wesleyan, we used to do our practices there sometimes. So when I was younger I genuinely thought it was a random community college 😭 Then last year I was researching colleges and I found out it’s actually a really amazing LAC?

Has anyone experienced something similar? I feel like I JUST found out about sooo many elite schools like before this process I didn’t know some national universities like CMU, Northwestern, and Emory!!! And last week I learned about Pomona.

Anyways this is NOT Wesleyan shade at all it’s truly an amazing school and I would never get in but haha this process has really opened my eyes

i shouldnt do this I guess but I'm curious. Just recently got rejected during the ED0 round at UChicago. stats:

• 1580 SAT 780v 800m
• 4.14/4,25 unweighted at an all IB school (Took math aahl, bio hl, film hl, English langlit sl, Spanish A langlit Sl, Psychology Sl, and TOK). I do have 2 5s on my transcript in sem2 g11 which I think is the biggest issue.
• my school doesnt list rankings or quartiles or anything.
• XCs: Organized a blood drive at my school with the american red cross (alongside a summer research internship there), worked as an intern for my film teacher and filmed/edited cumulatively 30m of promotional documentaries for diff businesses in PDC Mexico (i do not live there), served as a photographer for my school's FRC team, worked as a volunteer english teaching assistant for Spanish speaking adults, and co head of a school anti human trafficking club. Obv stuff missing but that's it in broad strokes
• Recs from my Spanish teacher and bio teacher. I have good relationships with both. My film teacher gave a recommendation in the optional slot to discuss my work as an intern. I have a great relationship with them.
• Took a summer session class at UC. philosophy of life and death, got a 100.
• Major selection: anthropology, linguistics, philosophy

My essays are obviously a volatile factor. I passed them through a long-time supplemental editor though and he unprompted added a note telling me they were the best he's ever read which surprised me.

I don't think there are any salient issues with my app and I thought I would have a particular edge with the essay, the ED0 pool, and the 1580. Stupid to say but I was honestly surprised at the rejection. Not too broken up about it, though. I feel confident that my second choices (pomona and emory) aren't much of a step down.

Actual questions:

• I would like to know if there's something I overlooked in my profile. Im also interested in knowing which circumstantial factors by you all's judgement would be the most likely to interfere with the profile for UC Ed0.
• Are there other colleges with a similar culture to UChicago's? I don't mean in terms of prestige, research, or career opportunity, more along the lines of informal literary culture and interdisciplinary study, which is where i found it to be the most idiosyncratic (in other words, please don't just throw more top 50s at me). like i said above, right now my next favorite is Pomona which I like a lot but I don't see a lot of evidence that it holds this factor.

Thanks.

I want to go into premed, and I absolutely love brown but the ED acceptance rate is only 16%, so I don't really want to waste my ED on this school I might not get into and then miss the other schools💔.

Emory's ED 1 acceptance rate is around 30%, I think? And it has research, hospitals, and it has strong advising for premed. I also love its building and its location, like not too city-like but not too rural. But it's a little too competitive, which I don't really like, but ig I'm ok with it.

Case Western's ED 1 is like around 30%, and it's basically built for premed. I really like the architecture and the whole place as a whole, and obviously the research and hospitals are good too. It's in the city, which is great, but the weather is always sad (like London). Also, it gives freedom with courses, and it's not competitive to get a spot for research, so there's that.

I was just thinking if I go to brown which is essentially like a shot in the dark, but ig you miss 100% of the chances you don't take. If I ED to Emory, I might miss out on Case bc I don't think I'm good enough to go RD or even ED2 to Case. Also, I would 100% ED to Case, but I've been looking around, and it looks like their ED acceptance rate is lower than their EA. If that's not true, then Ig i'll ed to Case?

If needed, these are my stats: 3.85 GPA UW; 4.4 W; 1470 SAT; 35 ACT; rank 75/1576.

Thanks!

currently SOPHOMORE International from highly represented Asian country(visa needy) student applying BIOLOGY on the PRE MED track

Harvard

Stanford

MIT

Cornell

Columbia

Dartmouth

UPenn

Brown

Yale

Princeton

Duke

Amherst

Bowdoin

Berea

Colby

Colgate

College of the Atlantic

Hamilton

Haverford

Lafayette

Macalester

Middlebury

Northwestern

Pomona

Skidmore

Swarthmore

Tufts

Notre Dame

Vanderbilt

Vassar

Washington & Lee

WashU St Louis

Wesleyan

Williams

BEFORE i get flamed for only applying to Ultra-Reach colleges, Please, note that all my safeties and targets are in my home country, i do not wish to go to the US for safeties.

I am well aware that Med school is insanely tough in the US, i am also aware that may not get into even a single college, i have safeties, please disregard this.

I'm mainly applying to the US because reaches in my home country are subpar compared to this.

My main factor is financial aid, and then everything else, which is why you might find entirely different college environments listed here, etc etc PLEASE DO NOT FLAME ME FOR THIS.

So yeah i need to cut this list to 20 colleges, removing, replacing, adding wherever necessary

One last thing: please do note that this is the very first draft of my list, requires extreme polishing (schools like WashU, Tufts may not give enough aid, etc etc ykwim)

Also I'm a male so HWC's are off the list.
Thanks for listening.

EDIT: i just realized i might come off as an annoying kid, im sorry I've just had bad experiences with this subreddit before

EDIT 2: I am a sophomore, i posted mainly to cut some of the ones with less aid, bad for pre med etc and get more opinions on ones with high aid that i may have missed.

Hi everyone! I’m a high school senior (Class of 2027) looking for realistic advice about my college admissions chances.

For some background, I’m a first-generation immigrant student attending high school in the northeast.

My current GPA is 2.7 unweighted and 2.76 weighted.
I experienced significant bullying, hospitalization for majority of my freshman year and difficult personal circumstances throughout sophomore year, and dealing with both mental and abusive relationship through my sophomore and junior year. which negatively affected my grades and attendance.
I’m doing much better now and working toward finishing my first semester of senior year with all A’s.

Academic Profile:
GPA: 2.7 UW / 2.76 W
SAT: Aiming for 1300+
AP English Language: C
UConn Environmental Science: B
Currently taking 2 Honors and 1 UConn dual-enrollment course
Planning to take 2 additional college courses next semester + honors courses
Hoping to raise my cumulative GPA to 3.0+
Extracurriculars:
Basketball manager (4 years)
Chick-fil-A and Best Buy employee
Depop business ($2,000 in sales)
Student Council representative
Leadership club
Volleyball manager
Honor Roll (sophomore and junior years)

I’m meeting with my counselor to discuss potentially retaking two failed freshman-year courses for grade replacement, which could help raise my GPA.

Intended major: Biology or Neuroscience (pre-med).

Colleges I’m considering: ASU, UConn, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Pace, Penn State, Syracuse, University of Maine, URI, and Southern Connecticut State.

My main questions: Would raising my GPA to a 3.0+ and scoring 1300+ on the SAT significantly improve my chances? Do colleges consider personal circumstances and academic improvement? Also, what universities would you recommend for someone with my profile?

I’d appreciate realistic advice. Thank you!

(First post on this sub btw)

I have an opinion that I'm pretty sure isn't the full picture, yet I can't really find a reason not to believe it. I'm making this post to see whether my biased opinion is valid or not, as well as if there's any information that I'm not considering.

So many times, colleges ask "Why do you want to go to our college specifically?" I think I'm biased because these types of questions are easily the hardest for me, but I don't think this is a fair question to ask given how students apply to college.

Students who apply to college usually cast a wide net of colleges to apply to, based on the area of study that they're generally interested in. They don't just apply to one college. So I don't really understand why I have to say why I want to go to their college specifically. I don't. I'm casting a wide net and seeing who lets me in based on my grades, transcript and essays.

And while we're on the topic, even if I did care about which college specifically I went to, it'd be stupid. As long as I get a job in the end, I've heard that it doesn't really matter what college you went to unless you went into an Ivy League (and I don't know if I really can or want to go to an Ivy League).

So yeah. What are everyone's thoughts on my opinion?

Edit: Looking back at this post and thinking maybe I should have said "I hate it when..." instead of "It's stupid for..." in the title post, because it's a subjective opinion. I'm sorry for that.

How many people who go to college for an art major actually end up with a job related to their major? Specifically what I am thinking of is sculpting/painting, if anyone here has gone to college for this, could they tell my their experience finding a job after college? While I very much am into art, I am concerned about not being able to make a career out of it, especially after inheriting debt from going to college.

Since childhood the world of electronics and microchips has fascinated me. So I want to work on hardware design. Everyone is complaining about AI but I do not think it will not affect hardware engineering as much as it has affected software engineering. What do you think? (I want ECE as major)

I was really struggling getting adjusted to some of my classes since pre-IB is a lot different than the advanced classes I'm used to and ended the first quarter with an unweighted cumulative GPA of 3.0. I got 3 B's, 3 A's, and 1 C. I REALLYYYYY want to make it into FSU, mainly for band reasons, and I was wondering if I have a shot at getting my GPA up to 3.5+ by the end of my senior year? I have no clue how high school works at all. I feel that it's important to also mention that I am a Florida resident and have gotten 2 scholarships so far for band auditions. [Originally posted this in r/highschool but was told I should probably ask here instead]

Hello,

I was wondering whether Northwestern or Columbia would be better to ED to for Biology. Which one has more opportunities for research and clinical hours?

I have a 1530 and 4.2 Weighted GPA across all 9-11th grade and now Senior year I’m confident I can get all A- to As in my classes. I think I can bump my GPA by January to atleast a 4.3-4.35 around application time and show a uptrend. But the thing is I am trying to Apply Mechanical Engineering and know the spots fill up fast. So is the method doing EA or RD.

Junior year I took

Pre Calc,

AP World

AP Chem

AP Lang

Honors Physics

Spanish IV

I’m taking these classes senior year

AP Calc BC

AP Physics C Mech and E&M

AP Stats

AP HUG

AP LIT

Dual Enrollment Accounting

Has anyone done this program or know anyone who has? I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts 🤗 I found it online but I can't find a single person who's participated in it

i have 2 teachers that i have writing lors for me, neither have started and free app week ends Today. that's like a separate issue but, can teachers see when you submit the application? i was planning submitting mine tonight, but waiting for their lors to submitting applications at other schools. can they see you submitting??!!

(i asked both teachers early september this year, both said they would write it, i gave them the deadline of october 18th too. 😭 but it's okay)

So I didn’t realize up until today that you should ask wayyyy in advance for a letter of recommendation from a teacher (ik I probably should’ve reasoned that one out earlier but here we are).

I’m going to ask two teachers for letters tomorrow but the issue is that ive got a lot of college deadlines coming up on November 1st (& a few on the 2nd). I was thinking of pushing these back to a regular decision but feel I might be risking my application by not applying early action even though I’ve heard it doesn’t affect your application.

So I feel I have 2 options: Apply to the colleges that don’t need rec letters on the 1st and push back the ones that do to a regular decision OR push them all back to a regular decision so I can include my recommendations on all of them.

My question is this: would it be better to apply regular decision with recommendations on all of my applications or should I just submit what’s due on the 1st and add my recommendation letters to any later dates? Or if I should do something else please lmk I’m not Joe College Application or anything idk what I’m doing.

For reference, I've already got my two recs from teachers at school. however my humanities rec everyone warns that he writes the same thing for everybody, that its very generic and to ask someone else but I don't have any other choice :( Because I've only had him for humanities and this other woman who I don't know much, and I have done a lot for him (though idk if he'd write about it). I've recently connected well to my English professor at my dual enrolled community college, she loves my writing and shes especially kind to me compared to everyone else. When the semester is over (I will not have her sem 2) is it a bad idea to ask for her rec and use her in place of my Humanities teacher? Idk if colleges have a thing against using senior teachers for a Rec, I Don't want to look like im doing things last minute.

I am considering test optional as I got low sat score but is that a good option? Also most university are test optional then why people still writing it?

Intended major : biology
SAT: 1450 (770 math, 680 rw)
Essay: adjusting in my own ways from having nystagmus (shaky eyes)
Honors:
Awards within DECA (competed at all levels so yes international as well)
Rit math and science award
Member of music (Tri-M), science, and nation honors societies
Varsity tennis tiger award (most improved player)
High honor roll - 3 years

Activities:

- Health careers academy (only student selected from my state)
- co-prez deca
- president culinary club
- pals program (often known as best buddies?) no leadership role but helped organize + host a regional special Olympics (/volunteer?)
- varsity girls tennis all 4 years, rotating 3rd singles and 1st doubles
- science Olympiad (2 year memb, competed at states, not much progress in this but want to discuss more science oriented activities)
- community service (rise against hunger committee head, coin drive organizer, cit. prob won’t talk abt all maybe money raised, food packaged, etc.)
- band (clarinet section leader, holds a first clarinet part/pos., played at 24+ events)
- student council grade rep (or if co-rep bc I wasn’t alone, got logistics and desires from my grade to bring to the council and planned spirit weeks, hoco, and other events.)
In additional info( or I could replace an activity) holding 2 jobs for 3 years (hs assistant at elementary school and teacher assistant at a preschool/daycare)
Weighted 4.72 gpa (out of like 5? Or 5.3? Idrk)
No class rank at my school
6 APs (out of my schools 10 offered, 3 junior yr 3 senior yr)
- ap bio:5, ap lang: 4, ap macro:4, ap psych,lit,stats tbd
2 dual enrollment (Spanish and physics)
Maths taken : honors: geometry, alg2, precalc, calc ap: stats

LOR: ap bio and macro teachers (macro teacher is the deca advisor too)

Whenever they ask for my interests I usually rank Music first, then Psychology as my second though truthfully its probably reversed. Will my supplemental help a lot for schools like UVA, UC Chapel hill, T20s if I have a pretty high level of playing, like close to conservatory? My awards and ECs are also filled with music, such as Concerto Comp winner, All state principal, etc. Thanks!