It’s hard to believe another year has passed — and what a year! Kudos to our students for their acceptances at the following (and many more):
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Cal Tech
Columbia (2)
Cornell (3)
Dartmouth (3)
UVA (11)
University of Pennsylvania (2)
Carnegie Mellon (2)
Duke
University of Chicago (2)
Johns Hopkins
University of Notre Dame
Wesleyan (Freeman Scholarship)
University of California-Berkeley (2)
UCLA (2)
USC
NYU (3)
University of Michigan (3)
Rice
U.S. Naval Academy
As predicted, test-optional policies led to an explosion in applications for the most competitive schools — up to a 50% increase. This resulted in historically low acceptance rates, and even more challenges for students to differentiate themselves. A few trends that we noticed this year:
Initiative wins: In the absence of test scores, admissions offices across the country weighed student initiative more heavily. To that end, students with clear self-directed projects — including ones started during the pandemic — ended up with multiple competitive offers.
Prompts are never optional: We encouraged all of our students to fill out the “optional” COVID prompt, and it quickly became a way for many to express their creativity and offer a window into their lives that wouldn’t be possible in a typical main essay or supplemental. One of our favorites: a student who wrote about dropping off smooth pebbles at his friends’ homes every week during the pandemic, and his surprise when one of his friends’ moms teared up when she happened to witness him in the act.
Test-optional may be here to stay: With diversity numbers at top schools higher than ever — it seems the test-optional “experiment”will remain an option moving forward even after the pandemic comes to a close. Does that mean you should forgo prepping for the test? Not necessarily; the top 20 schools still overwhelmingly selected students who chose to submit their test scores.
Congratulations again to all of our students and parents! A number of this year’s class started their college consulting journey with us as 8th graders. It’s been an incredible experience helping develop their intellectual curiosity and confidence these past few years — we’re looking forward to seeing all the great things they accomplish in the future!
- Oliver and the Principia Team
